Could you tell us moore about this beutiful dog. What happens when visitors come to the house? Is he aggressive to them? What happens when you take him to the vet? Does he have to be muzzled? Could he not be muzzled during training? There are many unanswered questions & solutions for someone that could adopt him. I'm sure a FReeper would not adopt him for the purpose of abusing him.
I am miles away -but would take him in a heartbeat if I could. We had a GSD years ago that was a beloved member of our family until he went to Rainbow Bridge.
I don’t post here as much as I used to... but thought I’d add my two cents.
You have a lot going on apparently, a very short time frame and a dog who would be very difficult to place even if you had all the time in the world.
All of those who are pleading with you not to euthanize this dog and giving you opinions about how lots of GSD people and police depts would love to take this dog are glossing over the very critical parts of your posts that indicate he has severe social and behavior issues. Police and military working dogs aren’t loose cannons with personality problems. A stable, balanced temperament is perhaps the most important criteria for these dogs.
Your dog needs to go to someone really skilled with dog behavior and dog training, who also have the time and interest in rehabbing a broken or defective personality. Those people already have dogs, usually. And those involved in rescue are full up, just with easy-going happy, balanced dogs who should be easy to place.
Unless you already knew of a good home in your personal contacts who know the dog, 4 days is just not long enough to search out, check out, and make arrangements that would not just further traumatize this dog. Taking an unstable dog and putting him on a plane to go meet some stranger at the other end sounds like a disaster to me, and an end much worse than your loving arms and a kind veterinarian... Perhaps one who would allow you to pre-sedate him before bringing him in, if he doesn’t cope with outside situations well... or better yet, would come to your place to do it.
I don’t think you would be wrong to euthanize this dog. It’s not the worst outcome. Ending up stressed out from a hastily-made decision to ship him somewhere far from the very sheltered environment he’s been in, sounds like the worse outcome, to me.
My two cents.
“What happens when visitors come to the house? Is he aggressive to them? What happens when you take him to the vet?”
The last time I took him to the vet, his first visit after neutering and after he’d developed serious aggression issues, my husband and I took him together, sedated, muzzled, and with a double lead to a regular and dominant dog collar. Despite the sedation and dominant dog collar, my husband and I could barely control him enough to get his rabies shot. The vet told us not to come back, then later apologized when he realized we were trying to be responsible dog owners by calling ahead for sedation, etc., and the dog was just scared.
My older daughter came to visit recently for a week. I had her send a t-shirt so my dog could get used to her scent and know it was “mommy’s XXXX,” someone special to me. I had my dog muzzled and on the double lead, with plenty of space so he wouldn’t feel cornered. His reaction was to try to immediately, viscously attack her. I was able to get him to not try to attack at her, but after 4 days I knew I couldn’t take his muzzle off around her and it was just making everyone miserable including the dog. The look in his eyes made it clear that she was toast if his muzzle came off.
When strangers come to the house, he looks to me to protect him and close his crate door or put him in the bathroom. He will bark the entire time they’re here. I rarely get phone calls, except from the gardener telling he’s here. When my phone rings, my dog barks and makes motions to be put in a safe place. I’m the Alpha female and he expects me to protect him, and he’ll attack anyone that’s a threat to his “pack.”