German Shorthair Pointers

I wish you'd adopt my neighbors GSP.
They put him outside and leave him out too long (IMO) and he whines and barks at odd hours and sometimes we hear him making this weird growling noise. No one is outside with him (he's in a privacy fenced in backyard), but he'll just start doing this whining bark things. It's SO freaky. Seriously, it wakes me up and I think either he is possessed or there is a demonic wolf in that backyard. I've NEVER heard a dog make a sound like that. And he can't be older than 2. Oh, and I've NEVER seen this dog upclose. He wants a piece of my dog, that's for sure. But I'm not sure what he'd do if he ever got a hold of her. In other words, I'm not sure if he's dog aggressive or not.

Awww, poor fella. I feel so sorry for him. If I lived closer, and they were trying to rehome him, I would (especially if it was just me, and maybe another person, but no other animals). Unfortunately, I'm all the way in Nebraska, and have a few cats, a snake, and some mice (pet mice, not pests).

But the GSP I'm planning on getting is a shelter dog (in danger of being put to sleep), so it's not like I'd be getting one from a breeder. Actually a lot or most of our animals are from either a shelter or from off the streets. I think Butterscotch and Oreo are shelter cats ( I think) and Amber and Schilling came from off the streets. They're just the sweetest things I've ever met. And I hope to add Lester (that's the shelter name of the GSP that I'm planning on adopting) soon to our small family. As I don't personally own the cats, if I ever move out, it will only be Lester and the mice.

~Valerie

I think it varies on the individual dog. They have very high prey drives, however some GSP's do just fine with cats. I know you said you wanted to go through a shelter but rescue groups ususally know if a dog is good with cats. Shelters sometimes do too though.

I have a GSP/ English Pointer mix (I think? She's some kind of pointer) and she is not cat aggressive. She does, however, try to play with my cat and chase her.... which my cat is not fond of, to put it nicely.

Although I don't have a shorthair (one day we will though) I have a pointer.  Similar prey drives.  Casey tries to play with the cat every once in a while, but for the most part she leaves her alone.  The biggest problem I've had with the two of them is that the cat was adopted and wasn't raised with dogs, and doesn't really like them (but puts up with them)  Sometimes she'll even hide behind the walls and jump out at the dogs.  She also has claws, so Casey doesn't really want to bother her.
I also have guinea pigs.  Casey will put her nose in the cage and sniff them, but I don't let her get closer to them than that.  If you do get this dog I wouldn't let them get close to your mice, just as a safety precaution since they're so small.
Also remember since this dog is a GSP, he needs plenty of exercise a day.  With my pointer, I hook her up to my bike and go for an hour long ride (half the time she's running or jogging)
And for the training, they're quick learners.  My pointer was housetrained by the time she was 5 months and we adopted her when she was 3-4 months old.  She also catches on VERY quickly on things I'm training her.  Her most recent trick is to knock a plastic chair over.  It took all of ten minutes to train her using a clicker.

Shorthairs are great dogs.  They need alot of mental and physical exercise .  They are quick learners and if introduced properly will get along fine with other small animals.  My dog gets along fine with my two cats and even though he is a bird dog understands that he can't get my moms conour or parakeet.  He was housebroken very quickly and loves to learn new commands.  They are prone to hip dysplasia but are general very healthy active dogs.   They have great personalities and love to be with their person.  If you have the time and energy I would definately recommend one.  My dog is like lightning in the field but in the house he just loves to lounge around and lay at my feet where ever I am.

What's hip displasia? (sp?) I've heard of it before, but I'm unsure of what it is exactly.

Thanks for the advice everyone! I appreciate it!

~Valerie

Hip dysplasia is when the hip ball socket does not fit very snugly in the pelvic bone.  This causes wear on the joint and severe pain.  It can be fixed if found early enough but is pretty expensive. Here are some sights
[linkhttp://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_dysplasia]http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hip_dysplasia[/link]
[linkhttp://www.offa.org/]http://www.offa.org/[/link]

My GSP was adopted at 6 years old, her foster mom had cats so she is used to them, but doesn't really like them.  They do need a lot of exercise, in fact, the jeans I wear now are 2 sizes smaller than what I wore when I got the dog 5 months ago.  We usually walk an hour or two each day in addition to running up and down the stairs and playing.
She only knew "sit" when I got her but has learned other commands, I wouldn't say she is learning quickly-but she is learning and she is very cuddly at night.

Hi Valerie - my husband trains and breeds German Shorthaired, so I thought I could help out a little with some information from our experiences.

GSP's are hunting dogs, and they can be trained to hunt small fur animals like fox, etc., so it would really depend on the individual dog whether or not it can get along with your cat. Our dogs would not get along with a cat-they think of cats as something to hunt.

 GSPs are very trainable - it would probably take about a week or two to crate train one that you adopted, you could put the crate right next to your bed at night as long as you were committed to not taking it out of the crate no matter how much it whined!!  Otherwise do it during the day when you're not home!!

These are high energy dogs who need alot (I mean excessive) of exercise, so that would be an important factor in your consideration.

If you are a runner, or you have a big yard/acreage - that's the kind of thing they need.

Adopting a dog is a wonderful thing, and I commend you for taking on that huge responsibility. Just try to read between the lines on the information that they give you - it's kind of like when you buy a house - cute and cozy really means extremely small with no closets.  I'm sure you understand what I mean.

Good luck. I'd love to hear how it works out.

Trish

 

I'll second everything Trish has said.

They are smart, eager to please, good with kids and other dogs. Very good temperment.

Exercise is a must, if not they get into things that will get them scolded. I have two, my female wants to chase cats, my male could care less about them. He just wants to go find birds.

I have a 5 yr old lab and an 11 yr old cat for my GSP puppy to play with.  He does pretty well but we needed to teach him "leave it" because he doesn't always understand when the cat doesn't want to play.

I adore my German Shorthaired Cuddler, I mean Pointer but he does drive me nuts sometimes with his need to burn off the energy.

Hi Valerie

 I have a 3 year old shorthair and he is wondrful.  Like the other posts he was easy to train, a joy to be with, but requires a ton of excercise.  No matter how long we excercise him, he can always go longer!!!!  I love my GSP but if you do not have a LOT of time to stimulate and excercise them then they are not the dog for you.  One other thing with Zen is that he is more of a one person dog.  He will listen to me and enjoys being with me but his heart is really my significant others dog.  he is fine with our cat and great with our other dog.

 lots of great input - I believe my dog is a dane/gsp mix (may have other breeds in there) but will say the energy and intellect are HIGH.  He needs tons of exercise and mental stimulation or he gets very mischievous.  But it is pure mischief nothing terrible.  He learns very quickly and was crate trained and house trained nearly instantly.  Really.

Now I don't have a cat so I can't say what it would be like if he had been raised with one - but he is cat aggressive, no doubt about it.  Prey drive is through the roof although he doesn't kill he just catches and plays.  The shelter may have done some tests with cats.  Also depends on if it is fully grown or still maturing 

Our dog Lexi is a GSP mix (most likely). We adopted her at 4 months old and she was a real handful, until we were able to get some training under our belt. (It was a challenge for her to learn to ignore a scents or smell if we were calling her).

Her favorite activity (like most short hairs) is running and tracking prey. She's caught several small animals, and even two birds while on leash, so when people say they have prey drive, they really mean it.

That being said, Lexi is an extremely biddable 3 year-old now. We can call her off of something she is chasing it, and in the house she is a sweet, well-behaved dog. She listens to everything we say, and is a real treat to live with.

If you can meet their exercise needs, they are wonderful dogs!