At the risk of butting in where I don't belong...

Before purchasing Hans from a WL breeder, I talked to a relative who is a vet. He sees a lot of GSDs with hip problems. I talked to people who are more knowledgeable than I am who advised me that the best chance of getting a healthy GSD was to get a WL. Maybe that is wrong, but that is what I was told.

It is my impression that breeding dogs is not like stamping out machines from a press. You can breed two titled, experienced, WL GSDs together who both have sterling records as working dogs, and still there will be a fair amount of variability in the working characteristics of the pups. There is no guarantee that every pup (or any of them) will be as good at working as their parents.

When we picked out Hans, we were actually there to look at one of his litter mates. The breeder asked us if we were looking for a pet, and we said yes. He directed us towards Hans. We compared him to his litter mate, who reminded me of the Tazmanian devil in the cartoons. Hans seemed much more calm. She was all over the place. We picked Hans. I think the breeder was doing us a favor by showing us Hans.

I only have Hans, I don't know as much as the other people here. But it seems to me that by breeding for excellent working prospects there is a pretty good chance that you will still get pups who will make excellent pets and companions, along with the pups who will make excellent competitors and police dogs. Breed to the highest possible standard, and you will get pups that meet that standard and pups that fall short. Breed for a lower standard, and you will get pups that meet that standard, and others that go down from there.

Does this make sense?

HI MIKE!!
I did make more space for PM..

Susan you always crack me up, so on Q...
Right now I am looking at getting a Beauceron, but getting back to the SL & WL, most people that own SL will never see it the way we do on the working line aspect of things. Everyone has an emotional attachment to their dogs, and I have a showline pup in my OB class (I teach) that is affraid of her own shadow, will bite a child if you let her, and she is only 5 months old. The owner is a very sweet guy and BECAUSE he has that emotional attachement , he does not realise that the Shepherd he has on hand is NOT what a SHEPHERD represent, and got ripped off $1500! And I want to say that I see that more on the SL side then I get to see it from a WL, I have 10 GSD in my classes and so far the SL I get are so dissapointing...Now we are not giving up on this SL pup but shame on that breeder!
Sorry I don't have spell check...lol