becoming a breeder

Question
I am interested in becoming a breeder of German shepherds to have trained for police work.  Can you supply information on what bloodline I would need to look for in a male and female?  Also, any advice on how to become a breeder?  Thanks.

Answer
Breeding quality dogs of any type is a very tough challenge.  It is also a very specialized area.  You need to do far more than ask a few questions here.  I don't spend much time checking on the other people here, but from what I have seen, I doubt if any of them can give good answers to your question.  

I know a little of what goes into breeding dogs for use as dog guides and other service dogs.  It is extremely difficult finding dogs with the physical and mental qualities needed.  Much of the breeding stock in the dog guide program comes out of their own program.  When you choose 5-10 dogs at a year old out of the 300-400 you breed every year, you can be very selective.  I have seen many of their breeding stock as they were growing up.  Once when I had my 5 month puppy at church, somebody commented on how calm he was.  I replied, ''Do you remember last fall when I had his grandmother here?''.  When my Gretchen was growing up, many people commented on her being a very nice Shepherd.  I was very pleased when she was chosen as breeding stock.  Of course the school is constantly looking for new blood to bring into the program to avoid inbreeding.

If you plan to do any breeding, you need to do a lot of research.  Start at www.akc.org.  The read some books, plenty of them.  Successful Dog Breeding, by Chris Walkowicz, DMV would be a good one.  

Here are links to pictures of when the dog guide school's breedign stock visited my home.  Just the one black and one yellow Labs were breedign stock.  The other dogs were part of the program too.  

http://www.photolocker.net/images/Labman/asters11thbirthday.jpg

http://www.photolocker.net/images/Labman/zeketessaprincess.jpg

This is checking the teeth of the Shepherd my daughter raised for the school, http://www.photolocker.net/images/Labman/augenteeth.jpg