Breeding german shepherd questions - Page 1

I want to become a german shepherd breeder. I have been spending months studing the breed and I am going to the library getting different books. I would like to specialize on the west german line. At this moment I have a german shepherd but he is of american line. I just requested his DNA and i will O.F.A certify him in december. He is a beatiful solid black.  If he comes good on his O.F.A, I will start doing his pre-screening for breeding.  After that I want to purchase a good female that has a better pedegree than mine but of west german line. My question is can I breed the 2 lines and than breed the new generation to another west german line and so on? If I have a female in the house with the male, how can I control how many times they can breed. I am scared that she will just get pregnant all the time and i do not want that. My other question is the female cannot breed until she is OFA certified, right? So I need to wait until she is 2 years old. Please help.

BATTEN DOWN THE HATCHES!!!!!!!

Adefilippo, if you seriously would like to become a breeder of GSD. Get a mentor. Someone who can walk you through the process and can help you when you are struggling.  It is probably best to get the best bitch you can afford and then breed her to the best male you can get to.  Just OFA is not enough.  There are thousands of "pet" quality GSD out there.   At this point it does not sound like your male is breeding quality just being black and pretty is not enough. Who would you sell the puppies too? It is hard enough to sell VA rated Sch 3 sired pups .  Just things to think about.  It is the reason I buy dogs and not breed them.  Not trying to be negative.

Why do you want to be a breeder when there are so many already out there?  Hope you don't want to go in it for the money.

LOL@ Bazza!

I must admire you adefilippo for not just buying two dogs and sticking them together. You are researching and asking questions...and doing health screening..  Kudos!
As you know, there are quite a few different types of GSD's out there, and obviously all of us here on this board do not prefer the same type! Would I do your breeding?  Honestly no, I wouldn't.  If you think the WG lines are the best, why not find two great examples of the GSD in those lines, and after health testing them, consider breeding. 

Hopefully you have buyers for the pups lined up, and you are prepared to take the dogs back at a later date if it doesn't work out for the buyer. :)

ggturner, everyone who breeds unless they only breed enough to fill their own quota breeds for the money me thinks!

If your determined to breed then you should find the best west german working female you can possibly find both in pedigree and in temperment, she should be sound in body also, many do not breed till 2 years old but at min she should pass her prelims you can do that with ofa after a year old, or you can get an SV a stamp on her also done after a year old, its preffered that she can have a working title also,I would not rec breeding her to an american line male for several reasons even if his temperment, health, bones, etc are top notch,to secure your female when in heat you need chainlink on top and cement on the bottom

I to aim to breed GSD.  I have a really great dog gsd, I have trained her to find missing cell phones when it is ringing.  My neighbor has a gsd as well, 140 lbs.  This well be a great breeding.  Pups will be a good adition to anyones breeding program.

Some of you give me really good advice and I am really thanfull but I do not appreciate people that criticize thinking I wanted to do it for money. If I was doing it for money I will do something else. If you are against breeding you should not be answering my question.

Why else would you want to do it other than money.  I am not against breeding ----- but one has to ask? did you just wake up one day and said hey "I want to improve the GSD".  So you started researching a few months ago? You said OH MY GOD! -There is a problem with certain lines and if I do "x" this will help it?    ..Why don't you tell us how you want to better the breed?  Is that what you think that you can do?  

I don't mean no disrespect - but based on your last post - you stated you aren't doing for money - so what exactly are your plans on breeding a and b together to get a better GSD?   You don't even know who your dogs is?  Why would you have a dog that you are planning on breeding and you have to get his DNA?   I am unclear on this?   Again, I mean no disrespect....   Do you have his pedigree so we might see it?  He is American line?  What will you do if you OFA him and he comes back HD?  Is your goal that you have a great dog and you want to reproduce him? is this why you wanted to get in to breeding?

Everyone has a motive in why the are breeding - usually it is because they have a great dog and think they want to reproduce him...  I don't understand why you would wait up a couple of months ago and say "hey" I am not interested in any money - but I want to breed dogs...............What would be the motive?   What will be your blue print that you have laid out to better the breed if your motive isn't money....................

YogieBear

I sold a quality female puppy to a person who later wanted to breed her after she matured and she  had passed her hips and elbows, I tried to discourage him and gave him a lecture on everything that COULD go wrong but He still wanted to breed her, I helped him with a choice of stud to enhance her already good qualities and gave him a great deal of good advice of which he took very little on board.
Pregnancy all went well until whelping, she delivered first pup ok, next was still born, next became stuck and she required a 12 am emergency Caesar, she had 7 puppies but ended up with 3 live.
He later allowed the puppies to run with the other family dogs including a Malamute and Jack Russell Terrier when they were only 4 weeks old he then lost another through a spinal chord injury after getting barreled by one of the other dogs. This person then cried to me about he was still $3000. in the red after selling the 2 puppies.

I gave him a DUTY OF CARE lecture and an offered to buy the female back which he politely turned down.

So my advice to you is give it a whole lot of thought and also to obtain the best female that you can afford and then put her to the best stud you can afford, not just use the dog you have  because he is available.

I also have an excellent six year old male in my yard but he is too large and will never be used at stud.