It would be a good idea to give him "hip and joint" dog biscuits, or some supplemental glucosamine. I say this because this will help with him having hip problems later in his life. FYI you should get his hips x-rayed around 2 years and they should be able to tell you if you will have hip displacia (sp?), to fix the hip problem usually cost around $5k. You should love the dog enough by then that you will not blink a friggin eye at the 5k to fix him(you wouldnt have your kid put down if it needed an enxpensive operation, right). My German shephard has had its hips checked out and everything looked OK. Keep him sort of light weight and this will also help, dont starve the poor thing but just dont let it get porky. If you have any questions pertaining to German shephards in particular please feel free to ask me anything.

Randy