I've loved and admired German Shepherds since I was a little girl. It´s always amazed me how such a powerful and intelligent breed can also be so loyal and gentle. As a child in Spain, my family always kept German Shepherds in their country house to guard and protect it. Therefore, the idea of one day having my own German Shepherd, when I had my own family, was always there.

It took a while though. I met my English husband in London, during my last year at uni and when we married I moved to London with him. We lived in the centre of town where flats were not suitable for a big dog, let alone a vivacious German Shepherd. Sadly, I had to put my dream of owning one on hold.


When we finally moved back to southern Spain in 2015 that dream came true. We had a house with a large patio, on the outskirts of town, with country lanes all around where we could take a dog for a walk – and the beach was just 15 minutes away by foot...

As my husband travelled often between England and Spain. my daughter and I were on our own for quite long periods of time. It therefore seemed the ideal time to get a GSD to join the family.

I was then working all day and didn’t have the time to train a puppy properly, so I decided to get an older dog instead. I did my research and found what I thought was a reputable breeder about 150 miles from were we lived. He had a two year old female for sale: off we went to meet her...

I should have seen the warning signs earlier when I saw Kenia on that first visit. She was not as friendly as I had expected but she was a beauty and had a very good pedigree. Therefore I just put her behaviour down to our being strangers in her house and, after spending a couple of hours with her, decided to take her on.

When we got home I settled her in the patio with food and water and gave her the time and space to become familiar with her surroundings. My first shock came when I went to check on her and she came at me quite aggressively. I knew enough about dogs to see that such behaviour wasn´t normal but I decided to give her the benefit of the doubt and be patient with her.

Over the next few days, bit by bit, she got better although I still wasn´t comfotable around her and always kept my guard up. Yet with lots of patience, love and hugs she seemed to come out of her shell and realized we loved her and wanted to be her “forever family“.

My husband Nicholas was working in London at the time and not being a ʺdog personʺ he was a bit wary of having such a big dog in the house. I told him there was nothing to worry about. Kenia was now more or less settled and she was showing how sweet and loyal she was. My teenage daughter Mila and I had been taking her for long walks to the beach and had showered her with love and toys. After a couple of nerve-wracking weeks she seemed happy in her new home.

Nicholas was now due back and I was really looking forward for him to meet the new member of our family. Little did I know what lay ahead...