MY STORY

When I first came to the US from Austria in 1983, I noticed a big difference between the German Shepherds I grew up with and the ones I saw here. Twenty eight years ago, when I started raising German Shepherds, I first used American bloodlines. Soon I realized that they had many problems. For instance, many of them had bad hips and other health issues. Some were too aggressive while others were too timid. Many were not very intelligent with no ability to be trained. What makes the difference between the German Shepherds in Germany and most of Europe versus America? 

In Germany the German Shepherd Club is very strict with breeding. Several conditions must be met to be able to register the puppies. 

1. The parents hips must be certified and the overall health must be good. 

2. Every dog must have a Schutzhund title before breeding. 

The Schutzhund title includes 4 main categories.

a) Obedience training

b) Search and rescue

c) Herding

d) Bite work for police work. 

If we were to apply those standards to the American dogs, most of them would not be qualified for breeding. 

After I began importing breeding stock from Germany, the puppies started to turn out very nice. Very rarely was there a problem with the hips. Nothing is 100% eventually the cases dropped to 1 or 2 %. It is good to get a warranty on the hips, but it is much better, if you never have to use that warranty. 

Especially the German working lines are extremely healthy. I had numerous customers come back 16 years later to get another puppy. They would tell me that they lived all these years without any health problems. The average age of the American lines is much lower. 

Most of my customers are families, so it became my goal to come up with an ideal family dog. At first I tried mostly working lines. However some of them were very high drive and hard to handle. Then I got show lines and they can be too mellow to be a good watch dog.

So I started to combine the two and it seems to produce the ideal family dog. Not too much drive and not too timid, just right in the middle. My main goal has been to raise the ideal family dog, that will provide their owners with protection and plenty of affection. One that is healthy, obedient and intelligent, capable of learning.... Over the years I have achieved that.