Puppy Quiz

[SpookyShepherd]

I've seen several of several tests to guage the personality of a puppy but is there anything like that for an owner? We have a general idea of what personality we'd like from a puppy but the more I read I'm not sure what types of lines we should be looking at. Or maybe I can post our thoughts here and y'all could steer us the right direction?

Thanks! I'm all about doing as much research as possible to make sure we find the best possible match for our family. Happy family and happy puppy!

[crisp]

A good breeder will match the pups to the owner. If you're more interested in whether to pick from a specific line, you can post what you want from the dog and what type of life you lead. I'm sure everyone will be glad to offer their experiances and advice.

[Emoore]

Originally Posted by crisp

A good breeder will match the pups to the owner.

Agreed. I felt like I was playing 20 Questions with my breeder as she was interviewing me and finding out about my lifestyle, home, interests, and what I need/want in a dog. When we were done she went over a couple of breedings she has planed for the next year that she thinks will produce what I'm looking for, then I put a deposit on the first one.

I'd really beware of a breeder that just takes your money and lets you pick your own as a first-time GSD puppy buyer.

If you're still trying to figure out what lines you want. . . if you're looking mostly for a pet I'm going to go against the grain here and say go with the lines you like the looks of and can find a breeder you trust. All the different lines can produce excellent pets, and they can all produce terrible pets.

[W.Oliver]

Getting to know your breeder is the best avenue to a great GSD journey, and taking your time to educate yourself is the insurance for a safe trip. There are dogs, and then there are GSDs....two different things.

[SpookyShepherd]

I've read some of the threads here about Working Lines and Show Lines. Then there seems to be different flavors of each. Basically, I don't want to trouble a (presumably busy) breeder if the type of GSD they breed is outside what I'm looking for. Maybe that's the years of horses coming through, but I wouldn't look at a sales barn if they specialized in a type and personality that I'm not interested in. Does that makes sense?

Anyway, what we're looking for in rough order of priority is the following:
1) Must have conformation to support a healthy lifestyle with our level of activity (more on that later). I'm a huge stickler on starting with a healthy animal.
2) Would like the protective sense in the dog, but no aggresive tendencies. We are a family and the dog would go anywhere it can with us so a natural demeanor to be friendly unless given cause otherwise is important.
3) Not so high drive that spending the day home alone (DH and I both work) would leave the dog bouncing off the walls. Playful and ready to go do something, yes... upset and frustrated about being alone, no.
4) Not so low drive that we have to drag her along with us. I would like the dog to come with me to the barn, go on trail rides, go for walks/hikes, play in the yard, and maybe even do some really basic level agility or Shutzhund. We certainly won't want to be all that competitive, it's more of something fun to do to get the dog out around other dogs as well as an outlet for learning and exercise.
5) Must live well with cats. We have two older Himalayans who from all indications seemed to have owned some dogs of their own in a previous life (I got them when they were 9 years old). Then we have a punk of a kitten, he's 18 months old, who would probably enjoy the puppy/dog as a playmate... he likes to tag the older cats and play fetch with his own little ball. Does it help if breeders raise their puppies underfoot with cats around?
6) DH prefers a black and red female, I like a medium coat on a dog. Yes, I can handle grooming, reference two Himalayans and grew up with show Persians.
7) Would prefer to not ship, so need a dog within day trip distance.

We definitely want to work with a breeder that will take the time to ask us a million questions in order to match the right personality from a given litter. At this point i'm trying to narrow down what types of bloodlines I should be looking for. Thank you so much for helping out this newbie!!

[LaRen616]

IMO I think a medium drive Showline GSD would best suit you and your family.

Workingline GSD's tend to have more energy and they need a job.

[Emoore]

You could get what you're looking for from any of the lines of GSDs, but because your wife wants black and red and you both work all day, I'd lean towards German Show lines.

Here's a helpful chart about the different lines of GSDs:
Breed Types & Related Families

[SpookyShepherd]

Sorry, DH = Dear Husband.... I'm the wife without color preference, I'm all about personality.