USCA to develop a plan to improve the breed - Page 8

I don't know that there are throngs of people purposely NOT buying American bred dogs.  Maybe your top competitors, the big names in SchH, it seems most of them prefer a green or trained dog and that's just fine.  But most of "us", your average club-level GSD owner and SchH trainer are just looking for a DOG and aren't purposely ignoring American-bred dogs.  My GSDs have ALL been American bred.  Well, technically my current dog was conceived in Germany but the bitch was brought back there to be bred and he was born in the USA.  He just sired his first litter and the dam was also bred in the USA.  My other GSDs were also from US breeders, some of the parents were imports but some were also bred here.  A few of my SchH friends have imported a dog but these people all have additional dogs bred here and all my other SchH friends have American bred dogs, some even several generations of Am bred.

 

But, if top competitors are not using American bred breeding dogs than it will have an effect. What Chris posted is true about breeders purposively not using American bred dogs and going strictly to Importing. 

I would like to see more of an emphasis on the Universal Sieger type program and see more working dogs display the TYPE of the Showline dogs  (not the structure). Most of the top club dogs have no type (except one showline and he seems like he is doing ok in protection)! I was shocked!!! I thought the dogs were Mal crosses and even asked if one was a dutch shepherd. I have never seen a dutch shepherd but this WL dog didn't look quite purebred so I asked.

But, there are WL dogs that DO have type and there are SL dogs that CAN work! The best SL I have seen, locally, can REALLY work his dad was
ScH 3 and he is currently IPO 2. But, the owner says he doesn't do well in conformation as his back is too straight and not roach and he sits up higher on his strong (not floppy) hocks (though an astute judge saw through the current lack of showring look and did reward him with a V). Um....yeah, baby!!! Exactly! This SL stud has the beautiful type with gorgeous head (sorry- I am a total sucker for a pretty head), stunning coat, and rich color but more of a WL structure AND can actually work! Bingo! We have a winner folks!!!! Likewise, also on my potential stud list is a club member's dog who is pure WL but has a beautiful head, gorgeous coat, and is also V rated. BIngo again!!! Another winner! Both dogs are American bred and equal in my eyes in terms of quality and what they could offer the breed-regardless of pedigree..... Type. Structure. Health. Temperament. Working Ability. Check all the boxes to be a complete German Shepherd-BALANCE.

It would be VERY easy to improve the breed! In the Com and Kore just do the attack on the handler with power and proper technique, Do the long bite as traditionally done (also with power and technique) and add the 6 foot vertical wall. Major stumbling block fixed!.   

The cold hard facts are there isn't ANYTHING that is going to change anything other the people actually taking the time to get to know dogs.  Period.  Get off your ass, get off the internet, quit asking about this line and those lines and show and working and PSA vs. IPO or Ring vs. Whatever or who has these points or who has those points.  What dog placed here and this one got this rating from this judge.  None of it really matters, because when so much weight is placed on all that bull, it's easy to fool people.  Make up a new rating system, I don't care, and in a couple years everyone will be bitching about that because some will have found a way to screw it.  It's a tried and tested fact, set up a system, people will find a way to screw that system.  

Maybe if their wasn't such a subjective amount of bull used to rate dogs, people would actually take some time to get to learn about dogs rather than all the fluff?   In the end, until people care more, nobody is really going to care.  Most people I know not involved in ring or ipo with GSD's  dont' give 2  where there dog comes from.  they care about price and that it is a puppy.  What it turns into?  That is far down on the list of considerations.  

maybe if people got off their asses and trained dogs, and spent 20 years doing it before they bred their dogs, we'd have better ones.  And if you're breeding the dogs YOU want, who really gives a crap what anyone else says?  If you don't like my dogs, don't buy one.  and if you're going to try and sell me bull, you're going to have to find another sucker, because I don't buy bull.  

You can believe everyone I train with or hang out with, see's how I train and how I feel.  If it rubs off on them great, if not, they have to live with their decisions, not me.  Maybe I'm just one giant *******, who knows?  Those I get dogs from, I have gained trust over YEARS not a couple emails of fluff and a phone call about how great their dogs are.   I still don't know it all, but I know a lot more than I did.  I have to shake my head at a lot of people.  This one woman has a dog line bred on a "line" I have a female from.  My female and most of her siblings are what I consider high quality dogs, capable of anything.  I knew her mother and father.  I was fortunate enough to work all of them at some point.  

This other woman has a dog from different parents, same "lines", or at least one "big name" in the pedigree.  This Stud dog has 5 or 6 litters already.  This dog is ****.  It's ran out of a blind so many times, it has to be begged to come in.  It bites like a piano and doesn't even grip on a reattack.  It took months of work and jumping back to get it to engage.  The dog has crap for nerves, but it has "nice lines"  It's her first dog BTW and she no longer trains with any of us because she didn't like what we had to say.  We trained our asses off to get that dog to do what it needed to do, because what do we care?  The only thing I care about is people have fun with their dogs.  I can't make them be honest or honorable about the dog they have in front of them.  When told I absolutely would not consider that a dog worthy of breeding, and it never should, ,she did anyway.  Because now it had an IPO 1 and was found to be breed worthy :)  My opinion and that of the other 4 helpers involved in molding this thing into a passable dog for someone to have fun and learn with meant nothing at that point.  She just left.  and now is advertising and breeding her dog to whomever will let her.

What kind of system are you going to come up with to stop that?  Make the test tougher?  Those that actually test are already tougher.  Those that don't care, will just find other judges, other whatever and pay their money and come back with a titled dog "worthy" of breeding.  Set up a system, someone will find a way to screw it.

So my long winded rant comes down to this.  Get off your ass, train your dogs and don't stop learning.  YOU make the relationships, YOU gain the knowledge, YOU demand better from your breeders, YOU demand more from your dogs, YOU make the damn difference, not someone else and at the end of the day, be honest about what you have and what your experience is.   You're not an expert because you read about Falk lines on the internet or Maineiche, or Tom or anything else.  You're not an expert because you've been doing it like  for 30 years and you're not an expert because you got an IPO 1 title.  Be honest and work hard.  I guess that's what it takes in everything and the only person I can expect that out of is ME.  Can you do the same?
 

Zdog... 

So true...seeing dogs work with your own eyes and making a decision is paramount before all else.

@ zdog, Yes.