We had just found an ideal villa to rent on the outskirts of istanbul in on the sea front but it was very secluded and quiet so we decided on getting a dog. We have owned a Belgium Shepherd and a dobermann before so we were not sure on a breed. It gets fairly cold in the winter so we needed a dog to suit us rather than a breed we liked. My husband loves GSD and so we decided on having a look at a few. There are breeders who import the lines and wanted ridiculous prices starting from 1000 us dollars but sadly they breed and breed and dont guarantee health, these so called breeders are more like puppy mills so we decided against them and the prices were so high. Theres an area in �stanbul where there are pet shops and sell all kinds of animals and every breed of dog you want. in fact these places are a no go area but we were after some duck food for our duck so we had look the site sadning of puppy caged and them asking from 500 dollars for a pup. To be honest people in Turkey have not got the money to pay top prices for a pup and these pups spend a good few months of their lives caged until the price drops and people can afford them but by that time the pup has physical and emotional problems. Quite a sad picture. We came across one pet shop who had 2 GSD puppys we asked why he did not sell more and he said that he sold dog things rather than livestock and he went on to tell that a military friend of his had a GSD who had a litter of pups and he had 2 that he could not sell and they had just got to the shop that morning. He told us that if we were interested he would let us have one for 100 dollars. I examined the male puppy and looked healthy and licked my face. After talking it came out that he was a friend our ours who runs a dog training centre in izmir. He said that we could take the puppy and we could take it to our friends to look at and if there was anything wrong we could get our money back. The pup had gone through a vet check that morning. We thought for a while and somehow this little pup took to us and we decided to take him home. His sister was in the cage and as the nearby vet was examining the pup somebody came in and bought his sister. The petshop owner told us that people thought animals as money and asked top prices and if nobody bought them today they would be there until they were sold. His idea was selling them at prices that people could afford and the pups he knew were his friends and did not take in anybodys pups to sell. The vet gave the pups a clean bill of health and this little pup came back with us.
The first night was a nightmare he screamed all night we had him in a box and i gave him one of my cuddly dobe toys and he settled down, i soon realised why he was crying he wanted potty and once he potted he calmed down.
The following day we took him to one of our local vets who checked out the puppy and remarked that we had a purebred GSD who was in good health and started the vacination program. We named him Max after our Belgium shepherd. in Turkey there are lots of mixed breeds that lok like GSD but are only about 50% People sell these off as purebreds. Theres no kennel club in Turkey so theres no thing as a pedigree dog. People say they have a pedigree but realy its a fake pedigree form the ones that you can get of the internet a few fake names and you have a fake pedigree in seconds.
We started Max on dried puppy food and mixed it with water he prefered it that way and very soon he started to grow and his ears started to stand. The second visit to the vets the vet was surprised and said he had lovely large ears and he had his worming jab. I have 2 daughters aged 5.5 yrs old and 1.5 years old they got on well. Max took to our duck quite well they slept and ate together! Max was doing just fine!
We had a phone call unexpectidly and it was news that my father in law had just died and we had to go to the east for the funeral a long 26 hour drive. Our gardener promised us that he would take care of Max and not to worry and i told them how to feed and not to feed titbits he would have enough food for a month but we should be back by then and if there was a problem to phone us or a vet and left numbers with him.
We came back after 2 weeks our vacation had taken longer than expected and when we rushed back Max came running up to me and i was shocked he had lost all of his body weight and was nothing but a scared skeleton and i called the gardener and he said that Max was not eating and all of the dog food had finished!! 24kg of puppy food and various tinned foods were finished but here was a skinny lifeless pup to show for it. We rushed Max to the vets who too was apauled by his state and gave him vitamin jabs and told us to feed him regular and to keep him warm. We got home and he quickly ate his food.. I asked our gardener why he had not called us or the vet he said he though it was not a problem. Our gardener will be out very soon somebody who does not like animals has no job with us. Max has gained his weight his coat is back but his ears are down but he is healthy and after a third visit back to the vets for his jabs she was surprised on how quickly he had gotten back to normal again. Max is doing well so far he is 3 months old has learned to sit and its tht terrible teething stage!!!!!! ouch!!!!! Plenty of toys to keep him happy and we are full of pin holes but he is happy and so are we!!!!!! PANIC his ears have fallen!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!! do GSD dogs ears fall??
Max went for his final injections and the vet said it was normal for pups ears to flop when teething and he had a vitamin D3 injection that helps to strenghten the cartlidge in the ears and is also good for the bones and within a week one ear stood up and within 10 days both were standing up!! at last people wont ask what breed he is. The end of the injections and his rabies jab meant that now we can go out and practice all that hard training!!!!!! the first day out was a nightmare with him pulling and frightend of the new things, after all we live in a rather quiet rural area but after a few days he got used to different surroundings and can walk rather normal and to heel. A dog trainer friend came over to stay with us and evaulated Maxs temperment. Max will be a guard dog to guard our home and property and already at 4 months is very protective, he likes to bark at other dogs but he will calm down overtime. Generaly he is a puppy, loves to play, loves attention and is happy!!!!! but what a difference he has grown in a month he has almost doubled!!!!!!!!!!!! and still growing. Our trainer friend estimated he will be a good 100lbs when fully grown!!
Max very quickly grew up and his obedience training was coming along good. He developed a new high prey drive chickens!! We have a duck and he would play with the duck but would not bite the duck but would put his front paw on the duck, the duck loved this, some strange duck we have!! We built a closed in chicken run and added a chicken and a Turkey to our collection, Max still hated chickens so we began training him with the command No and leave when being around the chicken. We were worried that he may dig under the chicken pen but we were determined to train him not to rather than fencing off the poultry area.
We also rescued a litter of stray 8 pups and their mother the mother being a cross Gsd mother and a gsd cross father with our neighbour a special kennel was built outside for them. We introduced them slowly to Max where at first he would try to pin them down but after a few days he would run around and play with them. Theres one little bitch puppy and the two fell in love and the bitch pup would come and lie with max in his kennel and the two would spend hours licking each other!!
Max started to jump up alot. It was just a month or so ago that whn our neighbour would enter our garden he would run away and hide but now he got used to them and started to jump up whenever they came into us. I tried a new thing where I told them to come in and not have any eye contact with Max and just to approach our door this started to work and he soon got the message that if they were not visiting us not him. We started on sit and stay commands on the leash he is fine but off lead he thinks its an excuse to play around so I began playing with him before training, he enjoys a good game of football and after an hour when all that excess energy is gone he began to concentrate more on his training. We decided that Max would be a working GSD and our English dog handler friend told us that play at this young age is more better than to try to force him to train. After all he is just a puppy!! His recalls were good until now and now that he has grown up a bit more and feels more independent he tends to run around before coming back so now i bought a 5 metre training lead and use that for recalls he seems to be getting the idea!! Max is lovable, clever, quick to learn but can be very stubborn and if at times he dont wont to do anything he makes us know that we wont! But thats the fun of owning a gsd!!!