Hello all!!  After some months of hiatus, I have returned to this wonderful forum.  I have been trying to catch myself up on what everyone has been up to and how our furry children are doing   I've been reading about some scuffles and surgeries, and GSP antics. 

   Luna is 7 months old now and is a massive 65 pounds.  I don't know at what point she will stop growing, but both her parents were huge dogs, by the standards of the breed.  During my abscence, underwear has been eaten and passed, socks have been eaten and vomited...and she is now in her new, appalling phase of eating poop

   On the bright side, she's had her brand new crate for just shy of 2 weeks now, and she more than willingly wanders in, takes naps, and plays with her toys in there.  It didn't seem to take any time at all for her to adjust to being in her crate, which was a very pleasant surprise.  She's doing wonderfully well in the socialization department, and has been learning to do tricks in her obedience class (she LOVES jumping through the hula hoop!).  And when you all talk about "routine" and "structure", it's not joke!  I think routine has helped tremendously with keeping our sanity!

   A question I do have is regarding her extreme vocalization...  I do not know if this is a problem, being overly excited, or something i should put a stop to.  She will sometimes bark and growl right at me even though i am standing right in front of her within her reach.  She seems to like the sound of her growl, and is not at all hostile when she does it, as she wags her tail uncontrollably, and her fur is completely relaxed.  Should i correct this behavior?  Or is it normal/acceptable?  Thank you for your input!!

Glad to be back!

Marie

Thank you so much for your response!  I think it's more of a problem when she is around people, now that i think about it.  A lot of people misunderstand barking as being aggressive and they take offense, when she's actually being overly friendly!  She does get into moods when she starts barking at passers-by from the car, but that's like 1 times out of ten.  And i know it's not because of the particular person, because on a "barky" day, she'll bark at everyone, and on a non barky day, she's completely quiet.  I will try more diligently to stop her from barking at us, i try not to give her attention while she does it, and it seems to help.  Also, we do not throw her ball to fetch unless she is quiet. 

On a side note, we are not hunters by any means, and compared with some of all of your pups, Luna would be considered a "city dog" even though we live in the suburbs.  She doesn't point!!  Whenever we do catch her in a weird half point or backwards point, it's hysterical to us.  Last night we hid her ball and she started tracking it down.  When she realized that half of it was hanging outside of my boyfriend's pocket, it completely caught her off guard and she pointed at it!  She had us laughing until we cried...of course she doesn't lift her paw, but it's good enough for us!

  thank you Texas Belle! Your pups are so handsome! I guess i can confidently say that Luna does point then! I have this recurring daydream that Luna finally meets another GSP, but then gets made fun of for not being trained to hunt . At least we can say she points 

Put up a bird feeder or birdbath and your dog will hunt to her heart's content.  (Just be prepared for the occasionaly feathery corpse.  )  I just find it funny when mine vocalize--Chelsea will sometimes "yowl" at me when she wants something or thinks I'm being annoying ; Humphrey is a real talker.  He'll go "MMMMMM!" when he's happy, "YRRRROWL!" when he greets me (I guess it could sound growly, but the madly wagging tail gives him away), and will sometimes scare me out of my socks with a loud "urrrROWF!", invariably from right behind me.