Heidi has been with us for over a week now and I’ve come to the conclusion: German Shepherds are sensitive sensitive snowflakes.
Hyper-intelligence seems to come paired with hyper-sensitivity and oh, it’s hilarious to watch.
The cat swiped at her and missed? Yelping.
I trod on her and we both ended up falling over, tangled? At least a minute of yelping, plus “YOU HURT ME!” looks, and exaggerated limping while glaring at me. (She was fine.)
Runs head first into the cupboards because it was dinnertime? Yelping, sulking, and glaring at the cupboards like they purposefully put themselves in her way.
Trips over her own feet while running and somersaults across the room. Tries to bite her own feet for tripping her and then yelps when she succeeds.
I grab her collar so she can’t leap on the kid who just fell over. Yelps. (Possibly real – I don’t know how long it takes for their microchipping to feel better.)
Runs into the door after asking me to open it for her. Bumps her nose. Yelps. A lot.
Not to mention the freakout she had when I sneezed unexpectedly, making her leap into the air and yelp. Luckily with that one I sneezed another ten times or so, so by the end of it she was okay.
We’re working on desensitising her to new noises, new smells, things that move, our feet, and everything else, but in the meantime, we *might* spend a little bit of time laughing at her antics.
Also, she howls when she thinks she’s alone. Or when she wants to fall asleep and there is no one there to gently stroke her ears to sleep. (We’re ignoring both of these things.)
She is so adorable. And that face … oh that face ….
My Bear, a GS cross, cried incessantly for the first two nights when I first got him. I was given the advice about placing a ticking clock and a hot water bottle both wrapped in a towel placed in his bed – it made such a difference. He was pretty stoic, but a klutz until he got a bit bigger. He used to run under the table until he grew a bit too tall one day; you can guess what happened. That was the last time he tried that!
His eyesight wasn’t the greatest, but his hearing was hyper-acute – could hear my car long before I was home and would be waiting at the door or gate for me. He hated thunder storms – he’d try to get under my chair, and never really got over that. He heard a burglar late a night and silently waited for him to land in the backyard overt the fence. That burglar got the shock of his life when confronted by 45 kg of hound! German Shepherds are intensely loyal, deeply trusting of their owners and highly protective of those to whom they believe they belong. I still miss my Bear after so many years.
Oh, dear. I could not do puppies. Or dogs. Definitely a crazy cat lady here.
She is cute though and is helpfully providing blog fodder.
She’s adorable and will have herself sorted out in no time. I still miss my Mad Max and it’s been 25 years.
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