Breeders question? - Page 2

I have some doubts about the information in this thread regarding this dog , or lack of information .

(Although Gustav, you did start with "Hypothetically")

You said the dog lacks interest in herding which requires an adequate of amount of prey drive and nerve to do successfully.

Are you assuming that the dog lacks prey drive and nerves because of lack of interest?
You didn't say that the dog lacks prey drive and nerve.

Are you in a schutzhund club and people gave you these opinions?
Did you do the testing yourself?

A dog that layed around the house for a few years and was not trained could have plenty of nerves and no interest.

I've seen border collies that are high flying frisbee dogs but have never seen sheep or herds of anything.
Would you expect these border collies to drop their frisbee and herd sheep without training?
I've also seen lazy overweight border collies because owners do nothing with them.

My opinion (Hypothetically) would be have this dog evaluated by someone qualified with German Shepherds.
(trainers & breeders)

The dog should have a schutzhund title, ofa , etc...

Then think about breeding.

(or maybe just leave the breeding to good breeders)

check out this link

A conversation with Karl Fuller

http://leerburg.com/fuller.htm

Darryl, I mean that what would you breed to so that a balance of apparent instinctive traits were brought back into the mix. No, I don't breed for conformation , nor herding, BUT I do breed for trits in the standard that would allow the dog to be good at herding AND have working conformation. To me something is inherently missing in a GS that shows no interest in the sheep. Not to say that they should start out herding first time, but their are certain strong instinctive characteristics that should kick in to my way of thinking.

Leeshideaway, yes I did say hypothectically. No, I am not in a Sch club though I have been for many years in the past. You are right I didnot say that the dog lacked prey and nerve, but i do think that instinctive prey drive is very low and nerve may or may not be at hand but many conformation dogs are lacking in nerve. Of the last six dogs that I have bred and raised I have taken them to a herding instructor, who owns a flock and border collies and trains other people and their dogs, and lets her take my puppy in and assess their herding instincts at about 6 to 9 months. Every dog that I have taken has shown good to great possibilities in the trainers opinion. Some of these dogs had outstanding prey and some had lower prey drive(DDR), but all had excellent nerve and when they hit the sheep you saw instinctive actions on their part take over. Why would i ask a border collie to leave a frisbee for sheep if the BC had no formal training. Where I come from they call that competing motivations with the frisbee already instilled in the dog. That's a real balanced scenario!
I am just trying to understand how people would approach breeding a GS without certain instinctive traits being strong. What would be their priorities and how would they bring it about.