On August 31, 2006, there were two dogs at the animal shelter that our family was interested in. We didn’t want an older dog or a male dog. Both dogs were 15 months old and males.

As we were visiting a tri-color Australian shepherd mix, the other German shepherd was being adopted. Well, what a blessing that was. Our dog, now named Derby, has been a joy.

He was very underweight at 29 pounds, and is now 52 pounds. He is beautiful and very loyal. He was already housetrained but had bad nipping issues. We had to train him the first two weeks because he thought he could dominate our seven year old daughter. Now she can lay on him and kiss him.

Derby loves to run, run, and run. What a great partner, Derby is the man of the house and alerts us of any noise. All our neighbors love him and we couldn’t imagine life without him. Everybody who sees Derby says what a beautiful dog he is. We are so glad that we didn’t pass him up because he was a male dog and older.

The Lovchik Family