I feel sad for Glenn as it is a very hard decision to make. I have seen an heard that German Shepards hind quarters go out on them and they end up dragging the hind quarters.
Yes. That is also what happened to my beloved junk yard chow, Red Dog.
I believe he lead a rough life before he came in off the streets of New Orleans and adopted me. He had 10 good years of daily walks, ball fetching, squirrel chasing, begging strips and rib bones before he became unable to lift himself at the rear. He lost control of his business at that time as well and then went blind. All of this happened inside of 2 months or so. He had to be sent home then.
Grainger’s hind quarters are still solid. It is my hope that our daily walks keep them strong as long as possible. I don’t want to face any days without him.
When I was young my family owned a number of dogs (though never more than three at a time). One of them was a German shepherd named Susie. She was small as German shepherds go, but she still had that deep bark. When people came up the driveway and saw her at the front of the house barking, they wouldn’t get out of their cars, at least not until my parents told them Susie wouldn’t harm them.
She was a good dog. We had to put her down though, due to hip problems, and she was the only dog we ever had to do that for. Most of the rest met their end on the highway that ran past our house.
Incidentally, one of our other dogs was named Spunky. My dad ended up giving her to an animal shelter because she had an annoying habit of biting car tires; she could actually puncture sidewalls with her teeth! We didn’t find out he’d gotten rid of her, though, until my sister realized she hadn’t seen Spunky in the yard for a few days.