In October of 2020, after a tumultuous year, my mom had to say goodbye to her basset hound, Trucker who you’ve seen on this blog before. Trucker lived a good, long life, but living without a dog was just too much for my mom. She really wanted to have a German Shepherd for several reasons. And, with two teen boys in the house to help keep him busy, that’s a good fit. Fritz was found in a listing on Facebook for rehoming a 3-month-old German Shepherd. After sharing a few pics of him with my mom and thinking about it for a few days, she was ready to get him. My husband and I went and picked him up from a home a few miles from us. They had him for only a month or so. He was living with an adult blue nose pit bull and getting along well. Because of timing to make the trip to my mom’s we had him at our house for a week. We tried teaching him a few leash manners and sitting and waiting for his supper. He also was able to socialize with our dogs.
Like many families during the pandemic, we had considered adding another dog to our pack this year. We knew that Tilda would love another dog who was more interested in playing with her than Duke is. We weren’t sure about Duke. Having a puppy around helped us solidify that Duke doesn’t need nor want to share his life with another dog. We are thankful that he’s grown a strong bond with Tilda, but she has a particularly submissive personality. She gave up much to make friends with him (mostly playing fetch and tug in the evenings). Duke didn’t hate having the puppy around, but he really didn’t want to share any toys and that was a challenge. And he grumbled at him a lot and was completely disinterested in playing. The worst part though was that he would get upset when Tilda would play and would try to gang up with Tilda against the pup. With a little puppy, Tilda didn’t fall for that trick, but I’m not sure she wouldn’t be tempted to gang up on another dog with Duke if he were a bit older. So, this brief period of time with a puppy helped us to know that while Duke would be safe with a puppy, he wouldn’t like it and he could be a bad influence on Tilda.
Tilda was however fun to watch with Fritz. She was motherly towards him and really played so nice with him. Giving him nice play bows and letting him mangle her a bit. She was so interested in him. She would be great to have around a puppy. She’s a dog that would teach a younger dog the ropes.
Here’s a video montage of them together!
