west german/czech mixes - Page 1

DO these dogs often take even longer to mature than reg czech dogs?

Not in my experience.

Most of my male Czech or Czech/German mixes are competent and strong at 2 years of age but don't hit their full strength and drives until 3 years.  The males are slower to mature and the females somewhat faster.  Depends more on their head (intelligence and experience) than their body most likely and I don't push my dogs to grow up too fast either physically or mentally.  I would say that my males peak and plateau at around 4 years which includes the composite of strength, experience, intelligence, endurance, and overall drives.  I'm not saying they can't get better at certain tasks after 4 years old but after 4 years any improvement is due to experience and intelligence and not much is due to improved strength or drives.

What about your females? When do they typically fully mature? I have a mostly Czech with a little west german and a tad bit of DDR female.

Females from my bloodlines mature a bit faster than males .. but in general 28-36 months.  My females are big and strong and can easily have pups at 18-20 months but they do not reach physical and mental maturity much faster than males.  My female GSD are better mothers and recover faster from birth as they reach maturity.  Most female humans given good nutrition and environment can give birth at 16 years without problems but they are not really mentally ready for motherhood before 20-25 years of age.  The ability of the female to give birth, recover, and be a good nurturing mother is better as they reach physical and mental maturity.

mine took so long to mature, the more serious aggression gets stronger and stronger as she ages at 4 now, I thought it may have been from the mixing of all sorts of lines.


Why do people mix them so much now? Does west german bring something good to czech dogs work wise?

I think it is that the Czech dogs are rougher and tougher in general but not so pretty to look at as the more refined German lines ( maybe it is time to forget west and east after 23 years since the wall fell ).  So the Czech dogs perhaps bring some more determined biting and protection qualities ( they were primarily guard and police dogs before the wall fell ) that the Germans had bred away from in some lines in order to sell their dogs to foreigners ( show and also work lines ) and satisfy the political realities of German life.  Now that the Czech lines have had 23 years of interbreeding with German and other European lines they too have become more refined and less rough and tough in many cases.  It is not so easy to find a pure Czech bloodline dog as it once was.  It is also to be noted that the German Shepherd in Germany can go anywhere that their humans wish to take them (unless the laws have changed).  When I was in Germany around 2000 it was common to see the GSD with their owners in a restaurant or a doctor's office.  Germany is a densely populated country with a density like China.  Dogs and humans must exist in some very close quarters in Germany so a dog must be well trained and with good genetics to live in this human ant hill.  I lived in Germany for 4 years and never saw a stray cat or a stray dog.  So a GSD in Germany had a lot more selection pressure put on them for cooperative temperament and less for aggressive tendencies.

makes sense i met a couple of border patrol line biitches I was expecting them to be monsters in protection but they had so much fear.


Are the slovakians just like the czech try to breed tougher more serious aggressive dogs? since it is a lot of open country and not so conjested? Maybe even a more violent place?

Generalizations are just that about GSD from one country or one bloodline.  Great breeders of the GSD in many countries but breeding for different traits.  Each breeder has his/her own agenda and ideal GSD in mind whether Czech or German.  Prior to 1990 and the fall of the wall the government and the poor economy in the then combined Czech and Slovak republics controlled breeding of the GSD to a major extent and pushed for dogs used more for police and guard work.  After the fall of the wall the government kennels eventually fell into private hands.  Many Czech/Slovak dogs were exported as money was short and the people of these nations were poor and needed foreign exchange.  Some of the breeders changed their standards to satisfy the export of the GSD to other nations and to make more money after the wall fell.  Some breeders changed their breeding goals to meet the new reality of life in the Slovak and Czech republic.  The German people and the GSD breeders went through a very tough time for 30 years after WWII and the GSD changed to meet the new reality the German's faced as both a people and as GSD breeders.  In Germany and in the now separate Czech and Slovak Republics there are still breeders who breed more like the old style GSD of 1955 or 1980 and there are those who have changed to a "new but not necessarily better" modern style of GSD they breed for 2013.  It is up to the buyer and the admirer of the GSD to decide which is better for them.  The breeder can steer the ship but the buyer is the wind which fills the sails. It is much easier to go with the wind than against it when it blows in one directions for many years.

BubbaB
"In Germany and in the now separate Czech and Slovak Republics there are still breeders who breed more like the old style GSD of 1955 or 1980"...which are these kennels. Thanks