Breeding philosophy - Page 3

1. Working ability. Everything else is a subset of that. If you're breeding for working ability, without bombproof nerve you have nothing, without health, you have nothing, without drives you have nothing, without working conformation, you have nothing.

Ang

Again thank you all for sharing your thoughts , I will be happy to see more share their thoughts on the subject post. Looks like all emphasized importance of health, 1st priority or one of the most important, which means the breed is in good hands in that regards and I totally agree with health being number one priority for owner and breed.

I am not as good in background and knowledge, also in words as above posters, so I will describe in my own way, if I were a breeder what I would breed for.

When I see a GSD in normal life situation, I first look at its conformation, head and expression, only if I like what I see I start wondering how his temperament is, if I get the chance I either interact with the dog to see for myself and or ask owner about his character, if I like what I see and or hear I wonder how he would look like in action and say to my self if in action he is as good as his looks and behavior then he is the total all round GSD.

When I watch a dog excelling in bite work, I concentrate to see its conformation, if it is not good enough I say to myself how unfortuenate.

When I watch a poor bite work of a perfectly conformed GSD, I too say how unfortuenate. I personally agree to a non breeder to set priorities of what he would or wouldn't accept in a GSD based on his personal need and preferance. But for a breeder I don't think there should be one trait or element more important than the other, goal should be to produce a dog that has them all, looks and function, that is what makes a GSD. Therefore health, working ability (including temperament), conformation... are all equal in importance, either one missing means mission is not complete. In the process of reaching the target, breeder may compromise and make concessions, but goal and mission remains same, to produce a GSD in looks, heart and work ethics.

There was a time when balance between side gait, angulation and strength were managed in the GSD, many times Preston and Gustav talked about those GSDs and described them, but then breeders set their own priorities which lead to split and loss of total all round GSD, a GSD that can win in both show and bite and be best at both.

When I see a breeder who uses both types of nowadays GSDs, I get thrilled, here is a breeder who is working for both beauty and heart and might in the end reproduce one beautifu well conformed, not overdone, strong GSD that excells in real life work. Am I dreaming or is that still achievable?

Ibrahim

Ibrahim in many of your posts you speak of beauty as if it had a universal aspect to it. you even speak in terms if "art" in relation to the GSD.

what's that thing about "in the eye of the beholder"

as breed enthusiasts should't we be more concerned on trying to get some agreement on what a GSD suppossed to actually look like.

we need more engineers and less artists in the breed.

VK4gd, maybe you are right. Maybe I don't explain my thoughts very well

Look at VA5 Lasso di Val Sole 

This is a dog who is decribed by those who knew him as very hard, he is correct in conformation and not overdone, why don't we produce such a dog ?

Vk I take it some of the ones we saw posted from that kennel in China  would be considered abstract art?

Reggie

Ibrahim You convey your thoughts well.  You have greatly increased MY education.

There is a show and working split in all breeds that originally had a purpose. Example, my herding trainer friend tells me that the herding instinct in Rough Collies is virtually nonexistant now, because everyone wanted a big fluffy Lassie to sit on their couch and look pretty all day. That is a lesson that people in every breed needs to remember before they put looks first in a breeding program... what would the original Rough Collie breeders say if they could see their dogs now?  

Not sure about Lasso Ibrahim;  he is standing cowhocked??

Why didn't show line breeders use this dog, he has it all, could add to working ability and even strengthen hocks, ligaments etc

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/dog.html?id=677360-marin-zur-krombach

What I mean is it can be done if we want to, was done before successfully. We have the dogs, we need talented breeders to mix them and reproduce one GSD who has it all