My husband and I also had a German Shepherd.  The breeder had a strange personality and I wasn’t impressed by the way she kept her dogs.  I fell in love with a chubby alpha male puppy.  He bit me when I tried to put him to his dog bed in the laundry room.  He was six weeks old.

I read and re-read a manual on dog training.  I took the puppy to the vet for his shots and he bit the vet, hard.  From then on the vet made me muzzle the dog before I went to his office.  We lived in the country and he was the only vet.

The puppy grew and grew into a powerful pet.  He weighed about 110 lbs. at the age of one.  We were in our van, and my husband had gone into a gas station.  He filled up, and went in to pay for it.  It was snowing and the windows were frosted over and snow covered in a short period of time.

A friend of his was also at the gas station.  He opened the driver’s side door and sat down behind the wheel.  He said, “Surprise!”  Well, the dog emitted a deep growl and moved to maul the intruder.  He missed the friend’s carotid artery by less than an inch.  I controlled the dog, and the friend exited the van in one smooth motion.  I heard him tell my husband, “That dog sure startled ME!”

We admire all dogs.  But, we have cats.