Can you turn around a BYB dog? - Page 2

My concerns with this beauty is the background and history of the hips and elbows; HD comes up and hits hard when you least expect it as do elbows. You do not want to produce and litter of HD/ED positive puppies that are going to suffer with this all their lives and NO you cannot fix either even with surgery. Have you been able to evaluate any littermates of this dog or sire/dam? There are a lot of dogs in his background that have not even been x-rayed or at least no results are posted. If this is the case I would pass on breeding him at all even if his x-rays look OK. You only want to breed dogs that have x-rayed with at least good hips on both sides and even with sire/dam with good hips still can and will produce an occasional bad set of hips/elbows. And usually people blame the sire, no matter who genetically is at fault.

I would find someone that can help you with evaluating your dog and his working abilities; what will he excel at and what does he love; you say he is not a working dog but that is a broad statement, surely you can find something he enjoys doing, maybe try herding. I don't think his conformation is good enough to compete in the ring but what about agility, nose work, basic obedience, the list goes on and on. Best of luck. and I would join your favorite working club or local Kennel Club nearest you. Nan

I don't know you or how long you've been researching dogs and in particular the German Shepherd Dog but I know when I first got interested in the breed I didn't even think about breeding...I bought a dog of which I wanted to learn to train...and thru the years I've learned a lot of training and also kept an eye on what makes a good dog...How do breeders choose dogs to breed and what bloodlines and personalities go good together to produce what I wanted in a dog for myself...
I have learned from a lot of good people in the U.S. but I also now get to travel overseas and learn from those people who have also taught me so much about Training but have shown me what to breed...
But things that are very hard to learn here in the U.S. is what are some of these "great" dogs like...I mean how are their personalities and their working ability along with what bloodlines go together for breeding purposes...
It's been a long trip but a fun one which I wouldn't have missed for the world...
If you have the right outlook the trip will be fun and you will find many fine people...
Good Luck...

~Bob~

I’m old school, and look at breeding differently than most here. I know many reputable ( in public’s eye) breeders that I consider BYB. Whether or not you should breed that dog depends on what you know about the dog and more importantly who is the other dog and do they compliment him/her.
You will get recessive faults out of all lines, and many are the times that breeders breeding by the numbers are actually intensifying recessive faults in the name of beauty, drive, big heads, black sable color( or black/red), or structure like angulation. Your dog may well be a good complement for an overly linebred dog, depending on the strengths/weaknesses of the linebreeding....in bringing the pups back to the middle.
People always throw out the bad,  that would come out of a dog like yours, usually under unknown recessives....well all breedings are going to have/produce unknown recessive, if the litter is of fair size, but reputable breeders are given a pass because they are reputable. In some cases that’s fair, in others ( like SL temperament) they continue to breed reputable (same/bad) genetics to ensure the temperament doesn’t improve....but they are not BYB to most.
Either way, you should train, enjoy, and love your dog, and maybe have of the good fortune of having a mentor who works with your dog and you to better advise you.