Cross Breeds - What is the best cross breed with a German Shepherd Dog?

What is the best cross breed with a German Shepherd Dog?

16 Years ago my paerents had to put down their GSD because of hip dysplasia is there a cross breed with the GSD that has had good results in preventing the dysplasia? i am 16 and i am not very experienced with GSDs but have owned many animals including one dog three cats and 15 guinea pigs. Thank you for answers.

Public Comments

PLEASE DO NOT MIX BREED, there are more than plenty people out there messing up wonderful full blooded dogs.
no crossbreeds are recommended... this only adds to the problem of overpopulation and homeless pets... the thing you need to do to have a GSD that has good hips is to buy one from a reputable breeder who has their dogs hips evalutaed and scored. good breeding is the key... not cross breeding
Cross breeding will not prevent hip dysplasia - since this is a condition in most large breeds. Find a responsible breeder of purebred dogs, that only breed dogs with excellent hip and elbow scores. This isn't a 100% guarantee that the pup won't get hip dysplasia, but it will help.
You'll be able to reduce the risk by looking at breeders that have done hip tests. There is a possiblity, but it's not AS large. As for crosses, a lot of the larger breeds are at risk for this. I would just look in shelters/on petfinder and see what kind of mixes they offer, and Google the mix that they offer. Good luck!
You can go to the pound and pick up a dog that suits your lifestyle. Don't breed dogs to other breeds on purpose because there's already one out there perfect for you in a shelter. I have a rot/german shepherd who was a forfeit to animal control and she's the best dog I could ask for. And healthy to boot. :)
mixed breed dogs are just as likely to have diseases like hip displasia. If you want to avoid genetic disease, your best bet is to seek a reputable breeder who is doing genetic health tests on their dogs.. look for a breeder who is using OFA or PennHip.
I have to agree that crossbreeding is not going to guarantee no HD -- if you cross a Lab with a GSD, for example, both breeds are prone, so if both parents carry it, you will only end up with a GSD/Lab mix with Hip Dysplasia. HD is common in poorly bred GSDs. You're best off finding a responsible Shepherd breeder who does the hip testing and only breeds clear animals. That will give you a much better chance of getting a healthy dog.
The answer is NO breed. There are literally thousands of GSDs and GSD mixes that are literally dying for a home, and mixing them with different breeds does not and never will, eliminate hip dysplasia (I have seen mixes practically crippled by it). http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emGZBLVJmGI http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=emGZBLVJmGI http://www.petfinder.org http://www.dogsindanger.org
You don't (and shouldn't) have to find a GSD cross in order to try to have one with reduced risk of hip dysplasia. By finding a very reputable breeder who screens their dogs for hip (and elbow) dysplasia and can show you their hip scores, and hips scores of other dogs from these same parents when they were bred in the past--you can minimize your risk of getting a GSD with hip dysplasia. As far as getting a mixed breed dog---you'd have to know all the hip scores of the other breed mixed with the GSD in addition to the GSD's hip scores, in order to rule out dysplasia anyway. It just is no guarantee, being a mix, that there won't be dysplasia. Good question though, and good luck!
You should only breed them with my purebred teacup Saint German Cockadoodle Dane!!! Just teasing. You should ONLY breed two GSD's that have been tested to prove that they don't have it themselves. You should not cross breed and produce mutts. I had to put down a dog that was only a year old because of severe genetic problems-- including hip dysplasia. It was very sad!!! Because of this, I am against BYB's!
by simply asking thisquestion you have proven you are not ready to even consider breeding your dog. the BEST way to prevent hip dysplasia in GSD's is to be part of a strong GOOD breeding program of ONLY GSD's, that includes not only show and feild tests but extrensive health testing and genetic knoweldge of their line. and to buy from breeders who KNOW their lines and test for dysplasia.
All you have to do is find a good breeder. A reputable breeder of any breed spends a good amount of money on genetic testing before breeding to make sure their dog doesn't have any of those problems. Crossing breeds is not highly esteemed in the dog world. A good breeder would never breed his/her purebred dog to a dog of another breed. Good breeders breed in order to improve the breed, and since the puppies would not be purebred, they obviously wouldn't be improving ANY breed. Unethical breeders don't give a hoot about mixing breeds -- they also don't give a hoot about health-testing. So, a mixed breed dog could still end up with all the genetic flaws of its untested parents. Here's how to look for a breeder, what questions to ask, and how to tell the good from the bad: http://www.jlhweb.net/Boxermap/reputablebreeder.html http://www.canismajor.com/dog/responbr.html Good luck.
If you'd like to ADOPT a GSD cross then several mixes are usually wonderful. GSD x Lab GSD x Collie GSD x Spaniel Husky mixes are very high energy and shed like hell but are usually also great dogs for an active family. I would avoid any Terrier or Boxer mix unless your family has experience with these breeds- the GSD doesn't need to be mixed with a dog that **can** be aggressive. Thanks for adopting a new friend- don't EVER buy a mutt!
The only way to prevent hip dysplasia is to make sure both parents, regardless of breed, have been x-ray'd to rule out hip dysplasia. Simply crossing breeds doesn't do didly freaking squat. If both parents have bad hips, the chances are the pups will, too. Whether both parents are GSD's or one is a GSD and one is a chihuahua, or a curly coated cuntasaurus. The chances of finding a mixed breed where both parents have been screened for hip dysplasia are about as good as getting a blizzard in Hawaii.
a good crossbreed if you can find it - thru petfinder or local newspaper - is german shepherd and husky. we have owned GSD's (bought) and shepherd husky mixes (that we adopted) and, because the siberian husky is bred for pulling/running - there was, at least in the dogs we had - less chance for hip dysplasia. all but one GSD that we had got dysplasia, and he was an american/import bred. If your parents still want a shepherd - try an import or pick a shepherd with at least half import bloodlines (czech or german). A lot of the police departments get imports not only because they are trained in german or czech but because the breeding is more controlled thru government and there is not such random breeding as in the states. This results in less likelihood of H.D and a longer police career for the dog.
No - cross breeding (aka making mutts) doesn't prevent dysplasia or anything else. Purchasing a well bred dog from breeders who have researched the health background of the dogs they are utilizing and have had all possible health testing done is the closest you can get to ensuring you will get a healthy dog. There is an ignorance based lie that people perpetuate that mutts are healthier or have better temperament but that is false on face given most mutts are ignorantly produced by people from poor quality, un-evaluated dogs to begin with - no silk purses out of sow's ears.
As most have stated already please do not cross breed a GSD. Hip Dysplasia can be easily prevented (for the most part) through breeders screening the parent dogs hips through the orthopedic foundation for animals (OFA). By breeding dogs with only quality hips it greatly reduces the chance for hip dysplasia. Do NOT buy from a breeder that does not OFA their dogs. They can claim that they never had hip problems in their dogs, but that means absolutely nothing without x-rays. Check out http://germanshepherdworld.net/ It is a great community of GSD lovers from around the world wanting to share their experiences and knowledge of the breed. I hope that helps some!
(1) Put HD aside for a moment. WHAT would you want that isn't already there in a correctly-bred GSD? If there is/are any such feature, then obviously a pooch WITH that feature is what you want crossed with a GSD, and its breed doesn't matter EXCEPT that not only that partner but also its parents and its breed over-all must be noted for that feature. However, there is only a 50% chance that a particular pup in that crossbred litter will inherit that feature. And the odds of a particular pup having that feature PLUS all the virtues of a GSD are rather minuscule... The whole purpose of HAVING breeds is to improve the predictability of particular features. As soon as you start cross-breeding there are very few things that are predictable about the results. (2) Now back to HD: Only 2 breeds - GSDs and Labradors - have significant samples in this table of hip results: http://www.vets.org.nz/NZVA/QAPs/Dysplasia/hip/AveScores26Jan07.pdf Although Alaskan Malamutes and Siberian Huskies have slightly better results than do GSDs, their sample is barely adequate. The best-hipped of the breeds with almost-adequate samples are the Border Collies, a much lighter-boned breed than the GSD, and one not yet ruined by puppy-millers and pet-to-pet "breeders" and the show-is-all kennels. Back in the 60s and 70s Racing Greyhounds were considered to have superior hips, but none are in that sample. But the odds of finding anyone who has spent years developing reliable GSD lines allowing one of them to be crossed with a different breed are effectively nil. The odds of finding a ditto for Greyhounds or Huskies is also ditto. Doesn't augur well for the hip ancestry of BOTH sides of a GSD cross having been studied for generations, eh! I'll bet that your parents didn't buy their GSD from a reputable breeder, one who used only hip-scored stock (elbow scoring wasn't being done back then), and was so confident of his/her careful selection that he/she supplied a printed and signed Guarantee stating what he/she would do if any of the genetic "unthinkables" happened. The last litter in which I produced a dysplastic was born in 1983 - and it wasn't my idea, it was a "surprise gift" from a pup allowed to run unsupervised with his on-heat dam because he was too small to reach her "target" and anyway he was too young to be fertile. Yeah, right..... In other words, how common HD is in a particular kennel depends on the intelligence of the kennel's owner, particularly how he/she uses the xray evidence available. Although a veterinary university in Hamburg claimed at the end of March to have identified one of the DNA sequences responsible for HD, for a while yet we will have to rely on xray schemes. "chalbri" and "Swamp Poodles WWTD" and "lisa_052..": You 3 don't understand that, unfortunately, hip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia are the expression of several RECESSIVE alleles, albeit modified by the environmental factors of diet & weight & fitness (or lack of) & type of activity. So merely xraying the parents (as "Swamp Poodles WWTD" recommends) is close to a waste of time & money. A dog's OWN xray tells you only whether it personally displays the effects of HD (or ED). It tells you nothing about how many of the dysplasia recessives the pooch possesses, each blocked in that dog by its "good" dominant allele. Until DNA matching is available, breeders need to check the hips of the parents & siblings and grandparents of both the new stud & new brood they are considering using - and, if possible, uncles and aunts as well. After the stud has had several litters, a more reliable guide is a progeny analysis. And despite "Nekkid Dog"s faith in them, OFA and PennHIP are the 2 worst hip schemes. ● The best scheme is the BIF-scoring used in Britain, Australia & New Zealand. It reports 18 aspects of the hips, so that breeders can tell whether any aspect is close to being a concern and take appropriate steps; that gives a total scale of 0 to 106 (as against OFA's 6 categories). And it publishes a progeny analysis every year. When the scheme was first set up (by GSD people in 1978 but not adopted for all breeds in Britain until 1983, not by my country's NZVA until January 1986), the breed's average was 18-20. In Australia that has come down to 14±, in my country it has come down to 11±. ● The other useful scheme is the German SV's ZW scheme. It uses a computer to every 3 months factor in a host of close relatives' hip results; the ZW produced is like an IQ, but in the opposite direction - 100 is still "average", but the lower the ZW the better. If your pup is destined to develop a joint dysplasia it WILL develop it. But there are things you can do to minimise the speed & degree that it takes effect - and they are good things to do even if your pup isn't destined to develop a dysplasia. (1) Keep it light in weight. If your pup has the correct GSD coat, soon after 5 months old you should see every rib outlined by the muscles working over it while the dog gaits or pants, but never more than the edge of the last rib when it is rested - the GSD should be in the same condition as a human who is a champion marathon runner. (2) Feed raw meat on small bones (skinned rabbits, chunks from lambs or young deer) - meat is the basic diet of carnivores; the gnawing exercises the cheek muscles that control their ears, clean the teeth, help dislodge the deciduous teeth, and help the permanent teeth break through the gums, and any bits that get digested contain the perfect calcium:phosphorus balance. Supplement that with cooked table scraps or dog bix a few times a week. (3a) Allow the pup freedom to exercise whenever it wants - lying in a crate doesn't develop muscle (nor does it develop intelligence & self-confidence). When a pooch cannot have the run of the house it should be in a roofed escape-proof run outside where it can experience the sounds & smells & movements of the environment or snooze in a raised box or bounce from end to end of the run and go toilet whenever it wants to. (3b) Avoid high impact exercise; avoid exhausting exercise - exhausting for the pup, not for you. The condition of the muscles & ligaments is crucial - they have to be tight, to hold the bones in the correct relationship to each other so that the knobs and sockets and balls all work properly. Ignore any "advice" to "prelim" your pup - UNLESS you suspect that it has developed HD or ED. Less than 16% of HD is detected by xrays taken at or before 6 months old! By 12-13 months old 70% gets detected, and only OFA deems that too young to certify; the rest of the world considers that if HD hasn't shown up by 12-13 months it is going to be very mild and not prevent dogs from having a normal life-span (the exception being the ones that REALLY work their joints hard for up to 14 hours a day). http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/links/Diseases_001198817153/Hip_Dysplasia_001198817326/ tells you about Hip Dysplasia. http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/The_GSD_Source/links/Diseases_001198817153/Elbow_Dysplasia_and_U_A_P__001198817464/ tells you about Elbow Dysplasia. The proper place to ask further questions about GSDs is in a couple of the 300+ YahooGroups dedicated to various aspects of our breed. Each group's Home Page will have a "mission statement" telling you which aspects they want to talk about, and below that will be a Monthly Activity "calendar" so you can tell whether the group is "dead" or manageably active or so over-active that you couldn't cope with all that traffic. Les P, owner of GSD_Friendly: http://pets.groups.yahoo.com/group/GSD_Friendly "In GSDs" as of 1967