For working line German Shepherds, temperament, and health is everything! Does it make sense to even start training a personal protection dog when the dog in question jumps as the slightest sound? It takes several years of training and hundreds—no, thousands of hours— to train up an executive level trained guard dog. If you intend to put this much time and money into training such a dog, it only makes sense to start with the best genetics and the healthiest possible dog. This article will make a case for why it makes the most sense to choose a puppy where the breeder introduced Early Neurological Stimulation (ENS) within a few hours to days of birth. These recent scientific breakthroughs in the science of how environmental influences can make or break a dog’s health later in life provide a unique opportunity for German Shepherd Dog breeders to make subtle changes to how they raise their puppies. And, in so doing, they up the odds of producing healthier, happies dogs.
Environmental Factors Influencing GSD Health
No-one disagrees that at the end of the day, a majority of what makes a working dog great is inherited. In most cases in most situations this will prove true over and over. A person simply cannot start with poor genetics and expect anything other than mediocre results. This truism crosses the spectrum of all dog breeds. But its particularly true for working line German Shepherds. As one of the early developers of the German Shepherd breed once famously stated, “function is the real measure of beauty.” With German Shepherds developed as working dogs— dogs highly capable of obedience training and protection work, any German Shepherd puppy not able to thrive in obedience training and ill-suited to protection work simply isn’t beautiful. Not by Stephanitz’ standard!
If you want to produce great dogs, you need to start with great dogs. This will be true in any breeding endeavor. This truth remains constant whether a person breeds purebred border collies for heeling cattle or highly trainable working line German Shepherds as good family protection dogs. Best practices logically start with great genetics. For a working line German Shepherd dog breeder that uses these practices, see here.
Best Practices Begin with Proven Genetics
Great dogs don’t just spontaneously occur. They are nearly always the result of careful planning after spending dozens, if not hundreds, of hours studying pedigrees. How do certain dogs reproduce? On the one hand, many high scoring protection dogs are good dogs themselves, but rarely reproduce themselves. Great dogs, on the other hand, are dogs that not only score high themselves, but reproduce high scoring offspring. Here at Czech Working Line, we see over and over the correlation between strong pedigrees and capable offspring. Dogs that come from generations of titled pedigrees are far more likely to produce dogs that thrive in obedience and protection training. Without a doubt, a minimum starting point is for German Shepherd Dog breeders to start with a foundation of Schutzhund titled stock from proven working lines. From here, the next step is working to build on genetics with proven science.
Building on Genetics with Proven Science
As recent studies prove, ENS has lasting effects on a puppy for its entire life. ENS stressors can influences a wide range of stressors in a dog’s life. How a dog responds to cold temperatures, social stress, unknown people, and training stresses can all be affected by a puppy’s environment during the first few weeks of its life. As science is making clear, early environmental stressors, exposing the puppy to a wide range of sounds, floor surface textures, colors and temperatures can have lasting effects on both a puppy’s health and temperament. Recent research on horse racing sheds new light on how GSD dog breeders can apply similar principles to raising better German Shepherd Dogs.
What Horse Racing Can Teach Us about GSD Breeding
Recent research on racehorses provides shocking insight. According to studies in recent decades, as little as one third of a race horses’ success can be attributed to genetics (Gaffney and Cunningham, 1988; Mortisu, Funakoshi, and Ichakawa). That means as much as two thirds of a race horses’ success is the result of that horse’s diet, environment and training. To read more on that article, see the bibliography below. For breeders of working line German Shepherds, it is worth looking at articles like these to gain a better understanding of how the early weeks in a puppy’s life affect their development, immune system and temperament. As these principles have been extrapolated and applied to dog breeding, one thing has become clear. The same principles seem to bear weight when choosing the right puppy for training as a trained guard dog. For sure pedigree matters, but so do the environmental factors surrounding the early days and weeks of a German Shepherd puppy’s life.
Environmental Influences on Dog’s Adult Temperament
German Shepherd litters exposed to ENS consistently demonstrate more robust immune systems and a more resilient character than litters without ENS. GSDs with ENS exposure tend to withstand cold temperatures for longer periods of time. They are able to work longer and harder during times of high stress training. And, they consistently show themselves better able to cope with people stresses in difficult situations. Dry dogs, those dogs with calmer nerves, are far better suited to protection work. They aren’t biting out of fear. They have learned to protect on command and to follow training. The differences between nervous dogs and dry temperament dogs are night and day different. If you are searching for a working line German Shepherd puppy for sale, find a breeder who uses ENS with their puppies. As the science makes clear, puppies exposed to varied stress in the hours and days following birth are consistently superior dogs. If you intend to invest time and money training a personal protection dog, it only makes sense to start with the best possible prospect. Choosing a puppy from a litter who started life with ENS can be a game changer. Choose wisely!
Bibliography
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Gaffney B. and Cunningham E. P. 1988. Estimation of genetic trend in racing performance of thoroughbred horses. Nature 332: 722-723.
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Mortisu, Y., Funakoshi, H. and Ichakawa, S. 1994. Genetic evaluation of sires and environmental factors influencing best racing times of Thoroughbred horses in Japan. J. Equine Sci. 5: 53-58.
Website of Source: https://czechworkingline.com/
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