- Joined
- Aug 25, 2017
That advice can be applied for any working dog. You want to buy from breeders who's dogs actually go to work. The best you'll get from a backyard breeder or someone who breeds show dogs is a dog that is a kinda lazy poor example of the breed, at worst you get dogs that have severe physical and mental genetic defects bred into them and the working instincts severely neutered. If you don't want a highly active dog that you need to work, either through real work or play, then don't get a working breed. The popularity of working breeds by people who want lazy indoor dogs is awful.Just fyi, if you want a german shepherd, go for an east german line. The west german lines are dominated by the show dogs with the sloping back, the east german lines were working dogs and don't have the sloping back.
There is a reason why the best breeders of working dogs still import at least some stock from European breeders with strong working history. There have been small communities trying to create good examples of various breeds here in North America and some have been successful enough that they're sending stud dogs to Europe for breeding.