Breeding SL/WL - Page 2

GSDNewbie - a mere title is no proof of quality! Most females "only" have SchH1 because they have to fit a breeding carreer into their already busy training, trialing and show schedule. You cannot have a female drop a litter of pups and do the next title a few weeks later, or a Sieger Show for that matter. By deciding to breed a female you have then just taken several steps back in training and with some dogs its like starting over. Hence also the reason why more females are weaker in the bitework, because they may have just not had the time on the training field. Most definitely lack the routine and exposure the males get. Females are also much more prone to hormonal changes than the males are. I dabbled in some sighthound sport in my early 20s and it is a proven fact that females will not perform well, or perform at all in the 3 months following a heat. It is very apparent with females on a track or during a lure course. Females that are Champion performers will be much slower or actually suddenly stop running during that time. The cycles affect performance greatly. Just having had a litter will too. Comments like that are very ignorant and very unfair to the females. Also, many strong females never get the attention they deserve because they may not fetch as high a show ranking. Unfortunately, few people can see past the big wins, or totally insignificant things like colour (a good dog has no colour, just because one likes red rather than yellow or tan will limit the access on has to quality). There are sooooooo many excellent dogs in Germany and other places that hardly get used or even noticed because they are lacking the PR or some of the currently popular traits. Breeding is not and has never been A+B=AB. And the stud fees go to the stud dog owner, the female owners never see a benefit by going elsewhere, other than being able to sell their pups maybe a bit better. I also want to see many different qualities than just strong bite work in a breeding female. A breeder learns over time what is important. You cannot tell someone, you need to learn about this yourself. People here often also tend to forget that the GSD is a versatile dog and a herding title or SAR title for example which do NOT require ANY bite work are also officially accepted to fullfill the SV requirements for breeding, not just the SchH title... Sox - not all WL pups will be suitable for work, and how they are raised will greatly affect their working ability later in life. WL pups are routinely placed in pet homes. Just as SL dogs do work as K9s. I am not saying can, many do! Rescues come from improper placement of the individual dog, not because of the lines behind it. The mixed lines are not as popular with puppy buyers because a WL puppy buyer wants a sure thing and is usually prejudice against the SL, and the SL buyer also wants a sure thing, and he knows that part garden bench will just not do much for the show ring. Brittany and Rajiv - There are benefits as well as disadvantages to outcross breedings, as the SL x WL crosses are. A more unpredictable result is a clear disadvantage as the breeding, as well as possible lack of compatibility of the lines. Going wide also brings benefits, that usually do not show up until follow up generations. Outcross breedings belong to a breeding plan, not just in producing one litter.