Proven Temperament

Great Parents Make Great Puppies!

The parent dogs we use all have been tested for O.F.A hips and elbows. we have also ruled out Degenerative Myelopathy. We feel it’s un-ethical to breed un-tested dogs and pass the health care vet costs to the buyer. The Von Gonta Haus puppy, comes from health tested dogs, and is well socialized with positive socialization skills, bravery and with confidence. We take pride in our German Shepherd puppies and you should too. Please read the helpful articles on our site, that will aid in the transition of your new puppy to his/her new home, family and environment. You need to bond with your new Von Gonta Haus German shepherd puppy, let him know he is safe and loved. In return, you will enjoy his passion for humans and his unmatched loyalty for his owner, not to mention the dedication to his new family.

With this method, the process of choosing the select parents, both certified for breeding (KKL-I/KKL-II), will help to maintain or improve the quality of the breed at a top world-class level. The German shepherd puppies born to Schutzhund dams and sired by Schutzhund dogs are more likely to have sound temperament, high intelligence. We also do O.F.A hip X-rays of our breeding pairs to reduce the chance of hip dysplasia. The dogs couldn’t do all the running in the search of the blind, and protection phase, if they were not physically sound. The dumbbell retrieve over the jumps also tests a dog’s jumping ability, which tests their hip health in a sense. So we are touching on health and temperament in writing this, nearly simultaneously. Now let’s focus on temperament so more. As you have seen from our “Dogs sports and Genetics” page, we focused heavily in explaining genetics and how the sport of I.P.O, previously called Schutzhund is an important, but not the only barometer in selecting dogs for breeding. Let’s touch on this topic again. Before a dog is even permitted to enter a Schutzhund competition, that dog must first pass a Temperament and Obedience test called the BH (Begleithunde). For obedience, the dog must heel on and off leash, do a sit and down in motion while the handler walks off, recall off leash from a distance, heel through a crowd, and stay in a long down (15 minutes) with handler away while another dog is working nearby. That is the obedience phase. In the temperament phase, the dog must not show any aggression when tied out with the handler out of sight, while a jogger runs past, then a bicyclist, and finally a dog. The test varies according to the judge, but there is also a part which shows how the dog behaves around people, with people crowding around, and so on. A dog with improper nerve cannot handle it and is thereby weeded out. Looking over the pedigrees of our breeding pairs, you will notice many titles following the dogs’ names. These are the schutzhund titles, SCH I, II, III, FH I, II; and the IPO I, II, III. These titles indicate that the dog accomplished on the same day, the three phases: tracking, obedience, and protection. Only a dog of balanced drive can achieve this as in the tracking and obedience work different drives are used than in the protection work. The ability of a dog not to break down when given a series of commands, in a long, 15 to 20 minute exercise, combined with the ability to call upon different drives for tracking work (his nose) versus prey and fight drive in protection mode, and so forth, means dogs must be very temperamentally stable to do this kind of work. The F.H titles are tracking titles requiring supreme obedience and concentration. When looking at a pedigree, it is the working titles after the dog’s registered name which indicate good temperament for work.Because our breeding program is driven by the work we ourselves our own dogs, it is driven by the desire to have the best dogs for our own work. As you have already read from our “working dogs as pets” page, we are essentially describing a very balanced dog: a dog with a good “off switch” that can play with the kids in front of the T.V, and relax, and yet, when on the training grounds, can switch into “work mode” and offer an impressive protection routine. In other words, you will have to provide the training as this is an intelligent breed that truly requires training to maximize its potential, but the genetic ability to do this work will be there.