Why can North American GSD breeders never seem to breed world class dogs?? - Page 3

Susie, do you feel as if German breeders will sell their best dogs to the US (or anywhere)?

Maybe a better question would be - what prevents America's best GSD's from reaching their full potential?

I'm sure there are plenty of American breeders who produce world class dogs, they are there in a lot of countries including UK, but to prove a dog to be world class needs a competitive world class trainer and with only a handful of those compared to the number of GSDs being bred, they are going to pick and choose from breeders they know and probably have their next training prospect planned before the parents are even mated.

The proportion of average to crap GSD's in Europe to good ones is probably not much different to the rest of the world.

Margaret N-J

Blitzen, there are sold hundreds of dogs year after year to the States for decades now, out of every bloodline, "famous" or not.
Do we sell "the best"? I don´t know, at least the US imported several VA dogs and several Bundessieger participants over the years, dogs that were used a lot in my country too ...
You bought males, females, puppies, adults....

But what is "the best"? VA3 isn´t better than V8 for breeding - 290 points is not better than 270 points for breeding.
The breeding has to fit, 2 dogs are involved...

And what is "full potential"???
For me it´s a dog able to work, healthy, looking and behaving like a German Shepherd.
People shouldn´t look for champions, but for solid dogs.

The proportion of average to crap GSD's in Europe to good ones is probably not much different to the rest of the world.

Yep, but we shouldn´t breed the crappy ones...
 

We should strive for excellent rating in structure and training of our breeding stock. ''World class'' is a marketing term to con the beginners. But ''V'' rated thread people. Great points to ponder.

In America we have ruined every breed we have imported by having no standard or making our own standard. Pick a breed any breed it's all the same.

susie, nice post!

most people here breed to the flavor of the month..what sells the puppies not what you get out of the breeding.
Fantastic dogs are overlooked because the name will not sell the litter..





 



 

There are many reasons why this is the situation.
Some of them have been mentioned already.
I'll add that in the U.S. we have a mentality of "we want it now!" And, we are willing to pay for it.
It's much easier to pay for something and have it right away than to develop it.
We buy from Europe because "they are better."
There seems to be a distrust that what we have here in the U.S. is good, and the Europeans are good at telling us this also.

As Garrison said, every breed of dog has been ruined in this country.
We have a registry, the AKC, that doesn't care about dogs. They care about registrations ($$$).
The AKC tries to con you in to believing they are here to protect breeders and dogs.
They only say this because they want more registrations ($$$) and do not give a shit about these dogs.
The national breed organizations are run by a bunch of fools and the GSDCA and their breeding practices are a perfect example of this.
(Bubba, I'm not trying to turn this in to an argument about the GSDCA and UScA, but, UScA and the WDA would not exist if the GSDCA had been doing a good job with the GSD for the past 100 years.)
We as a group on internet sites with the dogs we have are such a small group of GSD owners in this country. My guess would be less than 1/10th of 1% of all the GSD's in this country. 
Most people don't have a clue about these dogs. I'm sure you've all heard it before if you've been out in the public with a sable GSD. What is that dog mixed with? He/She is part shepard (misspelled on purpose), right?

The other thing I feel strongly about is what others have said also.
There are many great dogs in this country, but, they are pets.
A good friend said to me, "the best Schutzhund dog in the USA is sitting in someone's back yard."
You can fill in the spot occupied by Schutzhund, with Police K-9, SAR dog, Military K-9, obedience champion, etc.

I think it´s too easy to blame AKC, they only register dogs, they don´t create standards.
The breed organizations are the ones responsible for their specifically breed.
It´s up to them to develop standards.

OGBS: I'll add that in the U.S. we have a mentality of "we want it now!" And, we are willing to pay for it.
It's much easier to pay for something and have it right away than to develop it.

You are right, but that´s like driving a car without knowing about brakes and gas...
You´ll sooner or later disturb the car.

I asked a similar question a while back, and Daryl commented on something which I think makes sense, and it ties with what Susie is saying: the amount of people training as a hobby seems to be considerably higher in europe, hence if you sell a litter, it is more likely they will be trained and be more visible. If the puppy turns out great, it is more likely to be used in breeding. If the dog is sold to a place where no training other than basic obedience will occur, as is the case outside europe, even if the dog is SUPER, it is likely to be in the shadows where it will not get noticed. Having customers train/title dogs also gives the breeder more feedback on what is working or not working with what is being produced. 
If there where more people participating in dog sports, probably there would be more people paying attention to local dogs as well?

Duke, good to see you posting again.