How We Got This German Shepherd Puppy

First of all, WE didn't. Tim did.

Let me back up a minute. Before Tim and I started dating, I was planning to get a new Aussie puppy from Sunny's breeder. Sunny turned 4 in July and, although he's been doing very well in rally obedience, I was craving a new puppy that I could start fresh with and build a rock-solid performance foundation on. So I went ahead and reserved a puppy from the late July litter Sunny's breeder had planned. There was one red merle female and I wanted her.

Then I decided to hold off. Tim and I were living together, with a speed that sort of surprised me (within a month of our first date). Everything was going great. He was an awesome person and a dog lover on top of that. But a new puppy can be a huge burden on a new relationship, even a GOOD new relationship. It's sort of like having a new baby too soon. I decided that in the interest of building my human relationship on a solid foundation, I would sacrifice my beautiful little red merle female Aussie and wait for my breeder's next litter, due at the end of December.

Tim had wolves once, as pets. It's a long story. He loves smart, loyal, protective dogs that look sort of like wolves, like German shepherds. He loves Sunny, but he prefers Hilda to Sunny. I think the German shepherd is a beautiful, noble, intelligent breed, but I like the unquestioning devotion of the Aussie. Aussies do not want to do anything other than what you tell them to do. They are the type of dogs that hang around waiting for a command. Shepherds are the type of dogs that have to monitor everything, all the time, and make sure everything is status quo. If you put up a 2-foot-high baby gate in a doorway, most Aussies will respect it. Even if it is partially knocked down. A shepherd might respect it, but if she sees something on the other side that requires attention -- like a burglar breaking in or a cat misbehaving or another dog getting the owner's attention -- she will probably go through the baby gate if she physically can. Shepherds have a strong sense of how the world is supposed to be, and will do everything in their power to make it that way. Aussies trust you to keep the world the way it is supposed to be. That's how I see it, anyway.

Suddenly last month, and seemingly out of nowhere, Tim developed an intense desire for a German shepherd. At first I thought he was kidding. Then he kept bringing it up and I knew he was serious. Naturally, that was great news for me! A German shepherd puppy in the house NOW was better than having to wait for an Aussie puppy in February. So I started looking for a German shepherd puppy. And then I quickly realized that German shepherds are much, much more expensive than Aussies. I found several German shepherd kennels online, but their puppies were anywhere between $1200 and $2500. That seemed like a lot even for shepherds with health guarantees and German bloodlines. So then I turned to the classifieds. There was nothing. I looked in the Phoenix classifieds. There were a few litters. I emailed the people who placed the ads. No response. It was nearly Christmas and we were feeling glum because it didn't look like there was going to be a shepherd puppy in our house any time soon.

Then, looking again, I entered the search term "German" in the classifieds instead of "German shepherds". Lo and behold, an ad came up for "German Sheps". It was complete with pictures of adorable little black and grey fluffballs. There were three females and one male, and the price was $600 for puppies without papers and $850 with papers. I called the breeder, and he didn't sound too bad for a backyard breeder. Mother had hips rated Good by OFA; father was too young to have an official rating  but had at least had his hips X-rayed and they looked good. The breeder offered to knock $50 off the price since we were coming all the way up from Tucson. The ad included a picture of the German-bred parents. There was also one picture of a beautiful, mostly grey pup that I desperately hoped would be the one Tim picked. I didn't say anything to him, though, because this was Tim's puppy and needed to be Tim's choice.

Let me take a VERY unpopular stance and say that I LIKE backyard breeders. I admire and respect breeders who get every health clearance known to man done on their dogs, and show them in various venues, and all that. But. I don't want to have to pay a thousand dollars or more for a puppy to cover the expenses of yearly eye exams, genetic testing, travel expenses and entry fees for the parents to participate in  various dog shows, et cetera. I don't like having to go through the third degree when buying a puppy. I have the old-fashioned belief that if I am paying a lot of money for this dog, I just plain don't want to be told I have to have it neutered or spayed. Or have to take it to obedience class. Or have to answer questions about how many people and pets live in my house and how much experience I have with dogs. Or have to promise to return it to the breeder if I ever get in a situation where I can't keep it. I treat my dogs very well, but -- and I'm sorry, because I know this will offend some and possibly all of my readers -- I still view dogs as property. MY property. If I pay for them, I expect to own them. Furthermore, as long as the parents are healthy with nice temperaments, I don't see anything wrong with breeding a litter and selling the pups. I'm sure you've all heard the saying, "Don't breed or buy while shelter pets die". But that implies that if we didn't buy one of these shepherd pups, we would go down to the pound and adopt some needy rescue puppy instead. That just plain wouldn't happen! I think back to those terrified mini-Aussie pups we fostered. They were awfully cute, and sweet, but their early experiences (or rather lack of experiences) left them with scars that they (and their adopters) will have to live with for the next fifteen years. I just plain don't want to deal with that type of temperament. I like certain breeds for their known qualities, like all the ones I mentioned above. Of course every dog is an individual, but you can assume most shepherds will be smart, loyal, and protective.

Now that I'm done justifying buying from a backyard breeder... We made the drive up to Gilbert, a couple hours away. The house was in a nice suburb. The family was your typical well-fed suburban family. There were lots of kids running around. Mama shepherd greeted us at the door. She was about the same size as Hilda, but more of a red color with a lighter and smaller saddle. She was very calm and friendly -- a good sign. We went out into the backyard to meet the pups. There were three left -- two females and a male. All three were asleep under the grill while screaming children ran and played all around them. I took this as a good sign since they had already had their formative experiences in an environment crazier than anything they would ever see with us.

We woke the puppies up, a process that took some time. They gradually came to life. The beautiful fluffy mostly grey puppy was there. She was huge, as big as the male, with leg bones as thick as my forearm. The male puppy and the other female were both mostly black with tan feet, underbellies, and markings on their faces. The smaller black and tan female was the least outgoing of the three. The father of the puppies was a giant red and black shepherd. He was young, so not filled out yet, but I bet will reach 100 lbs. by the time he's mature. He was friendly too, but had much more energy than the mother. I got the impression that if anyone in this family wanted to walk him down the street, they might have a hard time. He ran around the yard snapping at flies. I idly considered the possibility that this might be obsessive behavior that he could pass on to his offspring, but decided I would think about that later.

Somehow, as we looked at the three adorable puppies, I did not want the beautiful, fluffy grey female anymore. I wanted the male. I don't know why. I looked in his eyes, and he had such a beautiful, strong, confident expression that I just completely fell in love with it. Sometimes the look of a dog can suck me in like that. I couldn't even really look at the other two puppies anymore; I kept looking back at the male. I didn't say anything because I knew Tim wanted a female and I didn't want to influence him. Then suddenly he said, "This one," and pointed at the male. I was ecstatic. This proved that I wasn't imagining how smoking hot that puppy was, and that Tim saw it too.

Tim paid for the puppy (no papers -- we didn't need or want them) and we headed home with our little bundle of joy. We discussed what to name him for a while. Tim wanted to name him after a Nobel Prize winner, so I looked up the list of Nobel Prize winners on my Droid and, let me tell you, those guys have some seriously lame names that should never be bestowed on beautiful German shepherds. I distracted Tim away from the idea of Nobel Prize winners. I thought that if this was my puppy I would definitely name him Kaiser, but Tim didn't like that one. Somehow we came up with the idea that we wanted a German name that started with "Z". I Googled "German names starting with Z" and there it was: "Zsiga", German for "victorious defender". We both loved it immediately. I love that it's German, I love that it starts with "Z", I love that it has a silent "S", I love the way it rolls off the tongue. But most of all I love this awesome puppy. He is turning out to be just as nice as he looked when we first looked at him.