I am sorry you lost a family member! I hope your new family member brings you much joy.
Thanks for all the support and kind replies. It really means a lot and shows the type of fantastic members we have on this site, despite what the College Football Smack Talk Thread shows. 
SInce some mentioned it, our rational for getting a dog this quick after our Dax passed is many-fold. While we still ahve Stella, and she's a great girl, there's still a whole left with Dax passing. Another big factor is that we live rural and my wife works from home with me being gone for 14 hours a day at work and neighbors that aren;t terribly close by should a two legged critter come onto the property. Dax did a good job of being intimidating when unfamiliar cars or people came down the driveway and from a distance he seemed like a dog a person wouldn't want to deal with. Pretty sure he would have given his life to protect my wife. Stella on the other hand, not too sure.
Our plan is to get Chief trained to a level 2 protection dog while still being a loved member of the family. Whether right or wrong, I'm of the opinion whether a person is college educated or the town crackhead and are up to nefarious activities, they all know that a pissed off German Shepard that is minding its owners commands is not a dog or owner to phuck with and will quickly move on to safer thiefdom for their own self preservation.
One of the reasons we chose the breeder was that Chiefs father, uncles and many other males in his bloodlines are all level 2 or 3 trained protection dogs. Hopefully this translates to Chief with a easy and fast learing curve. All training will be done at the kennel by a professional on staff.
SInce some mentioned it, our rational for getting a dog this quick after our Dax passed is many-fold. While we still ahve Stella, and she's a great girl, there's still a whole left with Dax passing. Another big factor is that we live rural and my wife works from home with me being gone for 14 hours a day at work and neighbors that aren;t terribly close by should a two legged critter come onto the property. Dax did a good job of being intimidating when unfamiliar cars or people came down the driveway and from a distance he seemed like a dog a person wouldn't want to deal with. Pretty sure he would have given his life to protect my wife. Stella on the other hand, not too sure.Our plan is to get Chief trained to a level 2 protection dog while still being a loved member of the family. Whether right or wrong, I'm of the opinion whether a person is college educated or the town crackhead and are up to nefarious activities, they all know that a pissed off German Shepard that is minding its owners commands is not a dog or owner to phuck with and will quickly move on to safer thiefdom for their own self preservation.
One of the reasons we chose the breeder was that Chiefs father, uncles and many other males in his bloodlines are all level 2 or 3 trained protection dogs. Hopefully this translates to Chief with a easy and fast learing curve. All training will be done at the kennel by a professional on staff.
