German Shepherds as a breed
If you have landed on this page of the website you are obviously interested in owning German Shepherds or learning about them as a breed before enquiring. I’d like to speak from the heart, and share my experience and expertise to put some mis-information to rest. This information is here to fully inform you about the breed, and, as with any breed, what could potentially lie ahead for you. It may not, but I would be doing you a disservice if I did not share what I know and write this page for you.
German Shepherds like any animal or even human for that matter, even with expert breeding is not immune to developing health conditions and no amount of testing puppies can guarantee that a GS will remain 100% healthy over the course of it’s life.
Once a pup leaves the breeders care, we no longer have control of their lifestyle - diet, exercise or any trauma or accidents the pup may have.
Overall joint health can be affected a number of factors, even if everything is followed to the letter, mother nature can choose to be cruel..
For this reason, my pups leave here with five weeks insurance and our contract of sale states firmly that adequate insurance should be a priority for the new owners to plan for once our insurance runs out.
Hip and elbow issues have been a part of the GS breed since they existed and unfortunately is not something that can be bred out. This means that even puppies from hip and elbow scored parents can develop issues later in life.
Estimated Breed Value from the Kennel Club..
Highly theoretical, badly explained and misunderstood by many. The flaws lie within the theory that does not include health tests from other Countries, raising a dogs estimated breed value if there are any imported dogs in the bloodline. This gives false value and still cannot guarantee how a puppy will grow and develop in different environments and lifestyles.
Epilepsy..
So, this can happen to a dog for several reasons. One in every couple of hundred dogs can develop epilepsy for no reason whatsoever. Injury, accident or trauma can trigger a dog to become epileptic. Sometimes epilepsy can run through a bloodline. As a breeder, I research as much as I can about their bloodline, but like all conditions, it can skip one or several generations. Just like humans really..
The ‘C’ Word
As for epilepsy, there is no testing that can determine whether a dog will develop cancer later in life. If there was, we would certainly be doing it for humans too! Any dog, healthy, healthier or healthiest can still develop this awful condition and as a breeder we just cannot predict anything in the future of our pups development with any certainty, except we have done our best to breed you a pup with as much knowledge, experience and love as is humanly possible.
Social Media (especially with the addition of AI)
What you see, hear or scroll will never come close to having a conversation with a highly experienced breeder face to face, seeing new pups, the condition they are born into and the nurturing they are receiving as newborns, their parents, the breeder, their own family and the other animals in the environment. We encourage you to talk to our pup/dog owners and make your own mind up about whether you would like to own one of our beautiful puppies and welcome them into your family as a forever friend.
CDA (Canine Dilution Aolepecia)
This condition is very rare in German Shepherds as the dilute colours in Shepherds are not forced but part of the natural breed. Having this condition causes no health issues in a dog, which is another misconception. However, it can cause balding around the ears and some other areas. Again, there is no prior test to diagnose and even for an experienced vet it would be difficult to diagnose. All we can do is research the bloodline and lessen the odds with optimum diet and lifestyle.
German Shepherds as a breed are very intelligent and there are many ways to keep their minds occupied without over exercising them.
Lick mats
Toys (they love toys where they can roll them about to get treats! - that’s how clever they are)
Puzzle toys to keep their minds sharp
Bones, Bones!, Bones!!
Human interraction from everyone of all ages, as much as you can give them
I highly recommend once you get your pup, you focus on training and getting your dog very well socialised! The effort you put into this will bring you rewards 1000% back in terms of nuturing a fantastic family pet that will love and protect you forever with everything they have.
We start to socialise our pups early before they leave for their new homes, they have been brushed and bathed and played with by our vast family of dog lovers of all ages so are very used to this and I’m sure hoping it continues when you take you new pup home!
And for final peace of mind..
I have most of the top UK Kennels in our various bloodlines. This means an extremely special and well researched gene pool and keeps the coefficiency of our puppies very low. This is what I and my family do. It is our whole life and even though it takes up 365 days of our year we truly love it as a way of life. When we give you one of our pups, we are giving you a piece of our hearts, and we are trusting that you look after them with the best of yours.
Catherine X
Some of our Crufts Qualifiers this year
