The Difference between A “Breeder’s dog” and a “Trainer’s dog

I have often come across certain bloodlines in modern day working line German Shepherds which tend to weigh on either side of the scale of whether they are a Breeder’s dog or a Trainer’s dog.

Before we delve deeper into the discussion I would like to make clear the terms.

A “Breeder’s dog” is a dog bred by an established breeder of a carefully identified breeding program with a strong philosophy and goal behind it and then subsequently trained as part of that breeding program.

A “Trainer’s Dog” is a dog which is bred by a trainer and a person who staunchly contends in trials and has a training philosophy; such a dog is bred and raised and then subsequently trained for service or sports within that training program.

Now this may come as an outright surprise to many breed lovers. Come On! We already have enough splits in the German Shepherd breed. Here we thought we had only show lines and the working lines. But now we have a further split based on the genetics, the training and partly on the psyche transferred from the person at the end of the leash handling the dog.

At the onset as part of the introduction of this article, I would like to mention some of the points I’m going to be touching upon.

1) One is the inherent difference between a breeder dog and a trainer dog.

2) Secondly I would like to elaborate on the fact that because we have a further split based on the 3 main aspects namely genetics, the training and the psyche of the handler handling that particular dog, we cannot have a breeding whether it is line breeding or in-breeding based on a concoction of impressively titled dogs in the bloodlines; more about this later in the essay.

3) Another point I want to highlight is that there may be strong proponents of the Golden Middle or the Universal GSD and Universal Training methodologies, who may state that if the dog is balanced or bred for the so called 360 degrees holistic plan then he or she should be able to perform multiple task.

However this is far from truth because as we see in the modern day working dog breeding, a dog has to be bred for a particular goal in mind and from this stems my last point which I want to touch upon and maybe I will write a complete separate article on this topic which is the importance of having strong definitive goals for your breeding programs.

So Wherein Lies the Difference between a Breeder’s dog and a Trainer’s dog?

Well, to put is simply a trainer’s dog would be biddable and easily trainable while a breeder’s dog would be the one whose traces would be seen in the generations to come in the bloodline in which that dog is bred in. A breeder’s dog would be inclined more towards having strong phenotype, which is, the genotype plus the interaction between the environment and the organism.

A trainer’s dog would not necessarily be a great producer, but given the modern day workings of the dog sport dynamics; a trainer would concentrate on a dog which suits the training style of that particular trainer. The puppy is raised at some other site where the basic imprinting and foundation work is done and when the dog is about 12 to 18 months then the breeder takes in the dog into his training program for the sport.

A trainer’s dog, hence, would be more malleable in its temperament and may not have the strong genetic makeup to pass on its traits in its off springs. However such a dog may excel in the trials. On the other hand a breeder’s dog would be the pillar of the founding of a new bloodline or a string of genetic traits to be passed on to its progeny.

This is not to say that a breeder’s dog would or could not excel in sports but it is often seen that such instances are rare. I want to point out two things here.

What you need to pay attention to is that a a part of the psyche of the breeder which in turn is the foundation of the goals of the breeding program and philosophy of the breeder gets passed on to his dogs in the breeding program. Some breeders breed for genetic grips in the dogs.

Some breed for strong dominance. Others may breed for herding. Yet others may breed for strong, dominant temperaments. Breeding for strong prey or defense drives and social aggression are other aspects of some breeding program or the goal.

A breeder may take a bouquet of these traits and make then as part of the goals of his or her breeding program.

Cases of breeding impressively titled dogs in a “Concoction” Type Breeding

A lot of novice breeders and even self-proclaimed experts make the common mistake of breeding what I call an “Impressively titled concoction of dogs’. By this I mean that it just simply does not make sense that if the dog is titled, one breeds the dog into his or her breeding program and plan.

A KNPV titled dog is very different from a Schutzhund titled dog which in turn is very different from an Agility dog, a herding titled dog and more so from a street police or service dog.

All these categories of dogs require very specific phenotypes in dogs and hence, mixing all these variously titled dogs into a common breeding plan is a very irresponsible and myopic thought out plan for a breeding. This is simply like rolling a dice.

Even a 12 year old can tell you that if you breed a very strong KNPV dog with a Schutzhund 3 dog you will obviously get a litter of puppies with reasonable amount of above mediocre traits with higher probability. But this clearly displays a lack of breeding philosophy and a clearly defined breeding goal for a breeder doing this.

You need to ask yourself these questions before doing such breeding; what is my goal with the future of the litter with this particular breeding? Are these puppies going to working homes? If yes, then, whether these puppies are going to be trained for street service work? Or will these puppies go for Sports or Schutzhund or any other sports?

Factors which Influence the criteria of diversity in dogs

The three main aspects which impact this diversity of dogs when inclusion into a breeding goal or a plan is the following
1)Genetics

2)Training & in turn the environment in which the dog is raised

3)The kind of handler which the dog is bonded with I will talk extensively now about the above three factors.

Firstly, genetic traits play a vital role in the kind of work that the dog is going to be used in. A dog which is being used for street service work or KNPV sport is more inclined with high prey drive and strong bite grips.

These dogs have to be genetically very strong temperamentally. On the other hand, a dog which is being bred for a sport like Schutzhund has to have high levels of social aggression and also a higher tendency towards prey drive compared to defense vis-à-vis a perfect balance of drives.

There has to be biddable and flashiness in the execution of the exercises of the sport of Schutzhund. Hence the dog has to have more towards being point dog versus a rather civil drive for Street work or even ring sport or KNPV.

Now consider a dog which is being trained for agility. By virtue of the foundation of his or her training there will be inevitably more emphasis on obedience and hence such a dog would have to be a more watered down in terms of defense and prey drives.

This dog would not be suitable for a more prey drive oriented sport like KNPV or Schutzhund. Even if the dog is trained for multiple sports it definitely creates a level of confusion in the mind of the dog.

Now the counter argument proposed by many supporters of the Golden Middle German Shepherd or the Universal dog is that a dog which conforms to the Universal standard should effortlessly be able to rise to the training needs of each of the different sports training regimes based on its genetic makeup; coupled with Universal norms of training. However, I strongly beg to differ that given the current trends in the Global Working dog breedings and the total absence of a general consensus on what the breed standard the dogs should adhere to,  the Golden Middle or the Universal breed standard is like a holy grail.

More so, the Golden Middle dog may not be everyone’s cup of tea speaking metaphorically. One size simply does not fit all; simply put. Hence we see the myriad diversity in the breeding programs within the single most popular breed which is the German Shepherd dog today. Lastly coming to the third point which is actually has a close semblance to the second point being unequivocal in the sense that the trainer who is at the end of the dog’s leash and his training style merge to have an impact on the dog being trained for a particular sport or work.

This point is more from a philosophical point of view since the dog eventually in spirit is the extension of his or her handler’s psyche and imbibes to a large extent the nuances of his or her training styles. Thus a dog which has to go through multiple rigors of different sports and training would have to have immaculate genetics, phenotypes and arduous painful hours of laying the Universal training foundations right from puppyhood.

Conclusion
In conclusion, I would like to mention that our main topic of this essay was to clarify the differences between a breeder’s dog and a trainer’s dog. As we now try to pinpoint, the breeder’s dog leaves his mark over the generations of bloodline creation and careful in- breeding the most strong genetic traits which are useful as instincts in the training program of the breeder or another trainer to whose training style the dog fits in.