What a beautiful puppy, how old? Are you keeping him at your parents?

We use to breed/raise/train German Shepherds and Border Collies - smart dogs and so trainable. Then I got old, so here came the garden, lol!

So glad to hear your brother is home...

Love the puppy! And am so glad to hear that your roses have a new home where you can garden - your friend gets the free landscaping and gardening, and you get a place to play with your roses!

You might see if your brother is interested in helping you once in a while - they say that gardening is stress reducing and good for everything - can't hurt.

Please keep telling us on here how you and your roses are doing - and we would like some pics of the roses' new home./

Jackie

Lookit the SIZE of those paws!!! Beautiful pup!!

Beautiful puppy. Thank you to your brother for his service

I love German Shepherds although I've never owned one myself. My son has one though, and she's been a great dog (she is now going on 9 years old and I think of her as the wise old lady.) You have a very handsome pup!
Glad to hear you've found a way to grow your roses with less stress. It was probably a lot of work moving them, but now you can really create the rose garden you wanted. Good for you.
And wonderful that your brother is home. May I echo Vettin by also saying thank you to him?
Anne

Vilkas is an adorable pup and will be a wonderful friend to you. He already has a certain gravitas befitting his working breed status.

It sounds as though your roses are doing wonderfully well. I'm happy you didn't have to give them up and that they're housed where they'll be appreciated.

Ingrid

Vilkas will be a wonderful companion. Congratulations to both of you!

Cute puppy. You'll have a busy year.

Happy to hear the good news about your brother.

We find our gardens in all sorts of places.

Folly

And good news! Both puppy and garden. Glad You're back.

Cath

So happy to hear you have a stress free place to grow your roses and an adorable new friend to help you.

And wonderful news that your brother made it home safely.

Diane

Thank you everyone for the support! I've passed along your thanks to my brother, who was very appreciative of the gratefulness. My brother actually lives in Europe, so I'm afraid he can't help out all that often at the new place. But I did encourage him to go commune with nature for some peace and quiet. He seemed to like the idea.

Vilkas is a handful already! He's incredibly intelligent though and a fast learner. I'm excited to see how him and I will grow together. I'm starting on his training this week, and if all goes well he'll start to learn how to track by the end of June.

As soon as the lawn is mowed and everything is trimmed up I'll throw some pictures up here! The spring flush was nothing this year, since not much has been in the ground long enough to so much of anything. It's all growing happily though so I can't complain!

Josh

Josh, I'd like to join the chorus & send my best wishes to your brother. How wonderful that he's back home.

Your puppy is beautiful & I hope he learns how to coexist with your roses. They'll just have to get along. Best of luck to your roses in their new home. I hope they continue to do well.

Josh, a big welcome to your brother! I'm so glad you found a home for your roses and am looking forward to photos of your well traveled flora. Congratulations on the new gardening apprentice. Who needs a rototiller when a German shepherd is on the scene? My Samoyed was a champion bulldozer and backhoe, especially in freshly planted beds of fragile rarities. :-) Carol

Smart of you to train your pup to track. That very large sensitive nose will enjoy it, I'm sure - and having a job to do helps keep dogs satisfied so they don't go looking for their own "work" to do (i.e. destruction!)

All good news. You must be so glad to see your brother. The puppy is adorable. Also you have the determination of a true gardener.

Teaching your puppy "to track": Do you mean people (in emergency situations), animals (hunting), things (contraband) or other? Also I forgot to congratulate you and your brother on his safe return. Our son has returned safely too. I get in the habit of not talking about it for their safety's sake and so may not talk about it when I should.

Cath

Congratulations on your good news! What a lovely pup!

And I bet you also got rain--we did--hooray! A great compensation for losing so many baby roses this winter & for such a middlin' spring flush. My roses are already putting out new shoots. It's amazing how superior a decent rain is compared to even very generous hose watering.

Cath,

Tracking people, actually. I'm starting with trackin training, and if he proves adept enough at that then I'll consider finishing out his SchutHund training. And a thank you from my family to yours for everything your son did, and for your family's support of our soldiers.

Carol,

So far he has minded his manners around the roses! I'm curious to see if that will be the case though whenever the beds are filled in with such tempting digging materials as fresh loamy soil!

Josh

Please add my good wishes for your new garden and especially thank your brother for his service.----Love your puppy-----when my children were young we had a wonderful German Shepherd------He was very protective of my little ones---a great dog
Good luck with your new garden
Florence