German Shepherd dog

I would say Ben is Ben and is a German Shepherd.

Accept him for what he is not what some paper tells you .

He sounds like a great shepherd that many would love to own.

Too many people  forget to love the dog for the dog. Not sport titles, beauty, hips, pedigree and ect.

It is the dog that makes the pedigree what it is. a title is just that a title . I would take a BEST FRIEND title over a ScHH title anyday. To me that is worth more.

EK

You have basically a American dog. You have 2 east germen (ddr ) dogs in the 7th generation. The west and east dogs are to far back and to minimal. You just should except him as a American dog.

I have a 21 month old rescued GSD whose color has altered somewhat as he has aged - when we adopted him at six months he was very black with rich reddish tan markings on his legs and underside. As he has aged the red has morphed into more of a tan (very little red now), and he has more of it overall, including some new areas on his face. Since he is in excellent health I assume that this is his adult coat , and is normal for him. I haven't experienced diet changing coat color - but have run into health problems over the years with some of my past dogs which have: hypothyroidism and Cushing's disease (syndrome) are two that come to mind.

I concur with EK - a good dog is a good dog no matter where he comes from or what his parentage may be. We haven't a clue what is in our fellow's background, but he has an awesome temperament (gets along with friendly people and dogs) is very protective, seems to be healthy and is handsome to boot...... so at the end of the day this is all that matters.

How lucky you are to have a best friend.

For all intents and purposes, your dog has American lines for the lineage that matters (i.e. parents, grandparents, great grandparents).  It's always interesting to see the lineage of your dog, so I'd take a few of those names and Google them or get into the AKC and see what you can turn up.

He's a very handsome guy and sounds like a lot of fun. 

MomofBeckett

Simply Shepherds Clothing and Gifts

Rose,

Thats a sweet picture with the pup's.   She looks proud of them.

I am hoping to take some picture's of mine this weekend.

Moon's.

wow thank you for the replies. two moons - as far as training goes, the nearest club is more than an hour drive from where i am. there are a few local trainers - just as far as obedience goes - but for something more serious like tracking or any other kind of the classic german shepherd talents, i have no idea how i would find the time to train ben how to do those things, and if i would ever have a use for them. i really appreciate his personality right now, i know he will never be a liability if he stays the way he is. there is one local trainer 20 minutes from my place and her company works with the vancouver, Wa police station to train their dogs. i brought ben to interview one day when he was about 7 months old, and she wanted me to leave him there for 3 weeks, and she said that she would first work on setting the "come" command into his brain, and to do that she lets the dogs run about 1/4 mile away from her in her enclosed area, and then calls them while giving them jolts from an electric collar. then she would proceed to train him other obedience skills, scent, and then protection... guaranteed in three weeks or she would keep my dog longer.

i was not to hott on that idea and decided he didnt need the professional training that my area had to offer, and although i thought it would be cool to have a schH trained dog, i would never have the time to excersize his new abilities and couldnt trust him to "play nice" as well as i can now.  i have just trained him in basic obedience myself. not the same basic obedience you guys know, but enough that he comes when he is called. he sits and stays,  he will sit and i can rest a treat on his nose until i tell him to take it, at which point he flicks it into the air and snatches it.

he fetches, and i can bring him to a field with a ball somewhere in it, and tell him to "go find your ball" or "go get your toy" and he will trott around in circles until he finds a ball.

one thing that i would definitly like more information on, is resources for scent training your dog without professional help.

today it is 46 degrees F and raining, but i am on my way to the dog park. i was going to take some more pictures of him but my girlfriend left and she has my camera in her purse.

oh - on that note - when i go to the park with ben, he runs all around with the other dogs, he doesnt so much care to go near the other humans, he does it when they are in his path, he will walk near them, or walk through a crowed... but he does not stop and wait by them like my previous dogs of different breeds have in anticipation of recieving pats or food, he is definitly more into his own little world nd playing with the other dogs.

when my girlfriend takes him to the park without me, she says that he doesnt go more than about 10-15 feet from her and is walking circles around her the whole time. and when she starts talking to people he comes in a little closer and waits.

i will post more pictures when i get a chance. i do believe i have two pictures of him on his pedigreedatabase page.

what they need is a myspace type website for peoples dogs.

wow beautiful pictures. all of them.

i have had dogs since i was a kid. my first dog was a golden retriever which  had to be placed with one of my parent's friends because we moved into a smaller home - i hate people who do that ... find a place that works for your dog too... but sometimes the circumstances just dont allow for it and in the end, it depends on the reason and how the dog's life is post rehoming. my second dog was a shar-pei which lived from 1995-2005, she was red, and she was somethign else. she hunted like a cat and caught all kinds of things, including mice and rats. she once even caught a bird. we had a tree in that house that had branches just right, she could climb about 10 feet off the ground. she led a great life, she did get seriously injusred at about 3 years when she tried to take down a doe deer that was in our backyard eating apples. she got slit from her shoulders to her tail so deep, all the way through her wrinkly skin.  she was never quite the same but still led a happy life. during the time we had her, we rescued a chihuahua - for the record, if you ever want to do this - dont. the chihuahua, still alive today, still living with my parents, is the most stubborn little pile in the world. Well Ming, the Shar-pei and Felix, the chihuahua became really close, and when Ming died, it seemed somethign was missing from felix. a friend of mine from my job at the time had a litter of beagles, and gave us one that didn't conform to the standards perfectly, she is a bit to tall for the larger class of beagle. they get along great now, and felix is almost 9 years old now.

this is already kind of long winded so to make it at least a little bit shorter, i wont explain the thought process of why i took on the responsibilities of a third dog, Ben, my GSD... but i did, and then i moved out of my parents house, and Felix and Kate stayed with my parents and my brother.

i was a full time realtor for a couple of years before the market changed, and during my time there, i was representing the owners of a house trying to sell it. they had aquired a new pup - a lab/rott mix that was the product of a mistake in her brother in law's breeding program. well, they were keeping it outside with no shelter aside from a wheelborrow , in the snow and the rain and the cold. the puppy was growing up as i represented the house for the next few weeks, and i could see that they were not careing for the pup. she was loseing all of the fur on her back legs until she was completly half bald. i couldnt take it. i asked my vet about the skin condition and she gave me medicin without seeing the pup, i gave it to the people and her hair kinda got patchy at best. they asked me one day if i could take the dog or they would have to shoot it - i called my parents to see if they could keep the dog for a couple weeks until i found a new home for her. they agreed, and by the time i found a new home, my mom was too attached to the pup, and she had grown all of her hair back and was just beautiful.

now they have three dogs and i have Ben, and my point is... my favorite of all of them, the golden retriever, the shar - pei, the beagle, and the chihuahua - is definitly Ben.

German shepherd have a certain look about them that is so amazing, it is like, ok, this is what a dog is supposed to be.

a close second favorite is the shar-pei - she was amazing and i cant believe how well she could hunt things.

i want to take pictures today, dang.,

Your dog is called an outcross, his breeders blended different lines to get the type they were looking for, and what a wonderful type it is! Your Ben looks very handsome & sounds like a wonderful dog. Sounds like he is being protective of your girlfriend, too. We on this board are certainly predjudiced towards our GSDs, we also think that GSDs are what dogs should be. I myself was not really a 'dog' person until we got our first GSD, now we have 4, (they are like potato chips, you can't have just 1!!LOL). I agree with the other posters...your dogs love and esteem mean more than anything else.  Ben already has an MBF....(my best friend). jackie harris

OT-Two Moons---are you a proud puppy poppa? Please post pics!

Gretsch-  Even if you TRIED to explain to people at the dog park a little about Ben's background they'd likely give you this dumbfounded look of "oh" and that would be the extent of your conversation. lol  Remember these are the same people asking if he's a mix. lol  He's a nice looking boy.  Enjoy him!

lol every time I walk with my dog's I get "what a nice GSD mix" my respons is always the same "thank you, and walk away from the ignorant"

GSD's were always concider perfect companion dogs, this is why they are so popular, this caracteristic was always more imprtant than anything else.

Gretsch-  Thank You!