Are all German shepherds anxious reactive nutcases now?

[EarFluff]

I grew up with GSDs … would love another but every one I see these days is a reactive anxious mess. Has the breed been totally ruined?

I have been really lucky with mine. Working line so no health issues thankfully.
Im a first time GSD owner so it has been a baptism of fire 🤣. I think there are a ton of really badly bred shepherds out there, particularly the show lines, this combined with poor owners who are not prepared/ dont know enough results in problens. Because of high drive in most shepherds reactivity is realllllllllly easy to start and needs a steady hand to avoid it.
That said Id have another in a heartbeat, my guy is now 15 months and superb, great with people, easy to train. I do one to one obedience training with an ex crufts judge and thats really helped as we work towards competition. I think they need a lot of work to produce a good dog. If anyone is looking for a good line of GSD I can recommend Alsace Royale in Ireland. Didnt get mine there as they are not working line but they produce stable, healthy, clever dogs. Well worth waiting for a puppy.

I do think they're overbred nowadays and as a result have a lot of related health problems. We've recently inherited an 8 year old GS after her retired owner passed away. In her case, she started showing signs of arthritis before she turned 2. She's also shown aggression to other small animals in the home, so we're going to have to be vigilant about that. I don't think shepherds are particularly compatible with your average working family home these days, as they're extremely intelligent, working dogs who need to be kept busy both physically and mentally.

They're also not ideally suited to living in urban areas, where you have attached neighbours, as their nature is to bark because a delivery man knocked on a door 3 doors down from you! I'll do my best by this dog, but it's not a breed I would choose to own again unless I was in good physical shape and have a lot of time on my hands and land for them to exercise their natural behaviours without bothering neighbours.

My DDog (small breed) has 4 GSD friends.

Going by this thread, we must be lucky, as all are unproblematic dogs. I'd agree with them being a bit aloof, and tending to be closely bound to 1 or 2 people, but these are all good-tempered and "polite" with other dogs

None have those awful back legs. One is definitely working line (retired army dog - was challenging, settled well over time with an experienced owner, but still has wilful days). Another is only just beyond puppyhood, and I've seen how diligently the owner trained (fostering good behaviour constantly) and he's got a smashing dog as a result

There are a lot of GSDs in my village and surrounding area...

None of them are reactive other than one older girl who is a rescue (and even then it's just some woofing, nothing particularly bad).

We have a couple of breeders this way which is why they're so common here.

One of them is a beautiful, lion sized boy with the biggest paws and he is rock solid.

The problem is back yard breeding. It's a massive problem and all about the money. There are some well bred GSD from KC breeders out there where the parents are fully healthchecked also temperament. Don't buy one none KC. As with GSD socialisation is important attending puppy classes and getting them out and about use to people and every day noise etc. Also many people to be fair should not be buying GSD as they dont fit in with their lifestyle.

I think people need to be really careful about the puppy they get. Any KC reg/bred dogs I have seen from the pet or show strains are horrific.
I went to crufts this spring to see the GSD classes and it was apalling. The breeders should hang their heads in shame. They should also go look at the original breed specification and the actual images of the original dogs. They had straight backs, no sloping legs, well tucked in hocks. They were built to lope along efficiently for hours and hours. Most of the crufts dogs I saw were shocking. Such a disparity in size and ability. I would always buy a working line dog if I could.
https://www.theguardian.com/commentisfree/2016/mar/15/pedigree-dogs-breeding-crufts-german-shepherd-best-in-breed

IMO KC breeders are the worst.

They've completely ruined show lines of various breeds including the GSDs with the god awful sloped backs.

It's not 'backyard breeders' who've developed these weird, deformed show lines.

I mean this is a KC breeder with her GSD entry for 2023...

This dog should be disqualified for being bred to be deformed and her registration taken away, not getting an entry to a best of breed.

@wheresmymojo I don't like the look of showline GSD but there is also the working line GSD which as they are KC registered they will have a health checked background.
Like I pointed out to you there are two different lines within GSD.
Personally if I were to buy a dog I would buy one from a registered breeder with history that the parents were fully health checked and not a back street breeder.

The working line will generally be of much higher drive (more tricky as young dogs) but much better hip, elbow scores etc. They have to be - as most police, drugs, tracking dogs are from these lines. They need to be able to scale walls, sprint etc. The show dogs can barely scale a kerb.

My beautiful little boy was attacked by some beast of a German Shepherd mix two days ago 😭Completely unprovoked. Both dogs were on the lead and we were just passing them on the way to our car. As soon as the beast was level with our dog, he viciously attacked him, bit into his neck and wouldn't let go with 3 adults trying to pull him away! My boy was SCREAMING 😭it was so so awful 😞 The horrible thing eventually (felt like ages!!!) let go of him but the owners were just as horrible and I think drunk.

I just hope our boy's neck wound fully heals without lasting consequences 😰It was really traumatic

I think so too OP. Grew up with GSDs as police dogs and there were 2 close to us that went nuts if you just walked in the street. Now, there is a nutcase one in our local park that has scared and bitten a few other dogs. Most days on the village fb page someone complains about the dog. Also see a lot of them dragging their owners around. They're so strong and aloof, I don't trust a GSD.

I've had a lot of GSDs in my time, fostering and adopting through a rescue, and yes this is fairly common in the ones that have not been socialised well from a young age.

They are a protective breed. If they haven't been taught to get along well with strange dogs they're going to try to keep yours away from their owner. When feeling constrained by their lead they'll get on the offensive by lunging and carrying on.

I'm sure they're out there, especially if trained by thugs to be guard dogs, but I've never encountered a GSD who was genuinely people aggressive. Some were wary of people who looked like their past abuser.

The working lines are so much better. My last one was solid as a rock (in both physique and temperament). Still not a fan of other dogs coming close to me, but was all show and wouldn't actually hurt a fly.

Malinois are more athletic and also more bonkers, the fearless kind of bonkers that makes them very good weapons when trained properly.

Only a GS cross but an absolute delight.

Scared of most things unfortunately despite careful training

A GSD "mix" in other word a mongrel obviously badly bred.

I rescued a working line GSD last year, who was 7yrs old at the time (so she's nearly 9 now). And I've never seen such reactivity - she was an unholy terror on walks if there was a dog in visual range.

We've worked since last summer with 2 different trainers - both ex-police dog handlers - and had to really build some discipline into the walks. We are now at the point where she might bark back if something barks first, but usually we are ok with other dogs, she's off lead happily and recall is perfect and we've had a few dog friends / mini-pack walks with no issues.

At certain points I thought I'd have to give her back, but now having seen the "new" side of her I've never been happier. But the work to get here... I think many people would either give up or assume it will get better

And for the record, we had to use aversives (which will get me shot no doubt) but both prong and e-collars were needed under professional guidance to bring the neurotic mess into a happier place. But the majority of the training was focused on structured play, bonding with her and making sure she was "my dog". Now when she walks she will look back at me, sit on command, and is generally chilled out - before she wouldn't even be interested.

Well done. Have a police line GSD being trained for competition and it is a huge job of work. They can do it - but the self restraint is so difficult for them. I have an excellent trainer too.

The only exception to the cheaper dogs being poorly bred is the working line border collies bred on farms in wales, they’re usually farmers breeding their best workers to produce their next sheepdog and they sell the puppies they don’t need, keeping one or two back to test for base herding ability.
These dogs are usually excellent and healthy because they’re bred for ability, temperament and health, not to a KC standard checklist of what they should look like.
Unfortunately, unless you plan to work them in sports or with sheep, they will pretty much always end up neurotic and obsessive, simply because they, like GSDs aren’t really great as family pets, typically being one person dogs with high drive and needing pretty specialist training to account for their instincts that they don’t get to act out properly in a family home.