I would be very concerned about a brother/sister type breeding, they better be damn sure they know what they're doing... when I was looking for a pup I came accross 2 breeders who were breeding a Mother/Son and a Father/Daughter combination. These breeders knew exactly what they were doing. The Mother/Son breeding never took place due to the mother being a competition dog and their preference over competing vs. breeding this year - but would have produced excellent pups. The Father/Daughter breeding was intended to bring out traits that I wasn't looking for in a dog. The bitch from the Mother/Son breeding that never took place actually ended up being my pups grandma, so I am actually happy to have that dog in the lines, without the tight linebreeding lol.

There's actually breeders who will do an incestuous breed brother/sister brother/half sister just to see if the pups develop any genetic illnesses to know if there's anything "wrong" with their lines. Personally I don't care for people who breed unhealthy pups intentionally, but it does teach the breeder alot about the lines.

Quality breeding is a science, if you know everything about your dogs going generations and generations back, or are creating your own line so have bred the last 4 or so generations of your line yourself and are skilled in watching for the traits you like and can be honest about the things you don't like, then you can become skilled in producing nice dogs.

Full brother/sister is inbreeding, isn't it, not linebreeding? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/confused.gif" alt="" />

But, didn't the original poster say that the parents are only half sibs? That seems fairly common, and I'd have to agree w/VC on this one, as long as I have the info right. Just be especially diligent in checking out the genetic health of as many close relatives as you have access to.

Inbreeding is more of a subset of linebreeding. It's just fuzzy terminology. Wherever the line is drawn is a matter of preference. They all have common ancestry, to a degree. But for most "opinions", I think a 2-3 (37.5%) or tighter is inbreeding.

I would draw the line at third generation. (4-5 is best to truly avoid inbreeding). I heard that Germany has really strick laws about inbreeding the shepherd (They kill the Sire, Dam, and Litter and they Fine you) anybody know if that's true?

Thank you all SOOOO much for the great information! It has really helped me getting so much info from experienced people. I will be talking to the breeder today and asking many questions about the common bitch and why she has chosen to breed this close. I will need to feel much more comfortable in this situation before I decide on a puppy. Thank you again for the info!!!!

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I would draw the line at third generation. (4-5 is best to truly avoid inbreeding). I heard that Germany has really strick laws about inbreeding the shepherd (They kill the Sire, Dam, and Litter and they Fine you) anybody know if that's true?

I highly doubt they'd kill the litter and the dogs, they just wouldn't paper the dogs if there are regulations on it. The dutch like inbreeding alot to set their bloodlines, particularly on dutch shepherds and malinois, don't know about GSD's... but even inbreeding is fine in the dog world provided you know what the hell you're doing. Unfortunately many people don't.

I'm talking about same mom and dad on both sides also, could that be a bad effect on the dog?