What is a good age to breed your German Shepherd? - Page 2

Thank you all for your responses and I will make sure that her hips and elbows are tested. I also would like to experience raising puppies but I understand I have to do a lot of hard work is I want the puppies in all good homes. My breeder said he can help me advertise the puppies once at a good age since he is a local known breeder. This will be a one time thing and he said once she's of age, he will give me a few of his studs pedigree, and I can pick from there. He was not going to sell her but she got out and ran up to me and I was instantly in love with her friendly and loving personality. He then made the deal. Thanks again everyone ~Ashley

Titles have nothing to do with breeding. The ssdd from the ipo fools. The best time to breed your female is when she is in heat after 18 months to two years. Since she only comes into heat roughly twice per year you don't need to worry about when after 18 months but you do need to find a sire before you need one. You need to consider her bloodlines and what your strategy is .. do you want pups just like her .. a little more aggressive or more mellow. Hips and elbows can be done if you think she has problems or shows signs of skeletal problems. Skeletal problems are often caused by environment not genetics. What type of pups your female produces will depend 60% on her and 40% on the sire. How those pups develop and grow after birth will depend 100% on environment.
Most of the people giving advice on this forum buy their puppies and none have raised a complete litter to adulthood. I would do what I want but get ready and it will be a hard and long road. Leerburg has a dvd on whelping puppies that is better than anything on this forum. Be aware that females and puppies can and do die during birth and during the first month after birth without proper care and nutrition. Before you breed consider costs, logistics, and risks of losing your female or her pups. Both you apparently and your female are rookies to whelping and raising puppies. Do your homework. Don't expect anyone on this forum to help you or your female at 3 am when you are not sure if she is having problems. There are hard and heartbreaking choices that often must be made. If you aren't prepared to spend minimum $ 2000 on stud fees and veterinarian expenses don't go there.

OP, don´t believe this nonsense.

First of all most HD/ED problems aren´t visible in a young dog/ young adult, so the only way to be sure are x-rays.
Skeleton problems are hereditary and environmental, that said you should rule out any affected dog ( there are enough healthy GSDs out there ).

How pups develop and grow after birth will depend 100% on environment ? Genetics are useless? Science is nonsense?
Way to go, Bubba...why even care about genetics when it´s that easy...

"Titles" may not change a dog, but while training you will reckognize the advantages and disadvantages of your dog, the "title" is the result of training.

We are talking about a working dog breed, not about a pet breed.
But why care at all? There are buyers willing to pay good bucks for bad dogs everywhere...

Sorry, Ashhur, statements of this kind drive me crazy - just do the best for you and your dog.

If you do have your female neutered don't have a hysterectomy type neuter as that WILL cause skeletal problems and things such as ACL ruptures. Have a tubular ligation ( tubule ligation ) type neuter done so that she can't have pups but keeps her female hormones. The tubule ligation is easier on the female, causes less trauma, and faster recovery. If skeletal problems are primarily inherited then show me the data. It is all correlation bs from the ofa and veterinIarians that makes money from doing xrays. Nobody can show me the heritability of hips because there is no proven heritability and as any scientist knows correlation is not causation . Ask your breeder about hips and elbows and don't spend $400 on useless xrays.  A puppy is born with a genetic code that has been affected by environment since before conception ( yes evironment can change the rna and dna of offspring )  After birth the code is only influenced and altered by environment.  You can't change the dna and rna the puppy has other than through environment or spontaneous mutation.

Bubba: "You can't change the dna ..."
You can´t? Now I am really disappointed.

Like bubba wisely said - "Do your homework" - in the best case join a club where you are able to see a lot of different dogs out of different lines.

Read and quote the entire sentence. You can't change the dna and rna a puppy has except through environment or spontaneous mutation. The environment 100 % controls the expression of dna and rna from conception to death of an individual puppy or human.

Most clubs are a bunch of people who agree with themselves and have similar type dogs .. a mutual admiration society. Want a title .. do AKC good citizen .. better than most titles for breeding a good GSD ... the IPO clubs need a reason to exist .. that's all and titles are it not breeding better GSD.

I agree by the time you get done titling your dog you will be able to know that dog very well. It's not just the test that is important but your understanding of the dog. There is plenty of titled nerve bags out there that should not be mated.