German Shepherd Dogs for Sport, Family, and Service

Today, the German Shepherd Dog is categorized into "Working Lines" vs. "Show lines." Human nature, has managed to split the breed into categories, breeding dogs to extremes of conformation, color, or over-the-top drives that are boarder line crazy so the dogs can only be handled or trained by experts of the field. It is my opinion that when a breeding program leans strongly towards one side or the other, the breed loses many of its desirable traits. The American line German Shepherd is another EXTREME form of a German Shepherd version a dog so over angulated that young dogs and pups are very cow hocked and in part walk on their hocks, over loaded front chest and a narrow head, function has totally bred out of these lines.

We choose to breed working line German Shepherds Dogs primarily out of West German working lines for the following reasons. A good German Shepherd should have the desire, nerves, and temperament to do its work well but in no way should this mean that the dog is hyper, can't calm down, is incapable of being a family dog or is unreliable, hectic or worse, unpredictable. When a good balance is achieved by careful selection of the world's best bloodlines and excellent breeding stock, the dog can and will work on the streets, sport fields with high enthusiasm and desire to work under its handler direction, as well as come home and relax and play with the kids. Many people have the notion that working line dogs are harder to live with. I strongly disagree!! I have worked and lived for many years with both lines. In the early 90's one still could find a good percentage of dogs out of "German conformation line" lineage and get a very good working dog along with good nerve. EXAMPLE: 1998 Brevet Ringsport Champion V- rated Byron vom Rheinland ScHH, HIC, Brevet, KKL1, pictured with his kids on the right. This has changed drastically during the course of the last 20 years! A high percentage of show line dogs lack the nerve strength and self-confidence, have issues with strange environment, and sadly are much less capable of doing what the breed was intended for, to serve and work along mankind to achieve tasks that this breed is known and respected for throughout the world!! Furthermore, the rear angulation of the German show line is becoming scary similar to the American bred German Shepherd Dog, Too much rear angulation will compromise function of agility. Angulation is necessary but over angulation is not functional. Also notable is the roaching of the spine (top line).

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I opted to live work and base my breeding program on primarily working line German Shepherds to maintain what the breed was created for by the founder of the breed Max von Stephaniz- who said "keep my breed a working dog as I worked all my live to achieve that goal." My breeding program started with west german conformation lines, however to maintain a good percentage of workable and serviceable dogs primarily out of show lines was not to my satisfaction. Today, with a good line up of dogs with excellent and proven working bloodlines and my passion for the breed, I have reached a plateau in my breeding program I can be proud of. Throughout my web pages you will notice dogs carrying the vom Rheinland name working in different venues. Again, the versatility of the breed is of up most importance so dogs can keep serving mankind in all types of different service department and are not limited to one or two tasks! In addition, vom Rheinland Dogs are very pleasing to the eye with very good overall pigment and strength. With so many lines of work, such as Police K-9, narcotic/explosive detection, guiding the blind, or special needs assistant dogs and on the sport field there is always a possibility, that the dog be exposed to something the handler/trainer did not prepare for. In such a case, the dog HAS to have nerve strength to absorb and overcome the new situation without departing the task at hand. In the home a dog must have good nerve in order to tolerate a child stumping over it, kids running through the door with friends in tow, a dog with good nerve and character can judge a situation. Special mention in this paragraph to Cole vom Rheinland deployed to ground zero 09-11-01, a task no man or beast could have prepared for.