bails

We followed our breeders advice regarding diet and exercise, in fact she was fed a product called Be-NatuRal at their request, her weight has always been excellent, she was never excessively exercised as a young pup or even now for that matter and we have no stairs. Nutrition and environment do play a part in the development of HD, however the HD gene needs to be present to develop. Our breeders reaction has totally stumped us, as said before they have always been really nice, however when we told them about this their attitude changed. We don't know why, I'm assuming they may have had other litter syblings come back with HD as well, but I am only speculating, unfortunately I can't confirm that. This whole experience has really knocked us for sevens, we have lost faith in registered dod breeders. I know not every breeder is the same and there are some truly wonder people doing the right thing by the breed, but our trust has been lost.

I go to dog parks often and as the owner of a GSD, I sometimes get nervous with smaller dogs I don't know, especially if they are barking constantly. I am always very aware of where my GSD is and am very careful if there are too many little dogs as sometimes the bigger dogs do tend to forget their size and a big paw can hurt the little ones. Plus if my GSD does take offence and tells a little one off, some of the smaller dogs get very frightened and do start squealing which starts all sorts of trouble. If the owners of the larger dogs don't properly watch their dogs, and their dogs are annoying or frightening others then thats when frustration kicks in. From my experience, GSD and any of the larger breeds can play wonderfully with the smaller dogs as long as they know each other and are of the same pack (ie they regulary see each other). My GSD has the best playtime with a jack russell, she gets down to the jack russells level and they take turns at each others neck - its really funny, they seem very comfortable and respect each other. To be perfectly honest, my GSD has been chased off and told off by many smaller dogs, fortunately she reacts well and just accepts it.

thanks everyone. We purchased a GSD from a well known breeder and we are extremely happy with her, we love her to bits. However, she has been diagnosed with HD - both the dam and sire have been breed surveyed and apparantly scored with good results. It has been a bit of a shock for us because we thought we were doing the right thing by buying from a registered breeder so that genetic diseases such as HD will virtually be eliminated. When we advised our breeder of her diagnosis, they were not very sympathic and seemed to take it personally. They did not provide us with any advice as to what to do or even show any empathy. It has taken many emails for them to finally respond to us and they are very cold. We are really confused by their behaviour, as they had always been really nice and helpful in the past. This has definately been a learning curve for us, when we purchase our next GSD, we will be doing lots and lots of research before we trust another breeder. Has anyone else had any experiences like this?

Hi everyone, I was wondering what are the advantages of purchasing a pure bred puppy. Also, how do you know if you are dealing with a good breeder. Cheers Bails