Tiller- (Skansen's- Ira in the M
I DO Exist...To- Drive You Batty | 
 | | Barked: Thu Oct 11, '12 12:26pm PST |  | |  | | Wowzers! 
"No need to defend my opinion ... the website speaks for itself. Anyone who knows two cents about responsible breeding can figure out whether they are doing a favor or disservice to the breed." That's pretty presumptive.
The markers of a responsible breeder. These "rules" exist as guidelines to ward novices off breeders of less standard, responsibility and quality. They are to be used in COMBINATION with your own commonsense.
A fine example is how many breeds a breeder should specialize in. The rule says having multiple breed is a no no. And yet it is not at all uncommon for an extremely ethical and accomplished breeder, over time, to have a yen for a new experience and take on another breed or two. That rule does not exist for them. It exists as a warning against mill type situations, questioning the individual being devoted to any breed per se, but rather being devoted to money and profit, using dogs as so much livestock, which is where care levels suffer. It has no link at all with someone who may have over time grown to have three breeds of choice, of all which they title, show, belong to their breed clubs. Clussexx is a fine example. They have won Westminster with both a Clumber and a Sussex, having a devotion to the heavier spaniel breeds. There is nothing dubious about what they do, whether or not they have four breeds of choice. They are an asset to any breed, very skilled and very devoted.
As regards the size of a breeder regarding litters, firstly, to regard someone like the breeder of one Mulder's dogs, she has a market, one where she is in heavy demand for working, for sport, for service, for breeding and for pet owners who would like the sort of pedigree she deals with with her dogs, reminding that once you are in the breed, you can easily recognize the different "styles" (regions) of GSD, so even for pet preference when you don't want to work your dog, there is a market there, too. It is a constant, steady stream from all these different markets.
*****And that HELPS the world of rescue. How? It helps by being a well known "go to" source for the GSD. Someone of deep experience, reputation and credential, which makes it far more difficult for BYBs to set up shop. Breeders who are able to establish a station such as that do much to limit the viability of setting up a far less sincere and profit minded BYB business, which is far more culpable for the contribution to the shelter crisis than more sincerely dedicated breeders are.*****
In terms of Royalair, in a roundtable debate about the GSD breed people would find things to snark at surely...they are huge, lack type, have the drive of a potato....but very few breed people I know don't have some measure of affection for Royalair, who almost no matter how old you are have been a part of this breed from your childhood. They literally have third generation families on Royalair dogs....a child's grandfather raised with a Royalair puppy. Many, many repeat customers. Litters that at times are spoken for even prior to the breeding taking place. A level of admiration for a kennel that has a soft spot for the oversized, easygoing family dog GSD from the 50's, and who....here is the trick....consistently produces that dog.
That is why you should do this...breed, I mean. Because you have a passion for the dog and a market. You do it for the love of the dog, and there is a market to support that hobbyist pursuit. Not a market you create ala the designer breed craze with half truths and ignorance, but one that is there for an existing need. And for some, there is a need for that iconic huge, easygoing family GSD.
As far as who knows what where when and why, I have been in GSDs for more than thirty years. I also co-chair a rescue. On neither front do I have one problem with Royalair. They have a market, and I promote them every chance I can because that market is fraught with irresponsible breeders who breed unsound dogs and are in it to simply make a buck and do some fast sell to the public. Royalair has been doing their thing forever as they love the dog and know others go nuts for them also, and they are able to produce that dog with a lot of consistency. I'd FAR prefer they get what they want....that mellowhead....then wind up on some drive-y dog they cannot handle or do not want. I am happy there is that resource, and not from a breeder who needs flashy pages, Puppyfind or preposterous claims....just word of mouth gets them by, via very happy owners who have long thrived with these dogs. And that helps rescue. How many bad experiences would there have been? Through a larger berth for more careless and uncaring BYBs, or people settling for a dog that was not what they wanted but "sorta close" and ended up with a dog they could not handle.
Part of being true to the big picture is to realize there are markets. There IS a rescue market, and I deal with that every day. I deal with that now, with a shelter we and many rescues have been pulling out of from TN, where all the pretty dogs go and the plain janes don't, because there is a market. We do our best to take our share of the plain janes or less placeables because it is right, it is just, and eventually will find a place for them, but it will take much time and much patience. I just placed a puppy who literally grew up in this rescue. He is eight months old and was here since he was seven weeks old. That's the reality. People want what they want, no matter where you look.
And then there is a breeder market. People who don't want to rescue, who are more comfortable with the breeder route, or who have very specific needs. In terms of GSDs in rescue, there are many. A purebred puppy? You basically have to have a major "in," because they are not common and everyone and their cousin will want that puppy. Rescue cannot adequately meet the needs of someone who wants a purebred GSD puppy. And if there is some snark that a mix puppy is "close enough" to a purebred GSD, then I could retort that a plain jane shelter dog is "close enough" to a more fashionable looking shelter pup just the same. And that plain jane dog is going to die, ultimately at the hands of a rescue positive public who at the end of the day are still going to want what they want.
Royalair does not hurt the world of rescue. If I saw a Royalair type dog in the system, I'd be one of a gamillion rescues competing for that dog, and he'd be adopted within a week. If you want a huge GSD....hard to find in rescue. If you want a GSD with the genetic makeup to be an easygoing daisy chewer....hard to find in rescue. They do not hurt the world of rescue, they help by being an iconic name in the type they specialize in, shutting the door a little more closed for less sincere BYBs who find a niche to advantage for their own gain, having nothing to do with the love for the dog. |  |  | |  |
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25
! That was awesome!
To me personally, it's a big whatev, as I think often when this type gets debated, those against it don't realize it has been around for many decades. Far older than their involvement in the breed itself. These breeders started to crop up IN the 1960's. It's actually a fallacy to say the GSD of "1962," which one sees in Shiloh literature. The dog they are referring to was iconic in the 40's-50's. Contrary to some assumptions, the 1960's was when this breed started to noticeably head the wrong way. Enter the "old fashioneds."
