Has anyone had experience with kienbach shepherds out of CT ?

good or bad ?

On Tue, 06 Dec 2005 15:21:58 GMT Paul whittled these words:
Has anyone had experience with kienbach shepherds out of CT ?

good or bad ?

I don't know this particular breeder but I can offer some general advice.

There is a serious oversupply of German Shepherd Dogs in the USA. There
are far more dogs being given up to shelters than GSD can hope to save.
It is appropriate, therefore, to be extra picky about which dogs add to
the existing population.

First, health testing. Everyone knows about hip testing. But good
knowledgable breeders know there is more to screen for than hips. Have at
least sire, dam, grandparents and great grandparents of each been screened
for vWD? for elbow dysplasia? for eye disease?

Note that the breed club code of ethics requires screening for elbow
dysplasia
http://www.gsdca.org/Noframes/breeders_code.html - and this breed club
doesn't even do a stellar job of protecting the breed. How many dogs in
the pedigree is the breeder willing to certify have not been affected by
Perianal Fistulas? Will they at least certify that direct line? Can they
similarly certify that the direct line has been at least screened for
heart disease? Dogs are biological beings, and imperfect. Perfectly
reputable breeders may have a genetic problem pop up. And not every
health issue warrants withdrawal from the gene pool. BUT breeders should
be doing their best to not breed dogs with the worst problems or the most
deadly problems. And that requires actively looking for and recording
information.

Great temperament is important, but it alone is not sufficient for
creating more German Shepherd Dogs. And every breeder thinks their dog is
just wonderful. If they don't compete with their dogs, forget it. They
aren't subjecting their opinion to more objective evaluation. There are
plenty of kinds of competition to choose from, conformation is not
necessarily the best screening for the breed. So what are the
accmplishments of sire, dam, grand parents and great grandparents? In
this breed there is rarely a good excuse for any one of these to be
lacking at least basic titles. "Champion bloodlines" is pretty much
meaningless in evaluating whether a dog should be bred IF it has no
accomplishments of its own.


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