AJ's German Shepherd Blog

9 Weeks Tomorrow

2010-03-03T10:58:00.000-05:00

Well the last week has gone very very fast. Max will be 9 weeks old tomorrow! Late last week Max went to our vet and received a clean bill of health. Kathi Jo requires all clients to take their pups to their vet to rule out any discrepancies. That way the client has heard that the puppy is healthy straight from THEIR vets mouth not just relying on Kathi Jo's vet. We have been so pleased with Max. This transition has gone so smoothly. There have been very few housebreaking accidents and Max has just melted right into the family. He sleeps all night in his crate without a single accident or whining at all. He is very confident and very attentive to what is going on around him. Max has made this whole process so easy. The pictures I am posting were taken about three days ago.

Max is Home !!!!

2010-02-23T18:42:00.000-05:00

Max is finally here!! We are very very excited and everything has gone without a hitch! In fact it has been almost too smooth. For the past several days I have been trying to prepare myself and get a "game plan" together. I was unsure how things would go with Sadie our Cocker Spaniel and the kids and the simple fact that Max has had his world turned upside down. Well all of the time I spent trying to prepare myself was a total waist of time. Max has done wonderfully. I walked in with him and Sadie checked him out and Max did some sniffing around and it was almost as if he had lived here his whole life. There has been very very little whining and in fact that last time I put Max in his crate he didn't whine at all. It was a HUGE non event. So I guess this is just a testament to awesome breeding and the way Kathi Jo raises her pups. Stay tuned for pictures and hopefully some videos.

2010-02-13T17:36:00.001-05:00

Kathi Jo let us know last night that the pups had their first vet visit and they received a clean bill of health. She also let us know that none of them got motion sickness which obviously will make the ride to his new home a lot less traumatic. I am so excited I can hardly wait!!

2010-02-13T17:34:00.001-05:00

Here are the newest pictures of Max.

Our Puppy!!!

2010-01-30T21:22:00.000-05:00

We picked out our puppy this afternoon! We are very very excited. The Zornes family is wonderful!! We had a great time meeting Kathi Jo and her whole family. I wanted to post a picture of our little guy. There will be more to follow in the next few days.

4 Week Old Pictures

2010-01-28T19:22:00.000-05:00

4 Week Old Pictures

2010-01-28T19:21:00.001-05:00

4 Week Old Pictures

2010-01-28T19:20:00.000-05:00

Picking our Puppy

2010-01-27T15:52:00.000-05:00

We heard from Kathi Jo and we will be going to pick out our puppy this coming Saturday. I am really excited to meet our new family member. I am also very excited to see the kids reactions. They have absolutely no idea we are getting a puppy. Also I will be posting pictures tomorrow. We will be getting 4 week old pictures from Kathi Jo and I also want to post the ones I have that are from birth to three weeks. Thanks so much for reading.

"Our" Breeder

2010-01-25T22:22:00.000-05:00

I researched different breeders in the Great Lakes region for over a year. It was a very hard decision to make . I sent so many emails I got to the point I couldn't keep them all straight. I then stumbled upon a breeder in southern Ohio that caught my eye. The first thing I was impressed by, is the fact that a lot of the questions I had were already on her website. The second thing I liked was the amount of knowledge she has about the GSD (German Shepherd Dog). She and her family are very involved with the breed and they invest a lot of time and effort into not only breeding for top quality GSD's but they are very involved with competing and furthering the breed. Her name is Kathi Jo Zornes and you can find her at Richthofen German Shepherds. Some of you may be thinking that this post is nothing but an advertisement and it is! Kathi Jo has been so helpful and understanding with all of the questions I have had for her. Don't hesitate to contact her with your questions.

Going with a Breeder or Adopting

2010-01-25T21:53:00.000-05:00

This has been a very difficult decision for us to make. We have adopted dogs from the Humane Society and we have purchased dogs from breeders. I also looked at German Shepherd Dog rescues in the area. We decided to go with a breeder because I feel it allows us to have more control over the type of dog we are getting. Since I have two small children I wanted to make sure that the dog we picked would be a good match. Since a German Shepherd is such a powerful large dog I was nervous about bringing in an "unknown" dog into the family. Don't get me wrong as I said we have adopted dogs in the past and I feel that adopting animals is VERY important due to the large population of "homeless" animals. I encourage anyone to adopt an animal if and when their personal situation allows. I look forward to sharing my experiences and please let me know of any questions or suggestions you might have.