When I heard from my parents that my baby sister (there's 8 1/2 years between us)had adopted a GSDx in College Station while she was a college student living in a small apartment, I nearly lost it. I couldn't believe how foolish she was being, especially when Mom said there was a really long sob story about how the dog had been at the local shelter for a long time, and his time was almost up, etc. It genuinely sounded like my sister had only adopted him because he would have been euthanized otherwise.

Once I met Atlas I realized that he really was a pretty neat dog. He's playful and goofy and does well with most other dogs. I began to hope that Perdita would take to him since she'd lost her previous GSD boyfriend, Niko, when his family moved. Unfortunately, things haven't worked out quite that well, but back to Atlas.

My sister found out why Atlas had been in the shelter for so long when she moved out of her apartment into a small house: he's an incurable escape artist who can't be kept in by almost any type of fencing (it doesn't help that the fence around her tiny yard is 4' chainlink though). He can also break out of most crates, and Atlas frequently has intestinal issues. What fun!

They're working with all of the stuff, but I'm realizing that as much as my sister and Atlas love each other, they're not the best match. My sis doesn't have much dog training experience (she's good with horses though, and I keep pointing out that it's not that dissimilar), so she gets frustrated when Atlas behaves like a crazy puppy despite being 3 years old. She's not going to give up on him though, so even though it's a work in progress, I think they'll be okay in the long run.