You can go as far back as you want. Bottom line...you need to know what issues...good and bad YOUR current dog carries!! They don't ALL carry the problems of their ancestors...and some carry things you have never had before. Some dogs just should not be in a gene pool ..... Also...like Mike and Ed....I would like someone to explain to me how we can avoid the dogs and lines from these dogs that are the very foundation of our Breed??? Maybe I AM ignorant!! <G> I give Theresa credit though. SHE is the FIRST one to bring up the 'other' elephant in the room. INCORRECT TEMPERAMENT in this Breed. Same thing..it stems from the very foundation of our Breed. Carolyn marhaven@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx www.marhaven.com From: Penny & Bill [mailto:Ketchy@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx] To: scenecrest.geo@xxxxxxxxx; marhaven@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx; ducksavsfan@xxxxxxxxx; showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx Subject: Re: Re: Rights and Wrong and in between Very intelligent post, Theresa. The problem today (and as far back as I can remember) is that many people do not look far enough BACK in their pedigrees to know what dogs/problems have been doubled/tripled upon. Unless we educate ourselves to understand what is there (and I mean 10-15 generations back) we will be repeating mistakes, unknowingly. But it is our business to KNOW! How can we educate others if WE are ignorant? Obviously we cannot. Penny in NC The Farm Dog Forever Unless your GSD you decide to breed does not carry the below GSD's in their pedigree there is no way to avoid the past as it will always repeat itself. As we all know these dogs are repeated numerous times in our GSD's pedigree. It has nothing to do with show dogs as every living GSD goes back to the beginning of the breed if there were no other breeds involved along the line. It has everything to do with health and sound temperament which you need to avoid doubling-tripling up of GSD's that carried it on through their genes to present time. Even if you think you outcross does not make a difference since you are still linebreeding if these GSD's are in the background several times.  In all these pedigrees I have with dogs passing away to Hemangiosarcoma the below dogs are in their pedigrees over and over again. The males were also noted by others of having dogs with other cancers, EPI, Digestive-Bloat problems, Cryptorchidism. Several of the below GSDs had fear aggression and unstable temperament issues too. Rosel vom Osnabrücker Land Axel von der Deininghauser Heide Utz vom Haus Schütting Hussan vom Haus Schütting Klodo vom Boxberg Erich von Grafenwerth Alex vom Westfalenheim Theresa________________________________ ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2012. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. Each Author is responsible for the content of his/her post. This group and its administrators are not responsible for the comments or opinions expressed in any post. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - http://showgsd.org SUBSCRIPTION:http://showgsd.org/mail.html NATIONAL BLOG - http://gsdnational.blogspot.com/ ============================================================================