Ruger German Shepherd Dog & American Bulldog Mix New Rochelle, NY

Backstory - accepted as foster about a year ago when he was 6 ish months old. He was found on the streets in LA, was emaciated and had pretty bad pressure wounds. When he arrived he was 6ish months sorta physically but had never had any guidance as a puppy so he was mouthy, pushy, and lacked all boundaries.

Current good stuff:
He is an energetic, 75lb GSD mix that is highly food driven and toy driven. Because of what I do I imprinted him on HR, which was easy with food, he had a determined stare at odor. He has basic obedience, is crate trained, house broken and can settle well. He gets along with all of my dogs, and will with others if properly introduced.

Things to also know about Ruger. He can be excitable with people and is a 75lb zoomy dog if you wind him up. He walks really well on a pinch or with an Ecollar, but he will drag an unexpecting person suddenly on a flat collar. He can be barrier reactive with certain dogs - with 5 of mine he doesn’t care, one may react to - but out of crate he’s fine with him. He goes out with my Yorkshire terrier who is big dog savvy - Ruger does not react to him running, but also doesn’t understand his size so what this means is he will engage him in appropriate play, but it may be too rough for some small dogs. He ignores my chickens, goats and horses and has a good “leave it”. He is NOT reactive on his leash with people or dogs - but he’s never had the opportunity to be. With his strong food drive - he eats in his crate - no problem feeding or taking bowl, but I don’t give him a bowl full of food in a roomful or dogs or people. (He was starved and in my experience that means he will always eat anything he can - he doesn’t eat non-food items)

Situation where I think Ruger would thrive:
- home where he will get daily exercise (physically and mentally) is a must.
- experienced nosework handler would be awesome
- only dog or similar sized dog that is ok with supervised chase and wrestle play - or a handler that doesn’t need their dogs to play/live in the house together is fine too.
- handler experienced with GSD as he has a lot of GSD characteristics, but wants to snuggle like a APBT…
- someone who will absolutely love his enthusiasm for life and fun stuff.