Reading GSD Pedigree - Page 1

Hello,
I am trying to figure out what line my German Shepherd is from. West German, Czech etc.
He is US (AKC) along with his parents, the Sir’s line has some German while the Dam’s have quite a bit of German.
If someone could please help me read his pedigree or tell me something about his lines.
That would be awesome!!

Also, I thought Von is used with Sir’s while Vom is used with Dam’s. I see on his Sir’s side a mix up of the two. If someone could please elaborate on this.
Thank you!!

My dogs name is Swagger Stotts

Here is a link to his Pedigree: 

https://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=3157592-swagger-stotts?_v=20220822171146

I took a quick look at your dog's pedigree and it's mostly West German Working Lines...Some very nice dogs in the pedigree...SZ is the West German Registration...

~Bob~

Hello, Q Man thank you very much!!

So, I have another question regarding Pedigree!
I have another GSD whom is a Sable. His pedigree is very poor until you go 6-7 generations back… now I am seeing a lot of titles in IGP etc. I am also seeing a few Championships, world championships etc.

There’s DDR, SV, Netherlands, Czech, Slovakia, BUT then I see LOSH which I looked up & says it’s Belgian registry, this dog even took a Belgian championship title… Could my German Shepherd have Belgian in him??
Is this normal, possible? Wouldn’t that throw his whole pedigree off & not make him pure?

PLEASE HELP

His pedigree name is: Stotts’ Sable
Skip to 6-7 Gen.
You’ll see what I’m talking about.

Every country has its own registry for purebred dogs. (Okay, some countries have more than one, but let's not confuse the issue.)The abbreviation for the Belgian registry is, as you said, LOSH. It does NOT mean that dog was a Belgian malinois, just that it was a German shepherd born and registered in Belgium! 

If you used this same logic on the dogs born in the Netherlands, that would make your dog part Dutch shepherd, too!  :D

Thank you for clearing that up, Sunsliver!

People who are looking at and trying to decipher pedigrees make the natural mistake that just because a dog is registered in a certain country's registry that that dog must be from that country...I have dogs from Germany and the Czech Republic but are also registered with the AKC but that doesn't make them American...
The registry that the dog is registered in is a good clue to what the dog is but it's certainly not the only thing to know...It's much harder to know what bloodlines a dog has...This takes experience and having studied many pedigrees...
The PDB is a good place to not only look-up and study many dogs and pedigrees but a great opportunity to ask questions...there are many people here who have experience and are willing to help...Just never feel bad to ask questions...We all started at the beginning and learn as we go...

~Bob~

I'm mostly a WGSL guy, but I owned a male that had literally everything in his pedigree, so I learned DDR and Cz lines... Looks like a reasonably nice WGWL pedigree. You find some interesting ancestry 3 generations back. Von der Salztal-Höhe, vom Kraftwerk and Wolfensheim hint at some quality. In Generation 5, Aron v Popitz some Stadtfelt, Lupo Nero and Grafental lines are also encouraging. Without getting into speciffic dogs, these are breeders who bred with an objective in mind, so, generally, their dogs bring something to the breeding shed. Not that the owner breeder had a plan, but it helps to have better ingredients. The maternal tail line seems a bit unremarkable until you get beyong 7 generations and Orry, Tino and Yoshi show up. Another concern is that your pup's parents were both born in 2020... That is ALWAYS a red flag. Parents were probably too young for proper health checks...

As for bloodline, he seems to go way back to Alf Nordfelsen... I would probably consider him more DDR than WGWL.

My advice, join a SchH club, train and develop him to see if he is "breed worthy".

Best of luck.

Genetics is a very important factor in a dog's ability to do things...The other half is what you do with him/her and they prove out their pedigree or not...

~Bob~