Female or Male German Shepherd?

You HAD a male - your next should be female, with a different coat pattern to what he had (wolf-sable, saddle-back, blanket-back, bi-colour, self-black). A pup that constantly reminds you of the mature adult you lost but doesn't have the experience & training that your dog had when it was an ADULT will disappoint you.

I had to put my last home-bred down (cancer) on my 70th birthday! I knew which 2 bloodlines I wanted to combine, but it took 20 months before even one of them was available. (See http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/dog.html?id=132502... - her mother's sire is one of the 2 I wanted; I have semen stored from the other for after Bea is proven fertile)

• "The breeder I am seeing has paper work so I know they are pure bred although he doesn't seem as intelligent of them as the other breeder who doesn't have paper work but has both the parents so they are pure bred as well, does it make a different..."

The term "pure-bred" has become meaningless. What counts is whether there is registration with an internationally-recognised kennel club. If you are a Yank, it's the AKC. If you're a Canuck, it's the CKC.

The term "paper-work" is also close to valueless - to me, it includes

(1) a KC-Registration & Certificate of Ownership in MY name, plus

(2) an official pedigree showing at least 3 generations (parents + grandparents + greatgrandparents), plus

(3) evidence of the hip & elbow certificates of both parents (preferably also for every ancestor since hip-xray schemes became available in the 1970s), plus

(4) the veterinary card stating what vaccinations were given, and on what date or dates, plus

(5) a printed & signed Guarantee stating what compensation I will receive should my pet (a) have an infection in the first 7-8 days or (b) develop any genetic disorder in the first so-many years.

But many mugginses think it means just a pedigree drawn up by the breeder, or just a vaccination certificate.

• "Also I know males are more protective of property"

Wrong.

• "Also we might get into breeding ourselves as kind of a tribute to our late dog."

Eh??? Only by having his GENES can a new pet be a "tribute" to him. But as his ancestry was mixed, you could not predict how a particular one of his offspring would develop in terms of attitude, behaviour, courage, determination, intelligence, size, trainability.

You don't yet KNOW enough to consider getting breeding stock - THAT is proven by you needing to ask the Y!A kids your query re the 2 breeders and your belief about "protective". You don't even know the many types of activity in which a GSD can prove its worth, let alone the certificates that GENUINE breeders of GSDs require both sire & dam to possess before a mating is allowed. Click http://groups.yahoo.com/neo/groups/The_GSD_Source/...

But when you DO know enough, it must be a *BỊTCH* that you buy.

YOU cannot breed without a bỉtch, and you obviously have NO idea as to how fierce the competition is between stud-owners. Whether he is operating in Agility Trials, conformation showing, drugs-&-explosives detection, herding, Obedience Tests, protection, search&rescue: A stud owned by a newbie is MOST unlikely to attract any genuine breeders - probably not even people who know as little about GSDs as you do at present.

• "Obviously if I get into breeding I will do a ton of research,"

I laugh or sneer at what people in Y!A call "research". Merely lookong at pet-advice web-sites and/or the propaganda in commercial kennels' web-sites is NOT research. You need to DECIDE whether you are COMMITTED. If you are:

1: LEARN what real GSDs are all about, starting with the International Standard of the GSD at http://www.fci.be/uploaded_files/166g01-en-sv.doc - it is MUCH stricter than the rebel documents invented in Britain, Canada, the USA!

2: Decide WHICH aspects of GSD ability you will aim your pups at.

3: Find out which breeders produce stock that has a high success rate in that/those activities WHEN OWNED BY OTHER PEOPLE. Contact a couple of those breeders who are within your driving range to find out whether YOU meet their requirements, and when they expect a litter that is likely to have enough suitable pups for one with FULL breeding-registration to be available to you.

4: Find a club which engages in all the activities you are interested in. Yanks should look to the USCA or the WDA; Canucks should look to the GSSCC.

5: Find a knowledgeable, reputable mentor to guide you on bloodlines and preparation

Females are more protective than males (for both territory and family). This is general for all dog breeds. A breeder that knows more about the dogs they are breeding is generally better than some one who doesn't. Although, if they don't have papers it doesn't sound to me like they are the better breeder. A good breeder should have all the papers required. Papers for the puppies, the parents, and their grandparents. They should also have their dogs checked for any health problems. From the grandparents, parents, and puppies. This is very important in a German Shepherd as they can suffer from many genetic health problems.

Please, do not breed. There are so many dogs waiting for a home in a shelter right now. Think about it this way. For every puppy you breed, it takes a shelter dog's chance at having a home, a family, love, and their own life away. It is a very selfish choice to breed when so many need homes.

Either gender would do as long as the dogs are altered. Altering eliminates some of the sex based issues a dog may have, like estrus in females and the tendency to roam in search of mates in males. Unaltered males also tend to display more aggression and are more prone to leg hiking when urinating or scent marking then altered males, so take that into mind.

If the breeder you are getting the dogs from has no knowledge or a lack of knowledge in the breed he or she is breeding, that's a *RED FLAG* and you need to fine another, more reputable breeder then that backyard breeding garbage of a breeder you're in touch with. No good breeder breeds dogs without serious knowledge of the breed he or she is breeding. Without knowledge of the breed, how can the breeder know if she or she's breeding the animals to the correct conformation and standard? German Shepherds are NOTORIOUSLY prone to tons of serious genetic issues, mainly skeletal and temperamental which can both be lethal, if your breeder doesn't have an education of the breed, how will he or she know or even test for these serious and life threatening defects?....

I SERIOUSLY hope you re-think or revise your choice of breeders and find someone or a good breeder who actually has knowledge of the dogs he or she is breeding. When you buy from a moron with no education of his or her breed who is likely breeding for money alone, you're supporting crap breeders and you're only going to end up with a crap bred dog. Papers mean NOTHING if you have a moronic breeder with no sense of the animals he or she is breeding. Any idiot with some contacts or two AKC bred dogs, crap or otherwise can get papers on their dogs, there are tons of worthless mongrel or badly bred purebred dogs with AKC papers, it doesn't mean their breedable or even worth anything more then your common shelter mongrel.

A breeder with no papers can hand you ANY type of mongrel type dog and without legit papers, you can't know what the animal is or what it's complied of. Junk crap breeder is your second choice as well.

Find a reputable breeder. Don't settle for crap dogs or people who breed valueless dogs for money. There's enough genetically screwed up GSD's, no need to support idiots breeding more.

Breeding won't pay tribute to your dog, you'd only make yourselves backyard breeders and place yourself on the level of the dirt low crap breeders you're trying to get dogs from.

Either gender would do if properly altered....

Stop seeking out backyard breeders and stop contemplating backyard breeders. Along with Pit Bull Terriers, and Labradors, German Sheps and their mixes are the most common dogs and mixes found in shelters and rescues ALL over.

its ok man