I am a police canine handler/trainer and had a 6 year old German Shepherd, my partner, go through that surgery. It was the hardest thing in the world for me to see him try to recover from and he was never really right again. He went thru a lot of pain and had knee problems for the remainder of his time. With that said, it was worth it to have my partner around for a while longer. Problem is, as I was told by the orthapedic specialist, ACL tears in dogs result in very rapid onset arthritis so your damned if you do and damned if you don't.
I suppose that, as long as you don't expect the kind of thing that we do out of our working dogs, you won't be disappointed in his being a bit gimpy. My philosophy is that I will try to do everything I can to keep my partners alive and well, but will also not expose them to unneeded pain and suffering if there is no hope for a good life.
Finally, I had to walk my guy a minimum of 1 mile, three times a day, rain or shine. His surgery was in December, so I walked many a mile in snow and freezing rain, in Missouri weather. The walks were slow until he got to a point that we could speed him up. Made for some miserable conditions. Again, weigh the worth of your buddy, but be realistic. Tough call...
