STRAIGHT BACKED, OLD STYLE GSD BREEDERS???? - Page 5

That's my "only"point . Nothing old fashioned about it.
Just "properly bred". Regardless of which lines.
In regards to the oversized, I can't believe that I am the only one, that despite my best efforts to breed to standard, on occassion, a pretty good "oversized"dog emerges.
Seven within the standard, and than one or two oversize, how often is that the issue?

"I remember there was a thread on here about Patchwork that got very nasty, though I forget the details as to what the problem was with their dogs."

Yeah that was the thread where a heartbroken guy had his fancy West German showlines six month old puppy drop dead probably from a cardiac arrhythmia. His other puppy was heartbroken too. The breeder treated him like he was a dog turd on her shoe when he told her about his dead puppy. He then let PDB know how happy he and the other puppy were when he got a beautiful GSD pup from Patchwork. A bunch of PDB folks kicked the snot out of him because he didn't get his new puppy from a fancy breeder.. They got so ugly the thread was locked. It wasn't a problem with Patchwork or their dogs. It was a problem with some PDB folks acting like barbarians.
 
Someone else posted about two Patchwork pups with medical problems. The breeder retired the stud that was causing the problems and honored her guarantee. Starrchar had a great post on this:


by starrchar on 07 November 2012 - 13:17

"I went to this breeder's website and found that she has a written response to the above accusations. She claims she has retired the sire of your pup with HD because he produced HD with three different dams. She is not repeating the breeding of the pair that produced your pup with ED and SAS. She also claims to have offered you a third pup, but I can certainly understand why you wouldn't want to take it. 

It seems this breeder screens all of her breeding dogs for HD and ED which I verified on the OFA website. It is true that some of her dogs are oversized and most of her dogs have no titles, but the problems with your pups could've just as easily shown up in pups of titled, average sized parents. As much as I feel awful about what you are going through I don't see where this breeder did anything terribly wrong. To expect a breeder to help you with medical costs is unrealistic. It is so rare that a breeder will do that."  


If you want to reduce the risk of medical problems, get an adult from a really honest breeder. Puppies are always a crapshoot. If you get a pup, stay away from combinations that haven’t been bred before. Even when the parents have great hips, elbows, whatever, some of the pups might still have problems.
 
Patchwork and Royalair do produce big dogs (so do Shiloh breeders) which I don't think is the greatest idea because bigger dogs tend not to live as long. Still I would take one of their pups over a showlines pup any day. But Eurosport K9 would be my first choice. They even post the hip and elbow X rays of their dogs for sale on their website.
 

Thank you everyone.  I'm not looking for "giant" or "oversized" by any means.  Just a wonderfully, healthy GSD.  I'm just now starting my research.  It might take me a while before finding the right match, but I'm sure in time I will.  My husband and I have talked at great length about a rescue - as we've met so many wonderful GSD's that were rescued.  That just may be an option, certainly so if we're not looking to show or do Schutzhund.

It's so true that a quality breeder can have a wonderful litter and out pops a "giant" - I don't think anyone discounts them because of that, even thought it's not breed standard ;-)  And . . . whom ever may take that puppy home will love it no matter what.  That's all that truly matters!

I personally feel we all love our GSD's with a passion beyond measure - whether show or working lines, American bred, German bred or otherwise.  It's not necessarily about breed standard or how well they do in the ring or out working - it's about how much we love our individual dogs and what they bring to our lives.  And (as I say above) truly, that's all that really matters - whether pure bred dogs or mutts, it's just about the kind of unconditional love they give us.  We take pride in that as their owners.

Best to you all and I'll continue to research and be careful with that research.

Thanks again everyone and take care to you all.

I think "fancy" showline breeders produce as many healthy dogs as do workingline breeders.The breed as a whole is not the healthiest  and sudden cardiac deaths are not limited to specific lines.

Kitkat, size is hard to breed true in any breed. That why there are 13" beagles and 15" beagles. My first GSD was way oversized, his sire and dam both standard. Happens all the time.

I would look at shelters or rescues. There's a lot of really good dogs that are out there needing homes, especially if you're just looking for a family companion. Not to say that show or working line shepherds can't be companions. Mine are. And my workingline is part Czech, and yes she's extremely intense, but she's also a dog that will pile up in the bed with me. Don't focus only on "old time" Shepherds, because many that produce these are not breeding well and as stated you should run from. But the pictures of your last one doesn't look like a working line, he looks showline IMO. What were his lines? I hate you lost him, I recently had to put down my 17 year old Jack Russell, which broke my heart. But my Shepherds are my working dogs in schutzhund, and yet they're still awesome companions for me. Just because the breed is meant to be working dog, doesn't mean you can't have good off switches on dogs, don't have to be couch potatoes. 


Same pup, and excuse myself in the bottom picture. But she's got a fantastic offswitch. On field, she's on it all the time. Doesn't mean you can't have the best of both worlds. 

K9gsdlvr, sent you a PM. 

Nice post, macrowe1.

Thanks Blitzen

Ha. A Lhasa is more likely to come up the leash at you than the vast majority of GSDs!