The Complete German Shepherd - Page 1

Recently I have seen several posts mentioning Showlines and working abilty, or lack thereof. I have decided to introduce a particular Working Line dog into my breeding. I "hope" to keep at least one female back for myself to train title and breed etc. I believe and hope that this will help me to improve the drives, working abilty, and all around character of my own lines. I am very very excited about the possibilities! I want to attain the ONE total GSD of yore. :-) not exreme in conformation or drive, but BALANCED and solid. I would love to hear others' thoughts on this subject. I know some people have done this already and would love for this trend to grow and continue. I believe this could be the road to the previous "type" that so many of us want. Please share you thoughts, positive and negative, and experiences if you have any. Theresa

Please, don't listen to the ignorant people that say that,probably is because they only buy from the wrong breeders and cheap dogs. Time and again,I had my showlines do better that working lines. Having said that,your vision is good,hope it works, but again,you will have people critize what you are trying to achieve, so be strong. I am taking my new stud, Jano Von Groß-Zunder Sch3,kkl1 to the USA Sieger show,looking forward to compete against those bad conformation, kkl2 , hyper ,aggressive , ugly colors, oversize working lines ( sorry, tired of the continuous trash some people talk unfairly, about showlines ). Good luck

"to the USA Sieger show,looking forward to compete against those bad conformation, kkl2 , hyper ,aggressive , ugly colors, oversize working lines"

--- call me crazy but I attended the USA Sieger last year as a spectator and saw maybe one or two working lines?  


To the OP:  I'm really excited about your vision.  It seems like more and more people are trying to get away from the extremes at both ends and get back to a more balanced, stable, middle of the road total GSD.  Keep us posted.  

I'm with Emoore. 

I love the look of the showlines, but from what I've seen (granted, in videos), I wouldn't want to own one. A lot of them seem like drive-less nerve bags. 

I also like the look of working lines (prefer show lines, though), and absolutely love what I have seen from them. 

I hate that I'm basically stuck between choosing one or the other because they're on opposite sides of their own spectrums. *Sigh* Either get a pretty dog, or get a dog with work ethic. 
It'd be nice to be able to find a dog from either line that I like everything out of. Looks, working ability, temperament, nerve.... 

Thank you both. I am very excited about this. :-) JDiaz, I am not a believer that SLs are all crap at all. I have only ever had SLs, and I believe that I have a very balanced SL male right now. My hope is to improve the type I have. Theresa

Sheesh, so do you have German show lines now?  and will be breeding to a working line dog?  Want to share the pedigrees? 

Good luck!
Valerie

'ugly colors'....seriously....

What real working dog person cares about colors? (unless it is some type of dilution, harmful to genetics)

Too many people worried about looks, looks, looks....

I see the perfect dog as a great working dog. Who cares what it looks like, as long as the dog is healthy and can hold up physically?

I agree with Kelly... personally I think the working lines are much prettier than the showlines, both color and (in a lot of cases) conformation.

Good luck!! Hope you keep us updated on how things turn out (and post plenty of puppy pictures!!)!

“No good dog is a bad color” - Max von Stephanitz   

"Nobility has nothing to do with mere external beauty. Real beauty consists in the perfect utility of its body. Nobility of build...guarantees the highest efficiency with the lowest consumption of energy." — Max von Stephanitz 


Merry Christmas, Happy Holidays and Healthy New Year to you all.
    

@jdiaz1971....take your dog to a regional or National Sch trial and outperform the working dogs and you will really make your point. The Seiger show is not a good venue (as I have been told on this forum many times) to assess and compare working qualities. The bar is too low for passing.( Not bashing individual dogs, I just want your dog to get his due, so he has to do it in the right place).
@Sheesh....if you have a nice female and plan to breed her ...then find the right dog that strengthens her weaknesses and maintains her strengths...REGARDLESS OF LINES. Lines should have nothing to do with it.....you want good sound dogs with good structure and good temperament, and gentic diversity that allows the resulting pups to have balance for future use in working and breeding.