Monday, December 17, 2007

The Next Generations

The purpose of any hobby breeder (meaning non commercial and in it for the betterment of the breed) is to perpetuate your own bloodline of choice. Those who have your kennel name on them and to show them and hopefully do well in the show circuit. Realistically this is a tough long road and many people with good intentions, lack the stamina and the money to do so. Therefore, they try to offset the cost of this with selling some of the pups.
There is not one litter wherein all pups are good enough for breeding, no matter what the breed. IF you're lucky, out of a litter of 10 you have 2 or 3 which will qualify to IMPROVE the breed in any of the following ways, but rarely in ALL of these requirements:
Health
Conformation
Character

Health is extremely important, naturally. In a German Shepherd dog, the joints are always nr 1. Today, the German SV requires all pink papered dogs to get hip/elbow approval for breeding.

Conformation: This is important because it usually pertains to what the dog was bred to do.
Hunting, Herding, Swimming and such.
In the GSD it is connected to the athletic workability, stamina. Therefor, structurally they must be of the standard.
The cosmetics, such as color, eye, coats (long or stock coated) teeth, are important but secondary.

Character: in a GSD the dog for breeding must be confident, character outgoing and strong and have courage.
Be a trainable dog. If a dog has weak nerves, this dog will pass this on in some of the pups, especially if its the dam who raises them.

Schutzhund therefor is building a GSDs resume. This is the German's three phase sport for protection, training and tracking which all dogs have to pass. In addition, the dogs for breeding must be hip/elbow approved, DNA registered, and Critiqued by a judge. This is called the Körung.

In short, a lot of money and time is invested in these dogs. The German Shepherd dog is still the most demanding breed for any breeder to be in IF IT IS DONE RIGHT.