Trek is 100 lbs and at age 2, he is in his absolute prime. He also is an intact male which means, for the uninformed, he still has his balls.
He is also as nice an example of the German dog as I have seen, but alas he is imperfect. He has a floating bone chip in his knee and it is a known genetic flaw. Breeders with less scruples, would use him for breeding, but we will not. Thus he will have the bone chip removed and while under for that surgery he will lose his balls.
We have also introduced a 6 month old fertile female to the pack. Trek has noticed and is behaving somewhat aggressively to the others in the pack.
We talk to our dogs much as we talk to anyone else and the conversations seem natural enough to us.
There - the stage is set.
While working in my office this morning, heard a commotion upstairs. As I climbed the stairs, I hear Herself say to Trek (and she had steel in her voice), ”you keep that up and I will wack the nuts off you right now”.
It seemed perfectly natural to quietly turn around and go back down the stairs.