Olderhills v show GSDs

There's a big difference between Olderhill german shepherds and german shepherds bred for the show ring.
 

Temperament

When dogs are selectively bred for work (putting the best working males with the best working females) the puppies inherit their parents' knowledge. The more generations that are bred like this, the more 'fixed' this working ability is, and eventually all the puppies bred in this line will be suitable for work. This is what happened with the Olderhills (see history of the Olderhills). Our olderhills have often done tasks the very first time we've asked them as though they have been trained to do it! 
 
If dogs have been selectively bred for looks then their temperaments can vary greatly from stable, brave dogs who are able to focus on work, to highly nervous, fearful dogs, unable to focus for more than a few moments on work. Puppies from these show dogs can therefore have any of these temperaments and the range between them, even if their parents are both stable dogs. 
 
We have rescued, trained and re-homed literally thousands of dogs (mostly german shepherds) with our rescue scheme Pet Link-up, and have seen the difference between our Olderhills and the greater percentage of show german shepherds.
 
  

Our (Cornfield's) Olderhills doing us proud! From left to right :- Cookie pleasing us ; Wolfram after performing at a nursery school ; and obedience champion Dexter posing for his owner Alan Robinson.     

 In the 20 years that we've bred our Olderhills, our dogs have consistently proved to be excellent in all fields of dog work - obedience, agility, tracking, attack work and even performance tricks for audiences. Those who have entered our Olderhills in competitions have made them champions. Many of our Olderhills have protected their families against armed attacks (we live in South Africa where this is common-place). Two of them were 6 mth old puppies at the time: one chased four armed hi-jackers away from her family in their car (jumping over the bonnet to reach them on both sides), while the other caught and held on to a burglar until the police arrived! At least one has given his life protecting his family and we thank him for it.

 

Our dogs have also proved themselves 100% reliable with children and very protective over them. Our imported Olderhill, Wolfram (Olderhill Grandee of Cornfields), did shows at schools and loved children. He was very patient and allowed nursery school children to sit on him and even pull his ears! (Of course we would explain to the children why they shouldn't do that.) He even changed one of his tricks to get more laughs and applause from the children! (We did it like that from then on - didn't really have a choice as the ball was in his court there!)

 

We've had reports of our puppies trying to pull their children out of swimming pools because they think that it's dangerous! One of our adult olderhills raced past his owner and pulled a baby out of a bucket of water that she'd fallen head-first in. Another was still young when he pulled his own sister out of a swimming pool where she was drowning. (The owner had been about to run to help but then stopped when he saw the brother managing to rescue her.)

 

To be continued...