my dog for show or breed

Question
i have a beautiful and wonderful german shepard. He is four months old. The vet said he had excellent qualites for a show dog or to breed. I would like to know if there is a german shepard society where I can confirm if this is possible and to find out the best training for my beautiful sweet baby chance.

thank you

Answer
Hi Jacki,  I'm glad to hear that your vet thinks your pup is really nice, but unfortunately you have one of the most political breeds for showing there are as well as one of the worst breeds for genetic faults that pass on in breeding.  First off to start off showing, you need to plan on spending a lot of money as it requires not only show entry fees that average $30 per show, and can take  you a couple of years to actually make him a champion, you also need to hire a professional handler that requires $50 and up per show.  Not only that, there is so much politics involved, to be a newcomer in it you almost have to hire a really well known handler which can cost you a couple of hundred dollars per show.  So figure $2,000 minimum to make him a champion and that is a bare minimum.

Breeding - A GSD can pass on many different genetic faults that are not visible to the naked eye.  Were his parents OFA'd (hips x-rayed & cleared for hip dysplasia)?  If not, then odds are against him passing x-rays which means he can not be bred as he will pass it on to his puppies.  Hip Dysplasia is a genetic crippling disease that runs rampant in GSD's.  If his parents have been OFA'd, great then hopefully he will pass at 2.  You will have to wait until he is 2 years old to have him certified, they don't do it before he is 2.  Then there is Von Willebrunds disease, a blood disorder that GSD's also carry that he needs to be tested for.  He will also need his eyes CERF'd to pass for genetic eye problems.  I know this sounds like a lot, but it is very important.  Like I said before GSDs are the worst for bad genetics and irresponsible breeding is the sole reason for it.  I have seen the most beautiful GSDs have the worst genetics.  Here is the link for the National club where you can get more info on all this.  http://www.gsdca.org/  I hope your puppy is as good as your vet thinks, and if you would like to send me a pic and a pedigree of his lineage, I can probably give you more info about him.  My e-mail is puglover_1@juno.com.  
Hope this helps,

Dawn