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.
