Meet 23 German Shepherd Lab Mix Owners – The Realities of Sheprador Puppy Parenthood

• Meet the Sheprador families.
• Coat care, shedding and grooming.
• Behavior and training.
• Pros and cons of life with your German Shepherd Lab mix.

Watch out for bias

Before you dive into the highs and lows of the German Shepherd Lab mix, it’s good to remember to take these stories for what they are. Individual experiences. Although we can learn a lot about a breed from specific examples, surveys have an inherent bias. Participants are more likely to fill them out when they’ve had an extreme experience. So you are always going to get more responses from those who absolutely adore everything about the dog, or suffered through some challenges, than you will from those who were more neutral.

Meet the Shepradors!

Before we begin with the general trends from our reports, let’s get to know some of our Shepherd Lab mixes and their human companions.

Willow (owner Bev)

7 year old black female Willow is a brindle Shepherd Lab mix with markings on her legs. She looks more like a Labrador than a German Shepherd.

Willow is very excitable, especially when it’s time for walkies! She’s lovable, loves cuddles and will do anything for food! Although excited, she can be reactive if on lead. She wants to play with everyone, but not everyone wants to play with her! And gets angsty if she thinks another dog is trying to take her ball.

Pepper (owner Jeannette)

Pepper is a 7 year old black female Lab Shepherd mix. She resembles both dogs lab/shepard. She’s an active dog that bores easily.

Rocky

Male black and brown Rocky is 3 years old. He has the body of a Lab, but the coloring of a German Shepherd. Rocky loves to exercise and explore, is easily trainable and loyal. He is good with dogs, cats, and kids. He loves fetch and can play for hours.

He’s still a giant puppy and he tends to jump on people, so his owner keeps him away from smaller kids. He can also be anxious and has separation anxiety.

Sierra (owner Carolyn)

Sierra is 72% chocolate Lab and 28% German Shepherd. She’s a chocolate mahogany color, and high strung with tons of energy. She is very prey driven. Obsessed with birds and will chase planes across the yard. Anything that moves gets her attention.

Unleashed in fields she will usually want to play but her owner does not let her near smaller dogs that look like rabbits. Leashed she will bark and lunge, so is usually never walked on roads. People she wants to meet if they are just walking. If they are on a mountain bike or heaven forbid a dirt bike she will chase and try to stop it.

Roxy (owner Naomi)

Roxy is a 2 year old black female Shepherd Lab mix. She has ears like Dobby from Harry Potter. Not a floppy as a Lab’s, but not upright like a GSD’s. One picks up like a radar. She has a slightly bushier tail than a Lab. A longer snout like a GSD’s and almond shaped brown eyes.

Bentley

Bentley is all black with no markings. He looks like both parent breeds. He has a Lab body with Shepherd ears and stance. He is 2 years old.

He listens to everything and will follow through with commands. Intensely watches television. Lets you know when he wants something. No idea that he’s a dog. He barks at other dogs until he meets them then plays. People he ignores unless they interact first then he loves them.

Hollie (owner Vicky)

1 year old female Hollie is all black, with a small thumb size white dot on her chest. Hollie definitely takes after her chocolate Lab father. She does have a very slight neck ruffle and her ears sit slightly higher on her head, but they flop like her father’s and not stand upright like her mother.

Hollie is basically just a happy dog. She is extremely smart. She learns quickly and is highly food motivated. She’s been playing food rewards games since coming home at 8 weeksm and she learned to sit on a place for her kibble immediately. She is so bright and quick to learn her owner is constantly amazed.

At night time after dinner she is perfectly happy to just cuddle up on the couch and relax. She’s actually the perfect combination of high energy and adventure mixed with understanding how to be calm when the activity is over.

Tove

Tove is a female, black, 5 year old German Shepherd Lab mix. She is a playful, food-loving, kind-hearted, yet powerful dog who loves to be out in nature tracking and hunting.

Behavior on walks depends on the situation and who/whom she meets. First of all, it has become calmer with increasing age. The vast majority of meetings go smoothly and well. However, she seems to have a developed sense of whether there is any tension before the meeting, from those we meet, -or perhaps from me as a dog handler. In such situations, it is far more common for the meeting to devolve into dog barking and pulling on the leash. Especially if the oncoming dog starts barking first.

Milo (owner Nicola)

Milo is a male, golden colored Lab mix, who looks like a Labrador but with wonky ears. He is 19 months old.

Hyper is the main word used to describe him. Milo is very protective, barks when anyone comes to the door. He is very clever, wants affection constantly but is not food oriented. On walks with people ok but other dogs goes ballistic.

Buddy (owner Vera)

Buddy is a 2.5 year old male, black and tan. He has the Shepherd black saddle with the whole topside being darker. Buddy is smart and goofy at times, love bug and cuddler, but also protective and loves being with us at all times and loves car rides

This dog wants to go up and sniff, but doesn’t always want to be petted.

Buster (owner Elaine)

Buster is a 5 year old black, male. He looks more like his German Shepard mother.

He is fun loving. Loves the outdoors, enjoys playing with his ball and absolutely adores anything to do with water. He still acts like a puppy when he is out. Buster is very protective especially towards the children. He enjoys playing with other dogs but does like to be top dog.

Buster likes to have a sniff of other dogs. He plays with dogs on the beach and field. Although he lets people stroke him but is wary if people walk funny and he doesn’t like it if people stand still in front of us on walks. He is guarded if he doesn’t trust a person.

Athena (owner Floyd)

Athena is a 4 year old white female Sheprador. She’s a very calm dog but loves attention. She is very well behaved.

Finn (owner Bethany)

Seven month old black male Finn is black with brown German shepherd leg markings. He looks like a shepherd but with Labrador ears. Finn is a fun loving, affectionate, chaotic good boy. He always wants to play and say hello to everyone. Sometimes barks at dogs, but just to get their attention to say hello.

Common German Shepherd Lab Mix Personality Traits

Most German Shepherd Lab mix owners that we heard from described their dog as loving and energetic, but the results in general were surprisingly diverse.

Here were the top characteristics owners assigned to their pets:

• Loving
• Energetic
• Protective
• Likes to be together
• Exciteable
• Food lover

Other personality traits that came up fairly often for Shepradors included:

• Bouncy
• Keen to please
• Loves everyone
• Loves children
• Shy of strangers
• Anxious

There were some traits that came up a handful of times, including:

• Confident
• Relaxed
• Reactive
• Gentle
• Independent

Only a small handful of owners described their dogs as being calm, submissive, nervous, aggressive or nervous of children specifically.

We asked our owners – Does your dog’s coat need any special or regular care?

Most of our Shepherd Lab mixes were brushed at least once a week, and were high shedders. However, a couple of them had quite low maintenance coats.

Have you done much training with your German Shepherd Lab mix?

Most owners feel that their dogs are very trainable and intelligent. Basic commands were started early for most of the dogs that arrived as puppies, and understandably those that adopted older dogs experienced more challenges on this front. Several dogs had advanced training skills or activities including sniffer dog training, dock diving and even sled dog work.

Is your dog happy to be left home alone for a few hours, a few times a week?

Most of our Shepradors were happy to be left alone for a few hours, either crated or in the house with some sort of background noise. However, there were some incidences of separation anxiety that needed to be managed.

Looking at health

Most owners felt that their dogs were generally healthy. However a few things did crop up including ear infections, stomach upsets, ACL, knee, hip and shoulder problems.

Is there anything you find hard about life with your dog?

Very few dogs present no challenges at all to their owners, but most issues owners had with their pets in this survey round were pretty standard ones that could apply to owners of any breed or mix. Early morning wake ups, whining, barking,

Issues that could be more linked to one of the parent breeds included high prey drive, being an escape artist, restlessness, rough play and even over intelligence.

What do you love most about life with your dog?

When it comes to the highs or this mixed breed, the word loving came up a wonderful amount. Warmth, attentiveness, companionship and affection were very common themes.