Dog Hair at the Dinner Table: The Joys of Fostering German Shepherd Dogs

Yes, it sounds unappetizing, but dog hair at the dinner table (under it, not on it!) is just a fact of life when you love dogs enough to become foster parents for a local rescue group. We (my husband and I) are fond of German Shepherds, the champion shedders of the dog world, so we do our best to control it, but to keep our sanity, we gave up being anal about it years ago. Besides, a wise person once said, "No outfit is complete without a little dog hair." It’s now my signature accessory for every ensemble. Have lint roller - will travel.

We’ve been foster parents for our local German Shepherd rescue group for about four years now, and our reward is knowing that we’ve given more than 25 gorgeous dogs the chance to know how it feels to be loved and live a long, happy lives in their adoptive, forever homes. Here’s what they’ve given us, besides the dog hair. It’s not all loving licks and nuzzles, and I wouldn’t have it any other way.

Puppies Poop!

Who doesn’t love a puppy? We’re always so thrilled to get a tiny, eight-week-old, soft, furry little guy, which seldom happens. (Most of our fosters are around two years old and older.) While we’re not picking him up, cuddling and kissing him, we’re cleaning up poop and tinkle. Think of it as ground zero when it comes to housebreaking. You’d think our own two Shepherds, Zoey and Oz, would show them the ropes when we put them all in the backyard. Sometimes, they get it quickly, and sometimes they don’t. By the way, both Zoey and Oz came to us as fosters, and we just couldn’t let them go. It’s a wonder we don’t adopt them all. But I digress. Puppies also chew wood, take socks and other items that don’t belong to them, get stuck behind furniture and melt your heart.

Water-In-Mouth Disease

Our dogs are always indoor dogs when they’re not outside playing or on the road with us. They’re our family, and family lives inside. Period. This includes fosters. They’re fed in the kitchen, which brings us to, oddly enough, a math problem. Big dogs + big heads + big tongues = big mess by the water bowl. My husband’s always begging them to "try getting some in your mouth." Okay, so we definitely have a failure to communicate. We leave a big towel on the kitchen floor just for the purpose of mopping up dripped water, which can easily cover a twelve-foot radius.

But Wait! There’s More!

Their food (dry, not canned) is another story. For reasons known only to them, the food bowl is merely a meal’s starting point. I don’t know if other dogs do this, but many German Shepherds have a habit of taking a huge mouthful of food, transporting it to some other location in the home, dropping it and eating it morsel by morsel - missing a few here and there. Have you ever stepped on a chunk of large-breed dog food in your bare feet? It’s like a hard, crunchy land mine in the dark. Late at night. When you’re heading to the bathroom…

Speaking of Feet…

German Shepherds have big ones - gargantuan paws that have to go outside sometimes after a frog-choking rain. When those paws come back inside, wet and muddy, no floor or fabric is safe. We have a doormat outside, and a large length of absorbent fabric on the floor beyond the back-door entry, but it doesn’t absorb quite all the liquid - which ceases to matter when 1) they artfully skirt the fabric and walk on the floor and 2) they shake their 100-pound bodies to rid themselves of the droplets on their rain-soaked fur. This happens just before they run up to you for some serious nuzzling and hugging.

It’s Worth Every Wet Paw!

If this article has, in any way, made you reluctant to foster or adopt a German Shepherd, you’ve missed the point - and the big picture. When mom gains a little weight and complains to dad about her added girth, he smiles and says, "Not a problem, honey. It’s just more for me to love." That’s the beauty of German Shepherds. They’re big (although some females can be as small as 50-60 pounds), beautiful, uniquely devoted and loyal, strong, protective, intelligent, unconditionally and unbelievably loving (think lap dogs on steroids) and, just like humans, every German Shepherd has a personality all its own.

I can’t imagine my life without these amazing animals. When I snuggle my face in a massive, furry neck, and a happy pooch turns around to lick my cheek (and surrounding areas, of course), I know the love is real. When I curl up on the sofa, and my sweet, little Zoey jumps up alongside me and leans against my arm, waiting to be taken in my embrace, I can’t help but smile. When a foster comes up and lays his head on my thigh, hoping for some long-denied affection, he doesn’t have to wait a millisecond. And at that moment, I understand why I’m here. Then he goes into the living room and tinkles on my rug. Oh, well. I can always get another rug.

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