Rex – Leicestershire

GORGEOUS REX

This is what Rex's assessor wrote about this lovely boy.

“Rex is very tall and on the larger size for a German Shepherd. He looked a healthy weight, and his coat was nice and shiny. He was bought aged 8 weeks from a farm. He is up to date with his vaccinations now and is also microchipped. He seemed to me to be very much a puppy in a big dog's body. He is friendly and was brilliant with their three-year-old. He went up to her to give her kisses and apart from his size, he is good with children as far as I can see.

His owners are not too sure if he is good with other dogs. He has been in the past - he has holidayed with other family members' dogs. When I witnessed him seeing dogs on the walk, although he barks and pulls towards them in a very erratic manner, it did not look aggressive to me at all. It looked more like a lot of excitement. He's never been in a fight or showed aggression towards other dogs. He was bitten when he was a puppy, but it didn't appear to affect him.  

Rex does show some slight resource guarding. I'm told that in the past when they have tried to take food from him, he has growled. So, they no longer take food from him or put their hands in his bowl. However, they say that they can stroke him and walk past him when he is eating with no issue so this is not  a severe case. I saw him taking treats nicely and even the toddler picking up his treat ball and there was no problem whatsoever. He is also not keen on being groomed and they have been unable to cut his nails without him being sedated.

His main issue is with the barking. Once he starts, his owner struggles to get him to stop and a lot of things set him off. He barks at the post, at anything he can see from the window, anything he hears in the garden and even barks at the television (without any obvious stimuli on the screen - just the TV being on sets him off). He is loud and the neighbours have complained about this. So, this is the biggest thing to take into consideration when rehoming him.

Rex doesn't chew when left alone but he will steal things. He does sometimes try to take the daughters toys and in particular, they cannot leave anything on the kitchen counters. He takes anything he can find - including knives! He will also eat any food that is left out with a particular liking to pastries and doughnuts. He has eaten things in the past that he shouldn't.

He is housetrained and is fine with being left for up to 6/7 hours with no issue. He does like to mouth a little still when excited, but they said that this has improved a great deal and it is never hard or painful. He enjoys affection when it is on his terms. He is used to travelling but not really any further than 2/3 hours as he does get quite travel sick.

He didn't really seem fearful to me - they say that he is not frightened of fireworks and doesn't seem too easily scared. I was told that his main fear is of a head collar. He seems very uncomfortable about things like that going over his head. They told me that once he would not let them remove the head collar, so they called their trainer who eventually had to cut it off of him as he was terrified and urinating out of fear.
He is used to being kept inside though due to his barking at the window and the television, he spends a lot of time in the kitchen. He does have a crate which he sometimes uses.

He is very intelligent and showed off his range of tricks - sit, down, spin, up, paws, look, etc. He was very motivated by treats and with his male owner in particular, would respond very quickly to commands. He has had a lot of one-to-one training sessions with two trainers, one of whom, Steven Havers, recommended us to them. Both of them say that there is no malice in him and that he could be a great family dog. Rex is walked on a harness and there was no way that I could have held him. He was dragging both his owner and my partner and was very strong. When he saw another dog behind him his energy ramped up even more so and he was circling on lead. He also pulled towards people - I could see that he just wanted to greet and was excited but understandably a lot of people are going to be quite intimidated by this, as he is a big boy. He is not let off lead as he has no recall. The closest walking area is a park behind their house but there are a lot of other dog walkers there and this makes walking him very difficult.

Rex is a very big, active, energetic dog. I suspect that he gets quite bored, and this may be a big contributor to some of his behavioural problems. I think he would be better in a quieter home, preferably in a more rural, quiet area. Somewhere where he can burn off his energy and perhaps his barking will not be so much of a problem. He is very easily stimulated by things, and this results in a lot of very sudden energy. A lot of his behaviour is very typical puppy behaviour and I think some may settle as he matures but also with more consistent training and routine. His barking is a big problem, and someone will need to be patient with that. The other main problem being his complete lack of manners on lead. The new owner has to be physically strong enough to manage him. I get the sense that, whilst he is much like a big puppy, I think he is the sort of dog who would take advantage of weaknesses, so he is not for a novice owner. With the right home, I think that he will be a lovely companion. He has a very obvious sweet side to his personality and once you get past the barking, I think that will really shine through.”

Are you physically fit and an experienced owner? Are you up to the task of turning this boy around? He has not had the attention of his stronger leader consistently and he is bright enough to have taken advantage. Above all else, do you have the time to be on Rex's case? He will be hard work and he will need commitment. But he has the potential to be a stunning dog. It would be so worth it.