TALK TO ME ABOUT PICKING THE RIGHT PUPPY PLEASE - Page 2

Yes I agree temperament is first and foremost;  however so is structure, longevity, good health and HD/ED free.  You have to put years of training in any dog you train for service work,  infact their lives are training and interacting;  that is what their job is.  Therefore without all of the above along with a superior temperament you will not have a good service dog;  retrieve is crutial along with willingness to work.  The "I want to do that job for you, I want to help you" is critical in any puppy or animal for service work.  If the dogs conformation is not good he cannot pull, he will not hold up for service work and you have a dog that has to be retired early.  Not good.  I am not sure that everyone gets that picture.  Nan

First of all, life expectancy, ( quality of life,environment,food,exercise, ) bloat  ( food ,)  ACL surgery ( exercise, food,)..all of these things can not be controlled by the breeder, but by you and how you raise your dog.....go and visit different breeders and see what they have and how they breed,raise their dogs and based on that make your decision.

Working lines are also excellent,but make sure you ask the breeder to pick one with very low drives.....There is a breeder,  www.vomanton.com , the new connection to these Grafental and Ludwigseck kennels, importing 100 % DDR bloodlines , which are the very best old pure working lines from East Germany.........wish you much luck

I also felt that even though a litter may be bread for a certain criteria there would always be a puppy or 2 or 3 in a litter as mentioned above that would be great house pets I just wanted someone else to say that. I agree with this stement to do a degree..

First of all, life expectancy, ( quality of life,environment,food,exercise, ) bloat ( food ,) ACL surgery ( exercise, food,)..all of these things can not be controlled by the breeder, but by you and how you raise your dog...

but I also feel that breeders who breed very large dogs are the reason for many of these medical issues. My 6 year old weighs 90 lbs and is lean and her 9 year old sister weighs 85lbs and is perfect. I think that some breeders just look at color and size which is what I believe my breeder was into. Until I found this site did I learn how and what real GSD breeders are all about. I now am feeding raw and doing everything I can to keep my girls as healthy as I can.

I would like to thank everyone for all there input and taking my question seriously. Yes temperament is everything and I appreciate the leads to breeders that will understand what I am looking for in my next puppy.

I'll tell you what I am doing, not what you should do...I'm 56 years old this summer and do not relish a huge wacky monster dragging me around. Therefore, I bred a litter of the best working lines I know (of course, untitled!), and I intend to pick the most laid back of the bunch. That way I have, I hope, the best of both worlds...the drive to learn of a working lines dog, but not one who is constantly on HIGH. There's plenty of demand for loony toons puppies, which isn't my idea of a good time any more...it was 15 years ago, but I'm over it. So. I guess what I'm saying is, go to the best litter you can buy, and buy the laziest one. THAT is the dog who will be smart, calm, still have the best bloodlines, and be least likely to dig up your sprinkler system and strip the wallpaper out of your kitchen.

YES, there are showlines with plenty of working drive, but they are a heck of a lot harder to find than working lines with working drive. Working drive makes for a dog that is a lot easier to train, in MY book. I have to admit, though, that I don't know squat about showlines except the ones I've seen in Sch club training, and they just ain't what floats my boat. OK, maybe a couple are, but those are few and far between. JYL has a decent showlines dog. He might be the only one I'm jealous over.

Edit: the "untitled" thing is a joke. My dogs just don't have titles that some people think are important; they have real world jobs instead, INCLUDING as service dogs for me. Some of our progeny have titles, though.

I let my last puppy pick me with his excellent eye contact.

Don't necessarily looks ssssfor the most social pupdpy.I recall when I picked the first dog I schutzhun s titled, He sat in the miiddle of the puppdy pen while hdddis sbblings flocked tto thr edge of the pen sjsumping usp and abegging to .Icommented on the bueaty of the first pup and wondered alloud if he would be aable to do the work/ I learnead that the onltdy time that this dog acted competitive with his sibs was at tthe food pan.
He grew up and had excllent working drives.