BREEDING PROGRAM

We at Larocca Kennels take breeding very seriously and always breed first and foremost for ourselves. On average we breed once or twice a year and none of our bitches will give birth before the age of 2 years old .We are strongly against puppies having their own puppies. We don't breed to make a living and believe in quality rather than quantity. We will only breed to preserve the best qualities of German Shepherd Dog, breeding just because you have orders for puppies is not a justification to produce a litter. In each breeding we are looking beyond that litter to possible crosses in the future.

In popular breeds where careless and uninformed breeding is common, temperaments and appearances vary so widely that its hard to believe that some of the dogs are even the same breed! Careless or ill-informed breeding has made many breeds shy, snappy and unstable. We do not want this for the German Shepherd Dog.

Our main goal is to breed happy, healthy, sound, and well adjusted German Shepherds with correct type, movement and temperament, with style and attitude. Movement is really important; what influences movement is construction - so if the dog can not move properly, he is not built properly.

We try to be objective with our dogs in our endeavour to breed quality German Shepherds. We separate our love for each individual dog from our honest evaluation of that dogs good and bad points. In the eyes of its owner, virtually every dog is the best in the world, and as a breeder you must look beyond your love if you wish to have a successful breeding program.

Proper socialisation is of great importance to us. All puppies are encouraged to interact with our adult dogs from an early age, and are exposed to a wide variety of sights, sounds, smells and people when young. In this way we can ensure that we have done our absolute best to raise puppies with the sound temperaments that are a trademark of our breed.

All our puppies are de-wormed, micro-chipped, checked by a vet, registered with the IKC and have had their first vaccination before they go to their new homes at 8 weeks of age.

As we know the personalities of the puppies better than anyone, we try to match each puppy with the appropriate family for its needs. We screen people that are interested in our puppies carefully and we have been very lucky to date and have made some very good friends through our puppies. We stay in touch with new owners and we pride ourselves on selling a service not just a dog as we are always happy to answer any questions.

The happiest dogs are beloved family pets, which is why we only place puppies in homes where they will be loved.

As breeders, we have a lifelong responsibility for the dogs we breed. We can be contacted at anytime during the life of the dog for help and advice.

Our dogs are all social and loving. We will not keep a dog with a bad temperament towards people or other dogs. All our dogs live as a pack-they either work out their differences or they can't live here. That is our main rule in the house. We do not believe in giving dogs away just because they do not grow up to be show winners, they are still important to us, they will always be part of our family.

As breeders we are the guardians of the breed. We must keep the gene pool as diverse as possible by incorporating new lines and not just using the popular stud dog available at the time. We use dogs out of bloodlines that produce a type that we prefer and which we think will improve our own breeding. We spend a lot of time and effort in researching the breed.

These are some of our thoughts regarding breeding, if you have any questions then please feel free to ask.