Sorting Through Noise when Searching For Working Line German Shepherd Puppies for Sale

With the speed of modern technology, searching for working line German Shepherd puppies for sale can be overwhelming. For many of you, grief from a recent loss can be overwhelming. How does one go about replacing a dog that truly was part of one’s family. In other cases, we hear over and over how a family just loved their dog, but what a mess. Their dog came from unknown origins. Cancer and joint issues are most common causes of early death in German Shepherds. All too often we hear of the heartbreak that comes from having to put down a dog as young as 2-4 years of age due to these two common culprits. The runner up big thing to look for is dogs with Degenerative Myelopathy (DM). Dogs carrying two copies of this gene lose the ability to use their hind legs as they get older. Quality of life drops pretty low when these dogs can’t walk as they get older. But get online and type in a search for “working line German Shepherd puppies for sale.” What do you find? Hundreds of breeders. You will find American show line dogs, working line dogs, dogs with no pedigree. Prices can range from four to five hundred for an accidental “back yard breeding” all the way up to $4-8000 for a well bred puppy— and everything in between. Here at Czech Working Line we have been around the block and back. This article will give six big ideas on how to sort through the mountain of options. At our ranch here in Oklahoma, we only raise working line German Shepherds. Every litter of working line German Shepherd puppies for sale we offer come from IGP, Schutzhund titled pedigrees. Every dog! But this comes with a higher price tag. We recognize our dogs won’t be the perfect fit for every family. The goal of this article won’t be to convince you to take home one of our puppies ( although they are pretty awesome…). But rather, the goal of this article will be to help you find the best fit for your family. For some of you this might be a mixed breed Shepherd from a local rescue. For others, choosing that perfect fit from a well-bred litter of working line German Shepherd puppies for sale will make more sense. So, let’s get into it? How does one sort through all the noise?

Bringing Home a Rescued German Shepherd Puppy

What are your end goals in bringing home a puppy? Answering this question will get your seventy percent of the way in sorting through the mountain of available options. Are you primarily looking for a companion to accompany you while hiking or walking in the park? But aren’t too concerned about protection— whether as a good family protection dog or something more serious as a trained guard dog. If this is you and you are mostly looking for a companion, then a rescue might honestly be an option. Shelters often have many dogs available that can meet these needs. Bringing home a shelter dog can often include additional challenges. Many of these dogs have spent enough time in kennels they can become extremely difficult to potty training. Others will be frightened of people or dog aggressive. Nevertheless, these challenges acknowledged, rescuing one of these dogs can be rewarding. For some of you reading this article, working with an unloved castaway can be extremely therapeutic. If this is you, be prepared to put aside some extra dollars for vet bills. You may also need some guidance from a professional dog trainer if your dog has aggression issues or simply fails to make headway with normal obedience training. Brining home a rescue can be hard. There can often be unexpected costs with these dogs. But it can also be incredibly rewarding

What about a Show Line German Shepherd Puppy?

We have previously contrasted the show lines with working line GSDs. There is neither space nor time in this article to address the myriad of issues at stake in this conversation. Click here to read where we have previously addressed this subject in great detail. There are some fairly clear reasons why we NEVER mix show lines with our working line German Shepherds. The two big ones are simple and clear. First, the roach back of modern show line German Shepherds is arguably criminal. A child that had only seen wild animals would likely see the curved spine and sloping hindquarters on modern show line GSDs and assume these dogs were deformed or had some form of scoliosis. Try building a treehouse for your children and then angle the support beams so they are not straight up and down and see how physics works for you. Form follows function. Change the angle to the spine and hindquarters and it’s no wonder that so many GSDs end up with hip dysplasia! The second reason why we here at Czech Working Line steer clear of show lines has to do with function. Winning an AKC championship is nothing more than a glorified beauty contest. Dogs walk in a showing and the judge picks a dog that most represents the breed standard. But this says absolutely nothing about the dog’s ability to respond well to obedience training. It says nothing about its ability to perform tracking or protection work. Germans Shepherds were bred as working dogs. By working dogs we mean they were meant to accomplish a specific task. AKC registered German Shepherds can be purebred in every sense of the word. They can come from pedigrees stacked full of AKC champions, yet be entirely ill-suited to working as a German Shepherd. We know this from first hand experience. Raised in a family that bred show dogs, our family has personally won on a national level with several dog breeds. We have been there and done that. We have won reserve winners dog on a national level at AKC nationals. Yet our family has washed our hands of this practice. Breeding for external beauty without confirming these dogs are able to work as per the intention of the breed is to morph the breed into a shadow of the breed intent. Why breed or own German Shepherds if all one desires is a big couch warmer. Working dogs were bred to work. Showing without testing their ability to perform at a high level in obedience or working arguably is to destroy the breed. There is much more than could be said on this subject. If you too have been pondering these issues, we’d love to talk in person. Get a rescue if such a choice makes sense. But for goodness sakes, steer clear of all show lines. For any show breeders reading this article. Just stop it! I know we live in a cancel culture where we aren’t supposed to say the quiet part out loud. But just stop it. The extreme roach back and untested abilities is destroying the breed. If you arrived at our website having typed into google, “working line German Shepherd puppies for sale” take time to educate yourself on the difference between working and show lines. For our family, we convictional are against breeding even one more litter of show line GSDs. We hope that after you dig into this issue yourself, that you too will come to this same conclusion. Just like many short nosed breeds have been bred to a point of being walking health disasters, so too are many show line GSDs. If you know you are wanting a healthier kind of dog get a working line German Shepherd puppy. If you know you will want an easy to train dog with natural ability to serve as a protection dog, then by all means, limit your google searches to finding working line German Shepherd puppies for sale. Stay clear of the show lines with a ten foot pole. Well bred working line dogs ought to consistently exceed expectations when it comes to longevity, health and ability to work. It’s precisely why our family only breeds working line German Shepherd puppies. Its why we never mix show lines into our breedings.

So Why Would the Working Line German Shepherds be Easier to Train?

Such an excellent question! The question of why working line German Shepherd puppies should be far more able to perform than show lines can be summed up in one word— titled. Working line dogs from titled pedigrees are more than a snobby response that starts with the idea that “my dog is better than your dogs.” And it has virtually nothing in common with AKC show championships. Think of getting a working line German Shepherd titled more like preparing your dog for an exam. Think of a working line German Shepherd Schutzhund title kind of like the ACT of dog training. Schutzhund titling (IGP) is not the only option. Protection Sports Association (PSA) is another great alternative. Whether completing an IGP or PSA title with your dog, what you are doing is proving your dog’s ability to respond to obedience and protection training at a high level. Dogs not able to thrive in these high stress situations are washed out and are not able to be titled. In PSA, only about 25% of German Shepherds that attempt a title are even able to complete. And this doesn’t even take into consideration the dogs that don’t even get that far. Often breeders will start training their dogs, but recognize as they are going through the process that their dog simply does not have what it takes. The same is true for IGP exam work. Many dog’s that start training for IGP simply don’t have the ability to finish. Washing these dogs out of the titling process is a great way to improve a bloodline. When breeders choose their lines from dogs where most dogs are titled, they are ensuring that the inherited, instinctual obedience and protection instincts are as high as can be. Think about it this way. If you were wanting to pick a future basketball star, without seeing the children, would you want to pick that future prospect from the children from a family where both parents were professional basketball stars on a national level, or children from third generation math professors. True, there would be no guarantee that the children from the pro basketball parents would necessarily inherit genetics better suited to performing at a high level in competitive sports. But the odds are high that one family would statistically be better than the other. In a similar way, when breeders selectively choose from generations of proven genetics where dog after dog in a pedigree has been titled, the breeder shores up the genetic potential of a dog. With that said, a brief disclaimer ought to be noted. Every puppy from titled parents from titled pedigrees is not guarantee that all puppies born to these parents will be superstars. Lots of professional athletes have children not gifted athletically. The same is true with titled, working line German Shepherds. You can do your best in searching for working line German Shepherd puppies for sale to only choose from world class pedigrees, and still end up with a so/so performing. That happens! But, beyond a shadow of a doubt, you are stacking the deck in your favor by choosing from working line German Shepherd puppies for sale when you choose from a litter that is born to dogs where a majority of dogs in that pedigree have passed working line titles. One of our favorite stud dogs in recent years is 2 x WUSV winner (world champion protection dog) Gero z Berounsky Basty. We one of his daughters. Like her father, she is titled. And wow, the apple has stayed close to the tree! Her pups are high drive working puppies and thrive in protection work. Absolutely our kind of GSDs.

And This is Why We Only Breed Working Line German Shepherds!

Health, longevity and ability to perform are why we here at Czech Working Line only breed the working lines. Rest easy knowing we only offer litters of working line German Shepherd puppies for sale. And on top of this, our dogs are always from world class titled pedigrees where nearly all dogs in the pedigree are from titled parentage. As you will have seen from our conversation above, this is not snobbery. At least we hope not. And we hope it’s clear our intention is not just so we can brag about owning the equivalent of a brand name Guicci handbag. In fact we’d urge you not to leave this article thinking you ought to limit your google search to “working line German Shepherd puppies for sale” for bragging rights. Yes, you should end up with a Rolex of a German Shepherd. But it ought not be about bragging rights as much as it should be about furthering the breed and developing your dog as a true working dog. So if longevity, health and the ability to train your dog for protection or tracking is on your list of things that matter to you, then the choice should be clear. For our family, the choice was easy. Even though we were raised with show line dogs and grew up in this world, our mindset has done a firm 180. If we can help you on this path, we’d love to be part of this process. We are not commercial breeders. We are producing to see how we can improve our own lines. We are actively working to improve our own skills as trainers of trained guard dogs. But we can’t keep everything. So if you are searching for “working line German Shepherd puppies for sale” but all means give us a call. We’ll be happy to talk with you about upcoming litters and will see that we can find something that might be a good fit for your family.