The German-American Split

German Shepherd breeders in America today are split into two groups. American and German bred dogs. The look is so distinctive, even everyday average people can tell the difference these days between American bred and German bred dogs..

What does this mean to you???

The best way is to show you. Look at the examples on the left.

The top and middle picture are what we want to achieve. The bottom picture of the first three pictures (American & Select Canadian) is an American Champion. At Big German Shepherds we breed for the German standard. Our dogs are not angled to such a degree. We've centered our breeding program on the old fashion German bred dogs as shown in the top two pictures. Believe it or not in the show ring, the extreme angle has gotten even worse. At the very lower left, you'll see that now the American Standard is calling for the head to come straight up. Compare the pictures and judge for yourself.

We do our best to follow the German Standard for German Shepherds. It is different than the American Standard and AKC Standard which allows for an extreme angle on the rears of dogs. Unfortunately, in America the breed is judged by the "floating gait” and not much else. By the German standard, this is considered a crippling trait when followed to such as degree. There are excellent American breeders in the USA today. These dogs do not generally win in the conformation show ring but excel in the obedience ring and as family dogs. One thing I'd like to point out is that "coated" or plush coat German Shepherds are considered a fault by both the AKC and German standards. We don't buy into that but wanted you to know. Our male Diesel is a coated male. 

The German Standard is different than the American Standard or AKC in more ways than the physical aspect shown in my example. German lines excel in obedience, tracking and just all around great family dogs. In Germany, dog are not breed until they are two years old, have an obedience title, are temperament tested, and are x-rayed A3 at a minimum. (The A3 converts to “Fair” in American terms).

You'll notice on American bred web sites, they will list OFA certified but they never say certified to what. Our dogs are certified "Good" or better. Most American extreme angle dogs are certified "Poor" or even worse. These dogs are still used for breeding purposes. Just go to a breed show and take a look and then compare it to German Bred dogs, there's a world of difference unfortunately.

On the other hand, we have now run into some German Bred Dogs that are SSOOO driven and high strung that if they don't have a constant job or trainer, they cannot be handled. They are destructive in nature when not occupied or kenneled. We believe this has gone too far the other way. We strive for balance in our lines. Trainability along with common sense is our program. What happened to balance? Come on out and see what we mean.

What does all this mean to you? It means you can be assured that as a proud new owner of a German Bred German Shepherd puppy that your puppy has parents that are exceptionally smart, very sound and while they can be protective, they are smart enough to know when to be protective and when to be a friend. This is what we believe the German Shepherd was meant to be and why we are breeding today.

I'd like to point out that there is no such thing as 100% HD free in any dog including German Shepherds. The best any dog can rate is Excellent and roughly 3-4% of German Shepherds rate Excellent. All of those dogs are German Bred or the breeders have taken a different approach if they are American bred dogs. All dog breeds will have a rating given by the OFA based on x-rays taken by your vet. I cannot stress enough how important getting from your vet the correct position x-rays prior to sending your x-rays to the OFA. We've found approximately 75 to 80 % of vets practicing today will quickly tell you your G.S. has HD before even looking at x-rays. You need to educate yourself ahead of time and find a vet who will take the time to give you an honest opinion. German Shepherds rank 38th in HD, that's behind many of the major breeds we know today. Most vets don't visit the OFA web site and are not familiar with these stat's - Find A VET THAT UNDERSTANDS GERMAN SHEPHERDS.

German Bred Dogs below two photos. My dogs carry these bloodlines. 

Below is Diesel's sire, Manson Vom Kuhnhof

Don vom Rolandsteich