Giant Schnauzer Rescue

by Jenn
(Grand Rapids, MI )

Our dog search started out about a year ago. We wanted a non-shedding dog that was also a good guard dog.
We started looking at the breeds and narrowed it down to a few, but kept coming back to the Giant Schnauzer. We looked for a long time at breeders (most of whom would not sell to us because we hadn't owned one before) and rescues.
Most of the dogs we found at rescues were either too aggressive or too old with medical issues. About a week before my birthday this year, I just happened to find a Giant Schnauzer on PetFinder. We contacted the rescue and found out that this was an 18-month-old female Giant who was in a foster home.
Her owners apparently said that she had gotten too big and too energetic. My first thought was.... Its a GIANT didn't you expect her to get huge?....!!!
We had been talking to the foster for about a week and we had put in an application. Apparently they lost it and we found out that there was another applicant that had also been approved. I re-sent the application and we started the waiting. Mind you - on a dog that we had not met!
We got the call that we had been approved and about a day later got the email that we had been chosen to have her. That weekend we drove 3 hours to meet our Giant Schnauzer.
The first encounter was.... interesting. She had my son cornered in about 2 seconds. She was hyper, jumping and nipping. We took her out of the house for a brief walk and there was just something that I saw in her face that made me want her.
So... we took her home. We've only had her for 5 days and she is already a different dog. Behaviorally she had almost done a 180 and is getting better. We are still struggling with the nipping and the jumping, but the jumping is almost under control.
She's overweight and HUGE so when she jumps she can and will knock you over so we've really tried to reinforce the no jumping on people rule.
I've started a blog myself about the whole experience with our new giant Schnauzer - http://mieshkagiant.blogspot.com and we are looking for ANY input on training for her. My husband runs with her almost daily and from the way shes walking, she hasnt been run before... she's sore. She does 4 miles very well and still wants to play at night.
Shes learning how to be in a crate and has had no "accidents" in the house so we've been really lucky.