The decline of the German Shepherd character - Page 55

Fear biters generally have weak characters, whether inherited or man made.  I would never train a dog like this for the bite work and I would exclude it from any breeding programme no matter how good it's other qualities may be.

Mackenzie

its very easy to tell the different between a fear driven dog and a fight dog .Fear will over reack to every situation unpredictable will be very hard to bring anywhere .fight will be a dog that is confident solid in nerve able to read a situation before he reacts you can bring this type of dog anywhere because he has a clear head witch is very important to a dog that is in protection or even working as a help dog .thats why a dog cant work on drives alone theirs need to be good nerve

I agree with you yogi.  Character is much more than just fight and aggression.

Mackenzie

This thred boils down to that fundamental debate :

Nature  versus  Nurture.

It has become clear to me over the years I've spent around

this breed that  A]   whatever aptitudes or physical characteristics

Joe Breeder  is trying to produce in the pups s/he brings into

the world, there will almost always  (Cue:  shake of the genetic

dice)  be some dogs more suited to that purpose than others.

Just, for a simple example, as there are Border Collies in working

litters who are not naturally good sheep herders,  and some in over-

refined Show-ring bound litters which turn out to be able to do a

perfectly good round-up of a flock, just give 'em the OPPORTUNITY.

B]   IF a GSD puppy displays the 'character' needed to make it a

good working dog and has inherited the 'race memory' genetics

that mean it is temperamentally suited to bitework / policing /sport,

or conversely make it the perfect seeing eye / guide dog, then that

will ONLY be brought to fruition if it is owned and handled by some

body with prior knowledge and/or dedicated interest in that 'work'

area, and capable of training to bring out those characteristics.

There have been millions of perfectly good dogs wasted over the

years down to lack of interest and experience.  Breeders who do

not bother to work their stock, at any level, because they just want

them to look pretty in the Ring or make lovely cuddly pets;  owners

who buy a pet dog and give it zero work to do, thus never discovering

what they have got. 

When & if we can solve this problem of truly matching the right pups

to the correct people - having first better educated the public as to the

needs and the capabilities of this breed - those who are bemoaning

the decline might get a pleasant surprise.   IMO.

I am a small breeder .i breed specifically for protection home guarding  . I vet anyone who wants a dog from me well before they receive a pup .i will reccomend  a few clubs and good trainers never myself .i will check before you get the pup to make sure you have made contacted  with one if not you don't get a pup i have held pups up to six months or more i have pups now i have said no to more than 20 people witch means their still wit me you u can NEVER be a hurry to sell any pups no matter what they are work line pups need to go to the right home or there will be problems these dog are not suitable for back gardens or couches unless the are excise and worked hard daily .if you are a lazy person who is abusing yourself with lack of excise and commit mint. Don't take a dog specially a work dog because u will do the same to the dog .have a job home breeding is not an income to depend on .the right person for the dog is judged by the breeder take responsible for what your selling then dog wont b waisted out in gardens and the genetics in the dog wont die their .MONEY IS THE DECLINE OF THE G.S.D.

                                                                                                                Matt

Well OK I'll stick my neck out and say I'm not so sure the character has declined.
I can only speak of course, for my experience. Anything before 30 years ago I cannot say. But my first dogs were very similar to the ones I have now, though I can see the breeding for high prey drive in my working line more clearly than in my dogs from the old days.
The only thing that would make me think 'character decline' would be in the realm of intelligence. That seems to be holding and that is what I am looking for from this breed. If I want a killer that will never let go when it's being beat over the head with rebar then I'd go with a terrier. (Or Terror, as my old aunt used to say).
To know when to bite or not, what to bite or not, who is friend, who is enemy, courage and loyalty, that is what my dogs from way back had and so do mine now.
To clarify, weak nerves, shyness, fear biting and such are severe faults in any dog and should not be allowed to go on. But diversity in colors, size, and positive drives (including sweetness of temper) are not bad things. In fact in nature diversity is required for long term success. Small gene pools spell doom.
Just keep breeding for intelligence and good health and all should be well with our dear dogs, our favorite breed.

A dog that is always in high drives will be less intelligent because their focus is on one thing thats what high pray drive does Agood dog need to be able to switch his attention in a split second high drive wont do that .old dogs had drive but it was stable not mad and  out of control a dog should only hold when their is only one aggressor if more than one he should be aware and let go when another threat comes thats a dog that fights on courage and nerve very cleaver not to let someone hit him a dog that holds for me is for shows looks good would you hold someone in a head lock while some else is kicking in the ribs no you would let go and defend yourself cleaver isn't it .that what i want my dog to do think for himself . CLEAR HEAD not pray driven

have you ever seen a dog doing crowed control he wont hold the bite he will let go because he knows he is likely to get a smack thats why to much drive is not good to focused on the one thing

A dog holding on while a psycho beats him with a rebar is a dead dog. Who would imagine a scenario like that? geezzus.

see thats why you need a dog that is able to think for himself because he would not let himself be hit again and again .when i train my dog he is trained to let go as soon as he sees the other hand coming towards him and grab that hand . firstly you always teach the dog to hit the hand with the weapon  .when training a young dog i always train on the man not a toy or a sleeve when he reacts to the man in a strong way only then he gets the sleeve when he is older and more confident we move to hidden sleeves, legs. never seeing a sleeve again the reward is the man he bites a protection dog should be diverse and bite anywhere he can get a hold of no rules in a street fight .