Sherman is the newest addition to our family (pictures). He’s believed to be around 8 months, weighs in at 70lbs, and has little (if any) training. Great plush coat, soft mouth, golden eyes, and has a perfect gait.

We’ve been talking about getting a companion for Makeeta for a few months, mostly because Moon, while a great dog, has no idea what “play” means. Cindy was browsing petfinder.com looking for German Shepherd Dogs, and came across the listing for Sherman. She emailed me the link, and I immediately called Alcovy Pet Rescue, and left a message. I got a call back a couple hours later from Yvonne who told me his story. We made arrangements to meet Saturday morning at the kennel APR uses.

Seems he was picked up by Walton County animal control; someone called in saying a ‘vicious dog’ was roaming. The pound called APR to let them know they had a GSD, so they sent one of the volunteers over to do a temperament test on him. She pulled his ears, yanked his tail, grabbed his paws, stuck her hand in his mouth, and Sherman was like “Whatever…”

We traveled over to the shelter and met Yvonne. She brought Sherman out, and I knew I wanted this dog. Alert, bouncy, interested, no fear. After spending about 45 minutes with him, we did the paperwork, loaded up and headed home. On the way we stopped at PetsMart to pick up some puppy food and chew toys. He met several people in the store, including a small child, and had no issues.

When he was picked up by the pound, he must have been covered in mats. APR had cleaned him up, but there were still some matting behind the ears, around his legs, and a few other areas. His back-end was so bad they just pretty much shaved it. While at PetsMart we decided to leave him for some grooming. They gave him a bath, whacked most of the mats out from behind his ears (but missed some on his hocks). He looked good to start with, now he looks even better.

After getting home, it was introduction time. We closed the garage, turned him loose, then brought Makeeta in. They did pretty well, sniffed around, and that was pretty much that (for now…). We then pulled out Makeeta and brought in Moon, with pretty much the same results.

Once everyone was upstairs and moving around and settling in, there were a few encounters. At some times Makeeta seems to be in charge, other times she seems cowed. Moon doesn’t really start anything, but if a snarl-fest breaks out, she’ll jump in. They’ll get it all figured out before long.