Category: Uncategorized

Meme Roundup: I got a (new) burr under my saddle, metaphorically speaking……

Do you really need to show dogs to be an ethical breeder?

Anti-breeder content is constant. This graphic making the rounds on SM has the well-worn technique of pitting breeder against breeder. Breeders turning on breeders is nothing new, and stems from breeders themselves internalizing the AR anti-purebred dog agenda, and subconsciously position themselves as “acceptable” while tossing others to the AR wolves. Of course, there are people who are just unhappy and want to vent that on others, but that is a common root cause of why breeders so often pick on their own community. This particular graphic adds a touch of class by being attributed, in a round-about way, to something called the “Pat Trotter Podcast” but without telling us if this is actually a Pat Trotter quote uttered on her own podcast, a quote from someone else on her podcast, or maybe just flat made up. Let’s assume it is a Pat Trotter quote, and if so, it’s sad because Pat Trotter is a pillar of the AKC show community. She is a breeder of legend, an author, a powerhouse judge, and universally well respected for her many accomplishments and talents. But does that mean she’s not maybe just a tad elitist? I couldn’t say, but it doesn’t really matter for speaking to the graphic.

The quote leads hard by declaring that the only ethical breeders are purists. A purist is someone who insists on the adherence to traditional rules and structure. I would argue that the AKC show world is far younger than the creation, maintenance, and usefulness of purebred dogs. Traditionally dogs were used to serve specific needs of their human caregivers, shows were nothing more than a gathering of breeders and their dogs for the purpose of finding new breeding stock, discussing traits and goals, and was a reflection of the collaboration between breeders. Only recently have shows become an industry, one that makes people lots of money on the back of the work of breeders. Tradition transcends and outdated the modern show industry. But to be clear being a purist has nothing to do with ethical behavior, just like it has nothing to do with showing dogs or the business of showing dogs.

So, if we move past the “better than thou” word choice of “purist” to the core of the matter, Ethics. Oxford defines ethical as relating to moral principles.
Whoever penned this quote wants us to believe that the modern dog show industry is the litmus test for morals. If you show dogs you have ethics – if you don’t show dogs, you don’t have ethics.
It’s not lost on me that showing dogs is hella expensive. So expensive that there are many completely viable career paths contained within the dog competition industry. From those who build and manage the websites and data systems, to the employees of the offices of the sanctioning organization and show superintendent, to the professional handlers and their employees, to the magazines and other publications that exist for no other reason than to promote a dog and get them in front of judges eyes, literally millions of dollars float around in this industry. Everyone can make money apparently, except the breeders who actually make the dogs that fuel it, they MUST never earn a dime.

But is that really what morals are? Being financially unsuccessful in an industry making millions? How rich does someone need to be to design this trap?

Are the moral principles that really define ethics about how much money you can waste on a very expensive industry? Again Oxford defines moral as holding or manifesting high principles for proper conduct, it says nothing about doing that in thousand dollar outfit while holding a leash that cost a fiver, while showing a dog who has a five figure advertising budget…

As breeders we define our moral principles in terms of our actions within the breed. That we are producing healthy puppies, that our dogs cared for and happy, that our dogs enjoy excellent health, and we advocate for them for as long as they live. That they bring joy and service to their owners. Those are ethics my friend, not if your breeding program hemorrhages funds that you don’t even notice because you are wealthy enough not to care how expensive your show hobby is.

When we talk about ethical principles for breeders we find lots of common ground and goals breeders share. Things like preserving/improving a breed, using evidence-based, parent club recommended health testing to ensure breeds are healthy now and in the future, caring for our dogs in ways that protect their welfare, physical, and emotional well-being, ensuring our dogs have a lifelong advocate who will help them if ever they need help. Ensuring our dogs and breeds are protected and cared for isn’t free, in fact it is very expensive. So following the authors logic only the richest people can afford to breed dogs using only their pocket money, and those had better be deep pockets……For those of us who are not rich, we cannot afford to provide excellent care without rolling dog related income back into our budget and that apparently makes us immoral in the authors eyes. Nonsense says I.

Not happy with just excluding those with working class incomes from breeding, the author also wants us to believe that only the wealthy breeder “lives for his dogs” and the rest of us just “live off our dogs” as if the typical breeder cannot love their dogs, or provide excellent care, or steward their breed. This is just more elitist nonsense -being wealthy and showing dogs doesn’t give anyone a corner on love, care, or breed stewardship. If it did, we would have very few purebred dogs indeed, given how many were developed, and brought along by working class people. I propose instead that it’s the quality of the care that really matters. Dog’s don’t care where the money came from they only know when they are loved, safe, and provided for.

The author then goes on to tell us what types of enjoyments are acceptable for the “Purist Ethical Dog Breeder”. We can feel morally clean if we enjoy our “End Product” as “accolades in the show ring” (no surprise here…) or maybe just for the Sheer Pleasure of looking at your dog trotting effortlessly….But be clear NONE of those are for you unless you are losing money hand over fist on your breeding hobby even as you drop six figures on your show “hobby”.
And I’ll add, just the insight that the dogs produced are the “end product” speaks volumes as to what these dogs are valued for. Add to that winning and accolades, and it adds up to someone who will say, while they don’t value money because they have an abundance of it, what they do value is competition and attention. They value winning and status in the show industry. Don’t be fooled by their propaganda that they are the only breeders who are ethical. Dogs don’t care about shows or ribbons and they don’t need them to be happy. So this isn’t really about the dogs at all…

One thing we can agree on is that dogs are vitally important, to the entire world. Dogs make the world better because they make people happy, they help us, and in turn we should make them happy and help them.

We should never believe that we need fewer wanted dogs, and I don’t know about you, but I know for sure that there are not enough ethically bred dogs to meet society’s need for them.

There are far fewer “show breeders” than there used to be, The Fancy has distilled and we have more breeds in danger of extinction now than ever. So, if society thinks this tiny group of breeders, those whose End Product is destined for show homes and the show ring, will have enough “not show quality” puppies to satisfy the worlds need for wanted dogs they are flat wrong. This group of breeders has proven to us they cannot even breed enough to keep their breed populations up. Show breeders are often out of touch with just how much demand there is for ethically bred dogs, because they have very little contact with typical pet dog owners. This is why they continue to chafe at the success of doodles.

I will repeat, showing dogs is expensive, especially if we are talking about showing a string of dogs. Handlers fees, travel expenses, advertising expenses, the list of expenses an exhibitor must pay for is long and never ending. This is a million dollar industry built on the back of the work of breeders, who they want to convince don’t deserve any financial success. If we want to say that this small group of people are the only people who can ethically breed, we are excluding from the dog world too many breeders – good breeders, talented breeders, that in many ways are very much like the founders of our breeds. Working people, often women, whose lives are intertwined with the breed and dogs they love.

And ultimately here is the deal. Ethical principles are a set of behaviors that people either do, or don’t do. When we buy a puppy, what we care about is the behavior of the breeder, because our heart tells us that’s what’s important. Do they care about their breed, their dogs, those who buy their dogs? Are those things important or are they just part of the End Product system they have for making more show dogs? Are the needs of all these different stake holders of equal value to their desire for accolades? What about their ethics? Do they even have them to begin with? It’s not like there is any type of ethics test for those who show dogs. You can have crap ethics and still show dogs, and win!

Ethical behavior is an act of love. Love for a breed, for dogs, and for those whose lives they impact through them. That’s really all there is to it.

Look beyond stupid quotes, look beyond the prejudice of one group towards another, and cut to the heart of what really matters, and that is care and respect for dogs and those who share their lives with them. Being financially successful in a million dollar industry that encompasses vast numbers of professions, from your local vet office, to the pet store down the road, to the small business owner, should never be something to be ashamed of. Being good at what you do and ending a year in the black instead of the red doesn’t make a breeder immoral, anymore than being wealthy enough to spend thousands on a hobby makes you moral. Moral is what you do, today, not what you spent yesterday.

Everything is Easy When You Don’t Know What’s Involved.

Another well intentioned, but clueless, meme is making the rounds on SM and so again I’m going to try to address what this person got right, and wrong, when they made this and why before we share things we need to think critically about the message before we hit that Share button. There is no reason to perpetuate ignorance when we breeders should know better.

Let’s start with what the author got right. Yes, it’s common knowledge that behavioral tendencies are inherited and that size, coat, and color, are as well. That’s it, that’s all. Now, it’s a just a few words so I guess I should not expect wisdom, but because it is presented and shared as if it does contain something more than readily available information, let’s examine what was relevant but not included.

While it’s true that behavioral tendencies are inherited, and is a often studied area of science. Unlike many diseases there isn’t a DNA test for “good” behavior and “bad” behavior that breeders can use to help them make breeding choices. For the most part other than knowing that “behavior” is inherited, and access to observations of behavior from themselves (first hand knowledge of a dog) or others (second hand knowledge) there is very little for breeders to use to make breeding choices other than perform a pedigree analysis for a particular expressed behavior. Indeed even those who study this subject refrain from making broad claims about the accuracy and usefulness of their findings, and teasing apart environmental influences on the expression of behavioral traits.

So while changing traits can see with our own eyes (aka pedigree analysis) is a long standing traditional skill used by experienced breeders since the domestication of animals began, it’s not easy or quick. Sadly, the skill of pedigree analysis and breeding tests have largely been lost in todays sea of novice breeders trained by novice breeders. The number of breeders skilled in using pedigree analysis is not what it should be and is an area of legitimate improvement that could be made. To imply that it is something a person can just intuitively understand, or perform, simply because they want a puppy or by doing some “bloodline study” is ridiculous.

When it comes to the “breeder’s toolbox” of skills, observation and manipulation of phenotype (traits you can directly observe and select for ) is one of the least satisfying ways to change traits, or the expression of traits, and it can take a long time, a very long time, in some cases hundreds of years. The reason being that when what we see with our eyes can be seen a hundred different ways by a hundred different people from a hundred different times, or influenced by a hundred different things, our eyes can deceive us, and those that came before us. Further, because many of these traits can be “hidden” from view by how they are inherited (for example, a sable German Shepherd who carries the solid black gene hidden) a trait can be completely invisible to observation but still be present and able to be passed on. Many behavioral traits are triggered by environmental, health, even nutrition factors both before and after birth, so they may not be visible in one population at all, just to show up in another set of factors. In this manner many traits that are inherited can pass silently and invisible through pedigrees just to pop up unexpectedly generations down the road. On the other hand traits can be loud and obvious and not be inherited in that form at all. Other traits may have been desirable, even just a few decades ago, and so breeders may have been selecting FOR and not AGAINST a trait or group of traits while the modern breeder has completely different considerations to make. To further complicate matters, even within breeders of the same generation there may not be agreement on what traits to increase, or decrease in intensity or propensity.

Much of this information can only be accessed by those who are highly experienced in a breed, who can observe and glean what is happening with the breed worldwide and on a meta scale, just as much as what is happening in their own micro observations in their own breeding program. This is not something you can learn from bloodline study (whatever that means) even if you are one of the small percentage of people within a breed who are actually qualified to make an informed study of a particular pedigree. FURTHER, most breeders in any given breed have surprisingly little firsthand information about behavioral traits at all. The overall animosity directed at breeders has driven many of our most experienced out of breeding, it has created walls of self protection around breeders so the sharing of information between them is stunted and incomplete, it has created a generation of novice breeders who don’t even know how novice they are, in a void of experienced mentors. So in this day of an abundance of information breeders are often making decisions with less collaborative information than ever before. This is exacerbated even more by the number of new breeds and new mixes being created with even less information available to those breeders than any purebred breeder has available to them.

Firsthand observations of behavior can only be made when a breeder lives with a dog for years and years, even it’s entire lifetime, repeated generation after generation. This is the most valuable information a breeder can use to make phenotype based decisions, though it can still be inaccurate. Firsthand information is the most scarce but the most valuable a breeder can have at their disposal.

Secondhand information about behavior can be gleaned from others, but those people need to have lived with the dog for years and years themselves, this information can be useful or useless, depending on who provides it, their knowledge and observational skills, and willingness to share. Secondhand information has value, especially in bulk, but should be taken with a grain of salt.

Rumor or gossip about a dog comes from those whose experience with a dog is incomplete, or their ability to understand it is lacking, it’s of little to zero value in a phenotype model. It can be of value when the same observation is made by many different people, unconnected to each other, and not influenced by others. Relying on rumor and gossip about a dog or line is fraught with pitfalls and it should be only occasionally be considered at all.

It is absurd to even suggest that a “puppy buyer” or hell, even a dog professional, and some breeders can predict with pinpoint accuracy the behavior of an adult dog based on “bloodline study”. Most people cannot even read a pedigree, yet alone have in their brain enough knowledge and information to make accurate predictions and observations based on studying a pedigree.

Of course the suggestion, and the cause of my ire, is that while I know taking a graphic like that to heart is pointless and silly, there are people who are sharing this around and implying that there is something of value in it. I fear that it imparts blame on those who have purchased a dog only to have it’s behavior become problematic. They may feel it’s “their fault” because they didn’t do any “bloodline study” and that’s truly a shame because it will NOT help anything and it may be false.

I fear it will lead to further hatred and ignorant animosity being leveled at breeders, the implication being that only a BAD breeder would produce a puppy that develops behavior problems. But of course that also helps NOTHING, may be false and it widens the rift between breeders further as they rush to judge each other as social signaling that they are “very good” breeders who never have bad outcomes. Stupid, allowing outsiders to pit breeders against each other is part of the rot that has weakened our community.

Truth is:

Yes breeders should be deliberate in how they select for behavioral traits, just as deliberate in how they select for health and structural traits. To do this we need open communication, opportunities to collaborate and learn together, and the transparency that only comes when people feel safe.

Yes, puppy seekers should invest some time in choosing a respectable and ethical breeder who cares about them, and their dogs. To do this puppy seekers need basic information, open communities where finding a breeder referral is easy, and breeders who value them.

What nobody needs is the ignorant implication that things are easy and simple and sending puppy seekers down the wrong pathway doesn’t help anything, no matter how frustrated we are in the choices that some puppy buyers make. Everyone makes mistakes, puppy buyers are impulsive and often don’t put enough thought into their purchases and that will never change. Puppy Buyers become overwhelmed by the information avalanche that occurs when they start researching how to find a breeder, they shut down and settle and I for one don’t blame them, it’s very hard to find reliable information in an actionable form when you are not a professional or hobbyist.

Breeders make mistakes too, even with the best of information, intent, and ethics not every litter, breeding decision, or dog is going to result in a Rin Tin Tin or Lassie, that is how reality works and blaming breeders is just as pointless as blaming God or Mother Nature.

Worse, blaming breeders creates fearful breeders and arrogant breeders. Fearful breeders become so traumatized by bad outcomes that they start making even more, and greater mistakes, create walls between themselves and others, or worse, they cease breeding all together. Arrogant breeders occur when novice breeders who have not experienced (yet) a slap from Mother Nature start attacking, judging, or bullying other breeders who are struggling because they believe that bad things only happen to bad breeders. This behavior rots trust, transparency, and collaboration between breeders as defenses go up, and that only weakens our community and our breeding program, and breeds.

It’s important that we talk freely, share freely, and collaborate freely. To reach that we simply must educate and understand when others seek to undermine our work and goals. Everyone needs to have the freedom to make a mistake and recover from that experience as a better version of themselves, to do that we need to make darn sure we make room for mistakes because they are inevitable and they have great value.

Would you like some actually useful information on finding a reputable breeder? We have those in abundance, including an entire free course on how to find and interview a breeder, just visit our Education Page for all the links!







“Do The Parents Have Normal Hips” A Right and Wrong Question.

One of the most common questions puppy seekers ask me is “do the parents have normal hips”. This is both a right question and a wrong question. Right because parents with normal hips are important, right because the person at least understands that health testing for the GSD includes hips, and right because they know that it’s the parents and not the puppy that are tested.

It’s a wrong questions because while having a sire and dam with normal hips is important, there is So…Much….More….that is also important. Because Canine Hip Dysplasia can be carried, hidden, through many generations and it shows up unevenly with some dogs pulling life’s Short Straw and developing this painful and sometimes debilitating disease, there are more dogs to ask about than just the parents.

Sadly even some breeders don’t know how CHD occurs, what the risk factors are, and some even focus on blaming owners for their dogs condition (and the environment does play a part) yet alone how to reduce the chances the dogs they produce will inherit this disease. While puppy seekers have an excuse for not understanding all the nuances of breeding, breeders have zero excuse.

When breeders follow the OFA’s Basic Breeding Recommendations for CHD they can see dramatic improvements in hip health in even typical bloodlines. Until the GSD is close to 100% normal hips we cannot and should not rest in our efforts to apply pressure for hip health in our breeding programs.

Puppy Seekers can dramatically increase the chances of their dog being healthy if they choose such breeders.

Obviously it’s very important that every litter have a sire and dam with Certified Normal hips. But it’s just as important that all those dogs behind the sire and dam had normal hips as well. This reduces the odds of those sneaky disease genes proliferating a pedigree, unseen, and waiting to cause suffering in the next generation.

Puppy Seekers should ask to see a pedigree, and ask if any dogs in it were affected with CHD.

Another overlooked source of hip health hints are the siblings of a breeding dog. The WORST hip producer I ever knew personally was a dog rated OFA Excellent, but the majority of his litter was affected with CHD, as were two maternal aunts.

Conversely, the BEST hip producer I have had in my program was an OFA Fair female (Quinta v Westfork) who had multiple Normal hipped siblings and half siblings.

Puppy Seekers can always ask about siblings or do an OFA Database Search for related individuals.

When choosing among potential breeding dogs and partners breeders should look for dogs with a history of producing more normal progeny and fewer affected progeny than the breed average. To do this breeders must know the average for their breed, something that can be found by anyone on the OFA website. By choosing better than typical hip health producers a breeder can further increase hip health in their program and the breed.

When adding a new breeding dog to a program, the breeder will be wise to consider the previous averages and look for a breeding dog whose sire/dam were better than typical hip health producers, have a higher percentage of normal hipped dogs in their pedigree, and who have a higher than typical number of normal hipped siblings.

When choosing stud dogs avoiding young dogs in favor of older dogs will enable the breeder to have data on hip health production, and this is a good reason to always consider mature stud dogs over up and coming younger dogs.

For those seeking a puppy, one of the easiest things to quantify is how many dogs in the pedigree, especially the first four generations, have Certified Normal hips, how many had known CHD, and JUST as important how many have an “unknown” hip health status? Dogs with no official hip health status MUST be considered CHD Affected for both breeder and puppy buyer purposes. Breeders should provide a three or four generation pedigree with the hip rating on it for potential puppy buyers to see.

In the USA the OFA is the FCI recognized hip health organization. The OFA ONLY issues breeding certifications AFTER 24 months of age, any preliminary opinion issued prior to 24 months of age is NOT intended for breeding purposes so breeders and puppy seekers should not consider them when making decisions.

Each FCI country will have it’s own scheme, and the SV of Germany has a system that incorporates all of these best practices into a hip health score, so all breeders need to do is know the ZW score of each dog to make hip health breeding decisions and puppy seekers can easily see the CHD risk by knowing the ZW number for the litter. Maybe someday we will have such a system in the USA but until then breeders have to know each item and how to use it in their breeding program.

The Dangers of Good Training

As someone who has spent a considerable portion of her life at dog club, training dogs, and observing trained dogs the very idea that training was not a friend of the GSD breeder isn’t something I considered until I decided to take a break from the competitive aspects of the German Shepherd after 25 years of intense involvement.

The non competitive me started to think about and consider ideas that the old me never had time to consider. I recently wrote down some of these thoughts in a Facebook Post.

Additionally, training got better, a LOT better as more and more trainers became skilled in using more modern methods in their training.

And I realized that teasing apart the traits of the dogs, the ones they will pass on to their offspring, from the behaviors their trainer taught them was getting increasingly difficult and further that good training was masking many serious problems of character and temperament in our breed. An additional problem is that many of today’s younger breeders in the USA don’t have skilled mentors, and may be relying on other trainers for their learning of the breed and it’s standard. This rudderless learning leads to an undue influence of those who have very little understanding, or even passion for the breed.

Breeders need to be able to identify when a problem is due to a mismatch of traits with the environment, when they are due to ineffective training, or socialization, and in each case when the problem stems from an undesirable heritable trait. Breeders cannot manage the learning and environment of their puppies once they are in their forever homes, but they CAN manage heritable traits and work hard to produce dogs with traits that both meet the breed standard and meet the standard needs of their clients.

Puppy buyers need to be able to evaluate dogs and not the effect of training on dogs. While watching a great training performance is fun for novices, and inspiring for everyone, it doesn’t help pet dog seekers to predict if those dogs are going to produce the traits they need in a companion. We tell puppy seekers to meet and visit the parents of any puppy they are considering, but often what they meet is a dog under command, who is showing the training and not the native traits of that dog. Puppy seekers need to change their lens and focus on meeting and interacting with dogs who are ”free” of cued or commanded behaviors, free of leashes and collars, and able to show who they are truly. Only then can we expect those visits to have meaning. Puppy seekers need to understand that training skill doesn’t produce genetic traits in dogs, that well trained parents doesn’t equal easy to train puppies, or good companion puppies. In our breed we have so long enabled the competitive trainers, coaches, and handlers to have more influence in our breeding selections than those who actually end up buying and living with our puppies. We assume that ”pet people” will ruin our breed and that breeders selecting for pet friendly traits will enable this ruination. But indeed the opposite is happening, the fads of both the show ring and the trial field are increasing incorrect traits in our breed, from over built, heavy, butt-headed show dogs, to over angulated, hackneyed, trim lines who look for all purposes like a Belgian Shepherd mix, and act the same. The breed left to the wants of competitive voices, with no checks, has never veered so far off course.

What we need in our breed is exactly what the SV has designed in the Breeding Predisposition Test as the original parent club for the breed has recognized that companion and non-sport dogs are actually the backbone of the breed, necessary for it’s preservation, whose needs are equally important to those who love the breed for it’s value in competition. A non sport dog breeding track, free of influence of the sport dog and show dog constituents, where dogs can be evaluated for their adherence to the standard, and correct instincts, character, and temperament instead of the work of a trainer.

For breeders this means we need to value the off field traits of our dogs more, we need to give these ”lifestyle” traits more thought and apply selection pressure more intensely for easy to live with traits over podium friendly traits. Because if we are honest with ourselves, only a small percentage of the puppies we produce will make titles, and even fewer of those will make top sport titles, but they should all live in a loving home, in society at large, and be of benefit there first. This can only happen if we breeders can recognize heritable traits as separate from influenced behaviors.

Training is fun! For humans and dogs and gives dogs the skills they need to live in our world.

For breeders the skill lies in looking beyond the effects of training, to the natural dog beneath, and using only those inherit traits in our breeding plans. Working hard to produce dogs that meet the standard for temperament and character as well as meeting the needs of the majority of our puppy buyers, even if the majority are going into companion homes and not working homes.

Producing dogs for working homes that do not exist is not responsible breeding practices nor is it preserving our breed, especially when working traits in style at any given moment may be contradictory to the standard.

When Big Feelings are a Big Problem: Dog Aggression in the German Shepherd.

Recently I posted my thoughts on Facebook on the increase in genetic (versus learned) dog reactive and dog aggressive behavior in the German Shepherd Dog. This post cause quite a range of emotional reactions and hopefully triggered some self reflection on the part of the breeders who read it.

I remember when I got my first German Shepherd, Quinta v Westfork, in the early 1990s. Quinta was everything a German Shepherd should be, as were many dogs in those days. While there were some problems with temperament one thing we didn’t regularly see was reactive behavior or aggressive behavior towards other dogs. Over the decades I have seen a steady increase in various levels of dog intolerance, especially in the working line dogs. Even more concerning is that far too many younger breeders are excusing this type of temperament problem as being ”normal” for the breed.

Breeders have a responsibility to ”do no harm” to their breeds and ideally breeders have the insight to recognize where improvements are beneficial to a breed, and the skill to improve those problem areas.

While working line breeders have put considerable effort into “improving” traits, behavioral and physical, that increase talent for high scores in dog sport, and move the GSD closer to the Belgian Shepherd in build and character they have largely ignored, or even excused, the faults of structure and character that have occurred alongside these performance motivated changes.

Breeders owe it to their breed to Do No Harm, this means undesirable traits must be identified, called out as incorrect, and then changed to align with the breed standard by placing selection priority on those dogs who exhibit the Natural, Good Natured, and Self Assured, traits the standard describes and deprioritizing dogs who exhibit incorrect character or temperament in regards to their natural instinctive dog social nature. The German Shepherd is not a hyper social dog, they don’t need to enjoy the local dog park, but there is no excusing dogs who are incapable of tolerating benign behavior from novel dogs, or living in multi dog environments. Only when breeders, and puppy buyers, stop tolerating these incorrect traits will the GSD return to the stable, good natured, confident, enjoyable companion they are meant to be.

This is how we know who is truly guarding and preserving a breed, and who really just enjoys what a breed can do for them. One of these loves a breed and can be entrusted with it’s preservation, the other loves an activity and should not be In the drivers seat of a breed.


You can read the original thread on FB here:

I’m seeing way too many people justifying incorrect temperament and faulty character in the GSD. These justifications by BREEDERS lead to an increasingly difficult and unpleasant breed to own, one that is a risk instead of benefit to society, and that is the exact opposite of the “helper” type of dog the founders of breed intended and further it’s the opposite of what modern owners need and what modern dogs need to live happy and rich lives.

The GSD breed standard for character and temperament never mentions this breed should be aggressive towards humans, dogs, or anything else. Nor does it mention sport traits, or complicated and difficult temperament.

This breed should never require intense management, or butt tons of equipment to prevent harm to it’s bonded family members (human or otherwise), to protect the dog from itself, or to protect society from the dog.

What it does mention specifically is the GSD must be:

  1. Well balanced with strong nerves
  2. Self assured
  3. Absolutely natural
  4. GOOD NATURED
  5. Attentive and willing to please.

“The German Shepherd Dog must be well-balanced (with strong nerves) in terms of character, self-assu- red, absolutely natural and (except for a stimulated situation) good-natured as well as attentive and wil- ling to please. “ WUSV/FCI standard

They must posses:

  1. Instinctive behavior (we would call this drives, herding drive, prey drive, defensive drives, social drives)
  2. Resilience
  3. Self assurance

Why? In order to be:

  1. A good companion (yes this is first!)
  2. Guard
  3. Protection, service, and herding dog.

*Notice “sport dog” isn’t even mentioned.

“He must possess instinctive behaviour, resilience and self-assurance in order to be suitable as a companion, guard, protection, service and herding dog.” WUSV/FCI standard.”

When breeders begin justifying faults of character they will include such undesirable dogs in their breeding program with NO attempt to improve the fault and bring future generations back in line with the standard. They come to believe that the faulty temperament is normal for the breed and if enough breeders are influenced in this way it causes the entire breed to shift.

Further damage is done when novices who don’t know the standard and who don’t remember when GSDs wasn’t an aggressive sh it show are influenced, and they in turn buy these incorrect dogs and impact society with them, damaging the breed’s reputation and if they become breeders perpetuating incorrect temperament and faulty character.

To be clear, the GSD should never require a neck full of devices to be a pleasant companion, they should never require a muzzle to take a walk in the park, they should never need a four figure training package and a lifetime of “tune ups” to be manageable as a companion.

Owners should never fear their GSD injuring or killing some random dog that rudely runs up on them in the park, they should not be afraid of their dog or what it might do if life happens.

Such dogs are a burden to their owners and a danger to society, the exact opposite of what this breed should be. We should never accept this as desirable.

Is balancing the complicated behavioral traits difficult for breeders? Of course, everything about breeding is difficult.

Does that mean we should justify these faults? Absolutely not, a willingness to bite unprovoked, along with weak nerves (and yes, if your GSD is unplugged emotionally because a mini golden doodle tries to kiss it at the park or because “dogs exist” they have weak nerves) is an exclusionary fault for our breed.

Dogs with minor faults can and should be included in our breeding programs, we can and should be striving to improve these faults and not ignore them, and for the love of the breed we should never ever justify them.

This breed should be natural, self assured and resilient, not an insecure, over reacting, bite risk.

Do better.

Advertising, and other dirty words

A popular meme that travels round the social media that says that the reason there are “bad” breeders (Here is what I mean by Bad Breeder) is because the puppy buyers support them by purchasing their dogs. And of course there is some truth in that, because if any breeder cannot find homes for their dogs they cannot breed more dogs. This is a truth that applies to all breeders, and a core strategy of the anti-any-dog-breeding animal rights extremists (who have tried for decades to convince companion dog owners that owning any dog not purchased from a shelter or rescue is all kinds of wrong) so it’s not new.

Some flavor of this meme blaming puppy seekers for breeder ethics is constantly circulating on SM.


The unfairness of this ”blame the buyers” mindset is that good breeders are really hard to find, and vastly outnumbered by substandard breeders (who are easy to find). This is even more extreme when we consider what the anti breeder crowd has decided are “good” breeders, which is most often competition oriented (show & sport) breeders, one of the least common demographic of breeders. How ironic it is that we blame those seeking a puppy for their inability to find a good breeder when the entire “Good Dog Breeder Community” brags about how hard to find they are, how they never advertise, and when they do it’s only to each other (and judges), how rarely they actually breed, and how few puppies are available to ”pet” homes.

So not only have we in the dog community allowed those who are basically anti breeding to set the standard as to what a “good” breeder does but we have ourselves internalized this and promoted it to puppy seekers. How unfair that we blame puppy seekers when the very group we have decided are the ONLY breeders worthy of supporting often don’t advertise, don’t breed very often, prioritize puppy placement to other competition homes, and while competition breeders obviously enjoy being labeled as the ”best” breeders they are simply not able to produce enough dogs to meet the needs of companion dog seekers, even if they as a group wanted to.

I’m not going to go into the ”why” of this problem yet, I’m saving for a later day why I think breeders have gotten it so very wrong in the area of who is really the best breeder for a companion puppy and how the present idealization of competition breeders hurts our breeds, our breeders, and the entire purebred dog community.

Today I want to follow up my last blog and another previous blog on finding a good breeder from what is really the most important angle. How are puppy seekers supposed to find these good breeders?

Advertising is only evil when it advertises evil things

David Ogivly

First, let’s start off by understanding that breeders are often conflicted about breeding dogs, after all, we have been told for decades that breeding dogs is basically bad and we should all be ashamed. Breeders who have internalized this shaming are some of the most vocal about how evil it is to advertise, which is ironic, because many of these same breeders spend thousands advertising their current string of show dogs in show magazines. This money is spent to make sure judges and other show fanciers recognize their dog (and handler) and how amazballs the dog is. But advertise to those seeking a companion puppy? Gasp, that is just wrong. Lots of this emotion has it’s roots in the very anti-breeder movement that decided only competition breeders were worthy of existing, because along with convincing people that only the smallest subset of breeders was responsible they also convinced us that advertising was wrong and a sign of a ”bad” breeder. The implication was of course, that without advertising really good breeders would still be able to find more than enough puppy seekers for their puppies and to a degree this is accurate because competition oriented breeders are not breeding very often these days (though they certainly did in the past) and they strive to put puppies into competition homes within the small tight knit fanciers community.

The reality is that those very people who want to see an end to purebred dogs have convinced purebred dog breeders that reaching out to the public via advertising is wrong, and so breeders pulled back, many breeders now don’t even have a website, or if they do have a website their website only really speaks to others in the show/sport fanciers community.

This has all been part of a deliberate cycle to decrease the number of purebred dogs by first shaming breeders for producing them, shaming people for purchasing them, and creating an ”out of sight out of mind” drop in even the interest in purebred dogs among the pet owning public.

Of course the one type of advertising still considered ”ok” is advertising to other fanciers and judges via show magazines, show websites, and breeder websites that ONLY feature photos and info about competition (not very appealing to the average puppy seeker) which further creates the false impression that purebred fanciers and breeders are elitist, out of reach/touch with the general dog owning community, and only interested in winning.

Of course this is just silly and so bad for our breeds because if we spent half as much time and effort advertising our breeds to companion puppy seekers more people would fall in love with our breeds, get a well bred puppy, and live happily ever after. Our breeds would benefit from being reinserted into our communities, our community would benefit from an influx of fantastic dogs, new fanciers, and the purebred dog world would benefit by the good will that occurs when people know and love firsthand wonderful purebred dogs.

Advertising is the first step in generating interest in our breeds, it’s not a dirty word, we should not feel icky for doing it. It is long past time to take back the dialog and the tools we need to promote our breeds.

As breeders we need to stop thinking of advertising as a dirty word, and we need to stop feeling icky about promoting what we do.

If we consider that advertising (aka marketing) ourselves not only makes us easier for those seeking puppies to find thus increasing the number of breed suitable prospects for us to choose from, but also provides an example of what a good breeder does and looks like, and promotes good information about our breed, we can start to see just how important it is that we actively promote ourselves, our dogs, our community, and our breed. Our dogs are wonderful, so let’s get out there and show everyone!

If it helps, think of advertising as marketing yourself, your breed, and your breeding program. One of the easiest and most effective ways we can reach people is through content marketing. Instead of focusing on selling an individual puppy marketing focuses on building relationships with ourselves, our dogs, and our breed. While advertising is a one way communication from a breeder to prospective puppy seeker, content is a two way communication focused on building our reputation through education. Puppy seekers need to learn about our breeds, what they need to be happy, what they are like to live with without all that breed standard ambiguous jargon, and who makes a suitable owner for a breed.

These puppy seeker needs are perfectly met by the expertise of the breeder and the best way a breeder can advertise is by using content marketing tools and practices to promote their breed and program. In the age of easy to build and update websites and plentiful options for real time posting to social media there is every reason for breeders to focus on high quality content as the core of their marketing strategy.

But what if I have a puppy or litter I need to find homes for? Can’t I just advertise THAT puppy?

You bet and there is nothing wrong at all with letting people know you have a puppy or litter available, and these efforts will yield more high quality, suitable, prospects if those same people are already following you! Reaching out ”cold“ will waste far more time as you wade through large number of impulse inquiries and prospects not suitable for your dogs. Remember, we want to attract the BEST prospects! Those who are ready, willing, and able to give our puppy a happy lifelong home.

Tips for featuring an individual puppy: Help people get to know you first!

1. Focus on the journey, share content about the puppy from birth onward.
2. What is puppy doing right now? Share video, photos, of what puppy is learning.
3. What type of home would allow this puppy to flourish?
4. How can you show that number 3 looks like? Feature ideal owners? Share photos, videos?
5. What traits do you expect in the grown puppy? Who needs these traits?

Don’t be afraid to feature a litter or puppy when you are still building a list of prospective homes, and do work just as hard to develop a base of followers. Remember, your followers, families, and family community are an important source of information you need for your program and generate good word of mouth to help good families find you!

If you need to feature an individual puppy, don’t be afraid to do so!

Want to talk more about finding amazing homes for your puppies, and being brave in your marketing? Join us in the coming weeks on our podcast where we will be talking with our own Rebecca Pinkson on her search for a beagle puppy!

Not another one of those “good breeder” lists: Part More

I’m taking another pass at the ever popular subject of Finding A Good Breeder, a subject I have visited before in various ways from Another One of those Stupid “how to find a good breeder” lists….. to Rin Tin Tin, or Run Run Run? This time from the perspective of finding a breeder that shares your values.

As part of my new podcasting project I kicked off with how I define a Responsible Breeder and Substandard Breeder I’ve detailed out the Ethical Breeding Standard we use ourselves and I’m presenting it here for you in visual and PDF form. I find the Breeder Standard to be a vastly more functional way of identifying breeders I want to support and work with than most other such resources out there, because it’s focus is on core values, relationship building, and mutual understanding.

The Breeder Standard also cuts through the general fog on this subject that occurs when we obscures what really matters in favor of things we have been taught are more important than they really are.

Primarily what I mean by this is the blanket assignment of ”good” applied to breeders producing dogs for competition (show/sport) and the blanket ”bad” applied to breeders who do not breed dogs primarily for competition but instead for companion homes. This age old “find a show breeder” advice just misses the mark and has led to so many problems in the dog community that it’s long past time we move to something more meaningful.

Why? Why is the ”find a breeder who titles their dogs” advice damaging to the dog community?


First, time has proven that there are just not enough competition breeders producing enough competition bred puppies to meet the demand for companion dogs. Why this is now the case is a subject for another day.

Second, the assumption that competition bred dogs by default make easy companion dogs for the typical pet dog owner is flat out wrong. Breeders of competition dogs are selecting and applying selection pressure for structural and/or behavioral traits that are important to them, traits that help them win to be honest, which may or may not even be in the best interest of the breed. These traits may or may not include traits that enable dogs to be easy companion.

Third, Competition breeders really never asked to be saddled with the responsibility of producing pets for everyone who wants one. While this community undoubtedly has enjoyed being considered the ”best” it does not follow that they want to do the work needed to produce enough puppies to meet demand, or to prioritize companion friendly traits over the traits needed to garner enough points to be considered successful. If the competition community really wanted to carry this responsibility they would be breeding more dogs and not attacking other breeders for breeding more dogs.

On the flip side, there are a growing number of breeders who WANT to specialize in breeding companion dogs and they are prepared to do this work. We need to stop demonizing them and start working with them.

Companion focused dog breeders are focusing on traits that enable dogs to be easy companions for the typical pet dog owner, this community is the foundation of our dog world and they deserve attention and respect. Companion focused breeders are happy to provide this.

Companion dogs breeders have chosen to breed for companion dog owners, they want this responsibility, and are producing the dogs to fill this need.

Instead of cultivating hostility between these two large groups of breeders we need to work together to ensure we are preserving our breeds historic type, increasing health when possible, producing enough dogs to meet the needs of the typical dog owner, and placing these dogs responsibly so they are an asset to their owner and community.

Now, before the universe shakes with the ”screams in points” of the show community, I am absolutely not saying that competition breeders are not a viable place to look for a companion puppy, or a delightful adult dog, I am JUST saying that we need to stop assuming someone is a good breeder simply because they compete with their dogs, or that if we are looking for a companion puppy our only responsible option is a competition oriented breeder (spoiler: it’s not).

If you are looking for a puppy for competition these judgements and choices are much harder for you, because if you want to succeed in your venue(s) of choice you really should only be considering breeders with a record of producing dogs that do well there. So, finding a breeder that shares all your core values may have to take a backseat to those competition goals, you won’t know until you are well into the breeder interview processes and have a good idea of the landscape of availability, time frame, contract stipulations (which can be wack), and all the other considerations when investing in a puppy for competition.

The following system for considering breeders focuses on three main areas: Valuing the dogs, valuing the puppy seeker, and valuing the breed.

For a more detailed step by step process for talking to breeders consider our free course on Finding the right breeder and the perfect puppy for you.

Boomerang Dogs: When Bad Things Happen To Good Breeders Part 3

I had intended to make this a two part series, but I had so many requests to include the difficult subject of Boomerang Dogs (dogs who leave for new homes, but then come back) that I decided to add just one more part to the When Bad Things Happen To Good Breeders series.

It has become so accepted (and rightly so) that breeders have an open door policy towards all the dogs they place that we have now moved into the dismissive stage of this subject.

Now we hear calls of “get the dog back” or “return the dog” whenever relationships between people (breeder and buyer) or people and dogs (buyer and their dog) hit any rough patch.

But lets be clear, unless there is a very good reason for a dog to loose it’s home we should not be flippant or causal about it.

Are there some cases where it is in the best interest of the dog, or owner, for the dog to be returned? Absolutely. Here are some examples from my own program that I’m sure other breeders have experienced as well, that are simple and uncomplicated.

1. Owner is financially unable to provide for the dog (for any reason, but job loss is a common one).
2. Owner has lost access to dog friendly housing (after divorce for example).
3. Owner has passed on, or is so unwell that caring for the dog cannot happen.
4. Owner is caring for an unwell family member and the dog’s care is suffering.
5. Someone (a child, unwell adult, relative) has moved in and there is conflict in the home such that the dog is suffering from chronic stress or anxiety.

Are there cases where things are not so black and white? Of course, puppy blues are one, where the new puppy is actually causing so much distress and depression that everyone is suffering. Interdog conflict in the home, undesirable behaviors on the dog and human side, changes in work schedule. In these cases the job of the breeder is to tease out if the problem has a potential solution that benefits everyone (dog and humans) such that happiness is restored and everyone’s needs are met.

We should never take the loss of a home lightly, or even recommend it lightly, because it’s hard to promise the dog that the new home will be better for them, and indeed some dogs just don’t transition well, and a dog who was a good companion in one home may find adapting to a new home difficult, even impossible. These are decisions that deserve everyone’s best and most thoughtful work.

The Nuts and Bolts: Be ready, and hope you never need to be.

1. Breeders need to think about and decide upon their return policy, and all the ramifications of that, before their first litter is bred. Can’t take dogs back? Don’t breed dogs, because the breeder is the dog’s safety net in all times.

2. Budget funds for return. Some returned dogs will come in perfect health, others may not, be prepared for both.

3. Line up health experts to help you. Discuss the health ramifications of returning dogs with your vet, focus on contagious diseases especially those that may kill puppies (herpes, distemper, parvo), or destroy your entire breeding program (brucellosis) as well as the more common and less dangerous pathogens like internal/external parasites, viruses like kennel cough, dog flu, mange mites, and etc. Discuss quarantine options, costs, and etc.

4. Line up a behavior expert to help you. Find a credentialed behavior expert to help you. Breeders are not by default behavior experts, so unless you are a credentialed professional behavior specialist find one to advise you and evaluate dogs for you. This professional may be the key to keeping a dog in the current home, or helping you determine what would need to happen for this dog to be placeable once returned.

5. Make a list of options to help you: Dog transporters, trainers who can take dogs for evaluation or board/train, kennels that offer quarantine boarding, and etc. You may need to quickly get a dog from point A to Point B, You may need a professional to evaluate what needs to happen for the dog to be transitioned to a new home, and finally, dog may need to be quarantined while necessary health evaluation/treatment is done. Be ready, and hope you never need to be!

Best Practices:

1. Accept that you may be too emotionally invested to make good decisions (this is where your team of professional advisers can help you).

2. Detach your EMOTIONS about the situation from your ACTIONS. You may have very strong feelings about the situation, those are yours, don’t share them with the client and absolutely keep such talk off social media, save that venting for your closest friends and advisors.

3. Keeping number 2 in mind: Always treat your client with empathy, kindness, and respect. This is very difficult for breeders. Being a breeder does not mean we are expert in emotional intelligence, or have expert level communication skills. But, treating our client unkindly in any way increases the chances the dog will NOT have a great outcome. If we create an unsafe environment for sharing things that make US uncomfortable then our clients won’t share with us and that is really bad on many levels.

4. If you know that you struggle with conflict resolution, customer service skills, or empathetic listening and instead tend to let strong feelings lead to defensiveness and aggressive language towards our client then consider it part of your basic breeder toolbox to learn how to communicate with clients in an effective and professional manner.

5. Don’t assign fault. Don’t blame the client for the problem, don’t blame yourself for the problem, this isn’t helpful at all in the moment. Once the situation is fully resolved, FULLY resolved, and you have access to lots and lots of information then you can do detailed break down of what (if anything) went wrong, why it went wrong, and how/if this could be prevented in future. Remember if you decide the fault was the client’s, remember to give yourself a fair share of that blame because you CHOSE that client. Whenever we decide the client is at fault, we need to take a hard look at our placement interview process and criteria, reaching out to mentors, and even better (as they are not emotionally invested either) skilled legacy breeders for advice. If you find yourself tempted to assign fault with the client, without detailed reflection and data collection it’s very likely you are acting from a place of emotion, and trying to make yourself feel better. But feeling better may not teach us anything we can use going forward. Breeding dogs is really hard, to do it well we need to be tough, and that very often means being willing to be uncomfortable within ourselves as we learn. Always remember, life happens, there may not be anyone at fault!

Below you can find a visual of our potential return flow, this chart helps us determine if it’s possible to keep the dog in the present home, and steps to take to facilitate that, or if it’s in everyone’s best interest for the dog to leave it’s current home, and how to facilitate that. Each block could be a blog on it’s own, and of course not all possible outcomes (such as the dog moving directly from the present home to it’s new home) are covered here. You can download a copy below the chart!



Interested in more discussion on this subject, or any of those in our When Bad Things Happen To Good Breeder series? Be sure to sign up for our newsletter, follow us on Facebook, look out for our very own podcast (premiering soon with this very series!), and let us know how you handle these tough aspects of breeding.


Puppy Selection Process

One of the most common questions we get is how, when, and why we select puppies for each family.

First, the reasons we believe it is important for us to choose puppies for our families.

1. We have decades of first hand experience with the dogs in our pedigrees, many of whom we raised from puppies themselves. This means we understand the traits present in our dogs, and what traits are expected in a particular litter.

2. We have decades of experience working with puppy owners and their puppies, both those who have puppies from our program and those who take classes with us through Clickety Split Dog Training.

3. We have spent hours and hours of time working with our puppies. This means we know each puppy and have lot of observations about their behavior and personality.

4. We know our clients, we have put considerable effort into getting to know our clients so we can best understand their needs in a German Shepherd Dog.

5. Ultimately we are responsible for our puppies for LIFE, while puppy owners may relinquish responsibility and return the puppy to us, the buck stops with us, and so in the end we are responsible for the choices we make, or allow to be made, for our puppies.

This means that there is just no comparison between our methodical and information based system of puppy placement and the emotion driven choices made by well meaning puppy seekers flush with puppy fever, but very little experience or knowledge.

Second, the system we use to make selections.

1. Screening at the website level. We have designed and written our website to act as our first level of filtering. We provide an abundance of information about all facets of our program and we place responsibility for exploring that information on the puppy seeker. This weeds out impulsive puppy seekers, and those who have little interest in investing their time and effort into their puppy.

2. Screening at the contact level. We have designed our contact flow system to answer common questions, provide links to necessary information, and again, to discourage impulse puppy seekers and those who think puppies are easy.

3. We know that the GSD is not an easy breed to live with. These dogs need considerable commitment from their owners, so each step of our selection process is designed to filter out those who are unlikely to “put in the work” with their dog. This means even before we send out the questionnaire we are thinking about how to encourage good prospects while discouraging high risk prospects.

4. Program Level Screening. Once we have the New Client Questionnaire in hand we immediately screen out those who are just not right for our program. This doesn’t usually mean they are not right for the breed, just that our program doesn’t best meet their, and our, goals.

5. Litter Level Screening. For those clients who are right for our program our next task is determining if a particular litter is right for their needs. While our traits are pretty uniform (as any good breeder’s should be) this doesn’t mean that there are not subtle differences from litter to litter. Our job is to do our best to recognize the needs of the puppy seeker, and match those to the expected traits in a particular litter. When those don’t match up, it’s our job to communicate that to the puppy seeker and shift them to a future litter.

Finally, as we are raising the puppies we are making the final puppy placement decisions. This is never done impulsively, or carelessly, but instead is done using our decades of experience with our families and our bloodlines and our new knowledge of the needs of our families. Here are a few of the things we consider.

1. Sex: Sex is a very important consideration, especially if there are dogs in the home, as most dogs do best in opposite sex pairs. Sex also affects size (males generally being about 20 pounds heavier than their sisters) and for some owners the size is important.

2. Mouth Skills: A puppy who tends to have a “hard mouth” will usually outgrow this trait, but during that time these puppies can be really hard on small children. So we need to consider this.

3. Prey Drive: Some puppies have more, or less, “chase and bite” instinct, and while it’s true that the puppy biting stage only lasts a few months, these puppies will chase and bite more and so again, we need to be sure we find unflappable and experienced owners for these high prey drive puppies because we know those types of owners do best with enthusiastic chaser biters.

4. Structure: Structure is most important for puppies who will be living a physically demanding lifestyle. Adventure buddies, sport dogs, service dogs, and farm dogs, often move the most and from an early age and traits such as flat feet, short underlines, imbalanced degree of angulation front to back, while harmless and unnoticed in a typical companion dog can make for long term soundness problems for hard working dogs.

5. Color and Coat: While these traits are cosmetic they are occasionally very important to our puppy owners and we want to respect that. So these are traits we also have to consider as we make placements. There are two coat types for our breed (that are commonly seen) and our program produces three colors (sable-all shades, black and tan- all shades, and solid black).

Now, to the things we rarely if ever consider because while these things may be present in puppies they are transitory and NOT a good way to predict which puppy will flourish in which home.

1. High Drive/Low Drive: These labels are just not real, they don’t describe real traits we can identify in a puppy.

2. High Energy/Low Energy: Again, while a puppy may be busier or more laid back, this type of behavior is transitory and often the “laziest” puppy in a litter will mature out to be just as busy as it’s siblings and the reverse is just as true.

3. Dominate/Bossy or Sumissive/Shy: Again, while a puppy may be quite a pill with the litter, be quite bold, and another may be picked on, or slow to explore, these traits are common and often a single puppy will exhibit ALL of these behaviors during the first 9 weeks. Our years of experience and knowledge also allows us to recognize if a puppy is not behaviorally typical, and just like for a true runt, we do not place puppies that are not behaviorally normal and typical.

4. Larger/smaller: Within the bell curve of normal size for a puppy there is considerable variation. A puppy may be larger or smaller due to the quality of it’s placental attachment, crowding within a uterine horn, or a slow to come along suckle reflex but these sizes rarely hold true. Generally puppies within a litter will mature out within a few pounds of their same sex siblings. Note: Runt is often a term applied to a small, but normally sized puppy, and that is not correct. An actual runt is a puppy so extremely small it’s well below the small end of the bell curve for size/weight, these puppies can have (but don’t always have) congenital defects that might affect their health later on. We do NOT sell true runts, but instead either keep them and grow them out, or place them with trusted friends, so we can determine as they mature if they are healthy. Thus far, our program has produced only 2 true runts, one was our beloved Vespa (not healthy or normal as an adult) and the other Portia (completely normal sized and healthy as an adult). Again, we would never sell any puppy that is not typical in size, health, and behavior.

5. Show Quality/Working Quality: While these labels are often used by breeders to bring a higher price for one puppy than another, we really do not believe this is ethical. There is NO WAY for a breeder to evaluate the show or working potential of an individual puppy. Yes, structural assessment can be done, but those are of little use if testicles don’t drop, the bite goes off, or any other DQ fault, or structural fault develops. Yes, there are lots of Puppy Aptitude Tests that breeders love to use, but the research on such tests (which is extensive) proves that there is NO PAT that accurately predicts adult behavior, yet alone talent for show or sport. We have placed lots and lots of show and working titles on our home breds, and none of those showed any special shiny label that guaranteed their talent. Purchasing a puppy for show or sport is a crap shoot, and boils down to pedigree knowledge coupled with the talent and work ethic of the new owner much more than anything we can see at 9 weeks.

So, to sum up, we choose puppies for our families because we are responsible for each puppy we produce, and nobody is better qualified than the are to choose a puppy for your family. Not only do we have the experience and skill to do this work, we value each and every family that chooses to get a puppy from our program and it is our sincere effort to do our best by our puppy and our client.

You may have also noticed, that picking individual puppies is FAR FAR less important than choosing breeding program carefully, because in the end the talent of the breeder and the quality of the pedigree is the really important part.

Nuts and Bolts

1. We will select the puppy for each family, with input from the family based, and on our observations and skill.

2. For those families who can attend Puppy Parties, we also take our observations from these days into account.

3. Puppies are selected between the age of 7 and 9 weeks. We usually know by the 8 week Puppy Party who is going where.

4. Do NOT get attached to certain puppies simply because they are more photogenic than other puppies. Try to observe all the puppies as we post about the litter. Remember to keep your mind open to all the puppies and not to get fixated on a particular one.

5. Placement decisions are usually announced at the 8 week puppy party.

In the end, the dog your puppy grows into depends far less on which puppy from the litter you bring home, and more on the breeder you choose, and your own hard work, care, love, attention, and skill as your raise your puppy.

When it doesn’t matter: If you are not getting a puppy from a program like ours, it may not matter if the breeder picks your puppy for you. The breeder may house their puppies in a kennel and not really know each puppy very well. The breeder may not be very well educated in puppy raising, or breed traits, pedigree, learning theory and etc. The breeder may have purchased (instead of bred) their breeding stock and really not know the dogs or traits in the pedigree very well. The breeder may have lots of puppies on the ground at once and not have time for spending hours with each litter. The breeder may not do any interview process, or may not know what questions to ask. The breeder may be hoping that Puppy Aptitude Testing will give them a crystal ball into the puppy’s future (it won’t). None of those things are “bad” they just reflect different priorities for different breeders.

In such cases it probably doesn’t matter if the breeder, or the client, chooses the puppy. The breeder may use a “first come” process or charge more for “first pick” (don’t pay more for first pick unless you know enough that your pick is meaningful) and that’s fine. When this is the case don’t get hung up on who chooses, because it likely doesn’t matter.

Welcome Home Puppy!

10 tips to help your new puppy settle in to your home without the drama.

So, you are bringing your new puppy home soon, or maybe your new puppy is already trundling around your feet at this very moment! Congratulations on the newest addition to your home, the next week is going to be a roller coaster of puppy and human emotions, so buckle up, keep your hands and feet inside the car, and prepare for the ride!

While ups and downs are normal and expected you have some control over these highs and lows, even the ability to level things out for you and your puppy. With just a few tips you can by pass the roller coaster and take a scenic drive instead.

Tip 1: Plan beforehand. Before you bring your puppy home sit down with all family members and discuss the training, management, feeding, schedules, rules, and all the other minutia involved in a new puppy. Write things down, make lists!

Tip 2: Purchase and collect supplies. Puppies need a LOT of stuff, just like babies do, it’s really difficult to manage a puppy without the needed supplies so source these items before your puppy’s arrival date.

Tip 3: Talk to your breeder about how they have prepared the puppy for transitions. Be sure to ask the breeder how you might leverage this work into a smooth transition week. You can review our Easy Transition series for ideas!

Tip 4: Prepare your management plan and set up all areas. Puppies need a variety of types of management. Baby gates and playpens can keep a puppy in the same room as caregivers. Closed doors keep puppies out of places they should not be or cannot be supervised. Start teaching children (and some adults) to keep stuff up, and to put stuff away, before the puppy comes home. If toys litter your living space now, they will once the puppy arrives and this will mean extra work for parents and conflict in the family. Make keeping possessions put away when not in use a priority.

Tip 5: Keep things quiet and low key upon arrival and for the first week.
Your new puppy will be under a great deal of stress, and even distress, due to the change in location, loss of known humans and their canine family, and the new humans and pets already in the home. Don’t make this stress into distress by “throwing everything” at your puppy at once. Using management and this awesome Dog and Puppy Survival Guide carefully and gradually introduce your new puppy to your other dogs. Use this Pandemic Puppy Podcast episode to help you make the first week a happy one.

Tip 6: Use confinement to your advantage. Crate training and confinement training is where things can really go wrong fast. Use a program like our own Crate School to help you navigate this training in a positive and productive way.

Tip 7: Use a solid house training plan from day 1. When everyone in the house is on the same page with house training things go better for everyone. Pick a plan, such as our Poop School, and stick with it. Be sure the plan you choose does not involve depriving the puppy of freedom to move, excessive confinement, or restricted access to water.

Tip 8: Prepare Children: Children (and adults!) often have unrealistic expectations about what having a puppy is like. Prepare children for the puppy by reading to, or with, them some good books about living with dogs. Visit the Family Paws website a vast array of resources and help on this subject.

Tip 9 Connect with other puppy parents! There is a great sense of support in a community with those also raising puppies. Take advantage of our FB group devoted just to puppy raising. You can find free resources in the guides, everything from detailed house training plans, to webinars on socialization and biting/mouthing. Curated by a group of professional trainers and puppy raising experts, this group is a great place to get real time answers to the abundance of questions that come up when raising puppies, or just getting support.

Tip 10: Keep that puppy close. Puppies who have just moved to a new home will easily experience separation distress, so stick close to your puppy at first. Sleep the puppy in a small crate right on the bed with you, set up their playpen very near where you work so the puppy can see you. You can even sit right by the pen and work on a laptop, to help soothe a sleepy, but distressed, puppy. Then using a plan such as Crate School you can gradually get the puppy used to you being further and further away as the puppy settles in and moves past the stress of transition week.

In closing, remember, that puppies grow into dogs fast, and dogs don’t live very long compared to humans. So cherish every moment of your puppy’s early life, in a moment those days will be gone. Have realistic expectations, take lots of photos, get support and good advice, and ENJOY your puppy!

Puppy Fever: 5 Things you Absolutely Need To Know BEFORE you contact a breeder.

Is Puppy Fever keeping you up at night? Do you spend free time scrolling through breeder listings, asking friends where they got their puppies, and searching high and low for the puppy of your dreams?

Before you start reaching out to breeders, here are 5 things you need to learn, consider, and plan BEFORE you start interviewing breeders, and being interviewed by breeders. This blog is part of our Finding a Puppy by Finding a Breeder Series.

1. Are you ready for a puppy?

2. What type of dog is right for me and my family? (For those looking for a GSD: Is a German Shepherd Right For Me)

3. What kinds of supplies will I need before I bring my puppy home?

4. What types of professionals do I need to find to help me?

5. How to start searching for a breeder.

A puppy is a decade plus commitment to providing for another living being. By taking the time to fully consider this decision before jumping in you can stack the odds firmly in your favor and join the ranks of happy owners, whose dogs make their lives better, happier, and more complete.

Are you considering adding a German Shepherd to your family or searching for a German Shepherd puppy? Feel free to explore this site and Contact Us if we can be of any help.





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