do you think working lines mature slower than showlines? - Page 2

I turned to solar power, seems to help in maturing slower, steady, and healthy.

Hello All,

When you say "Maturing" what do you exactly mean. What characters do you observe ? I guess that body/structure gets better and the dog stops kind of being childish.

I have a 23 month West German Showline and a son of VA5 Schicco and he is very friendly with everybody and playful. He thinks everyone is a friend and I dont like it. Atleast I want him to bark at a stranger when some one knocks on the door or goes near the fence but he whines at people to come near and play. Is this something normal or what ?
One way its a good thing that I have less liability and on the other hand what is the purpose of having a dog if he wants to play with everyone.

Thank you.

 Czech "z Pohranicni straze" dogs who were working as a border patrol dogs were specifically bred for long serviceability. Early maturity and performance until up to 10 years of age. Z PS dogs were on training  active duty (perform all the tasks as patrol dogs except were not fully used in actual apprehensions)  at 10 mo - 12 mo months. That included 25 km ( 15+ miles)  patrol every day and so on. That is by today standard early. By the time they were 2 years old they must all be mature enough to be able to be  in full active duty. Some were much younger then that.
   Sadly most German  and GSD in general and  that includes some Czech  dogs these days can not be in full LE duty until they are around 2.5- 3.5 (!) years old and retired at 6 years(!) or earlier(!!!).  We like fast maturing dogs and are  still  considering this when we breed dogs. Working dog should mature fast so that he can work long. Slow maturing working dogs are result of poor breeding and it is unnatural. Fast maturing is natural tait and GSD is a natural dog same a swolf. In a wolf , in nature, fast amturing  is a matter of survival . 
 Some justify slow maturing by saying that it enables the dog to learn longer. That is silly statement. Learning ability in a good dog will last well into maturity and should not be related to a great degree to it (to maturity). 
 Slow maturing is inadvertently promoted by breeders who like dogs to be puppyish for long time. That is OK for toy breeds but not for working breeds.
On the other end of the spectrum, early retirement of some lines ( 6 years and such) is a result of sport breeding where the sport dog needs to perform at 3-5 years and then is retired and subsequently nobody cares about such dogs early or late retirement. Really it is sad. 
 Breeder of working dogs should keep this  on his/her mind for the sake of a GSD as a working dog. 
 Hans

The length of serviceability is directly related to the health and to the length of the life of the dog. 
 Hans

 Do not mistake fast maturity for slow growing in early age. Slow growing is good and is important for proper hips / bones/ joint development. 
 Hans

my dog is a beast in the house and by her fence but friendly in public around strangers unless i give her ON command. Shes just childish in other ways specially around dogs she acts like a puppy but maybe because she was also never sococialzed with them much till now.
INC your dog should not be that way that is really wierd.

INC. I wouldn't be overly concerned. Chances are your dog is balanced and the people they have met are not threatening. I do think your dog can become more territiorial with increased age. That will up the suspicion response, IMHO. Don't fret it, enjoy your good dog.

I've actually found showlines, especially males, to be very late to mature.

Thank you. I too heard  that it may take about 3 years of age before he becomes suspecious and territorial.