Why are Showlines generally priced higher than Working Lines?? - Page 5

Or ......... could it be that we WL people (myself included) horribly undervalue our own commodity?   We spend a fortune on our dogs in addition to blood sweat and tears.  We title our own (generally) do our hips, do our health checks, and then through our advertizing tell the world that our dogs are of less value than SL dogs or even than Labradoodles.   http://www.faithfuldoodles.com/PricingGuarantee.html     I often think the prices are what they are because people are sheep.  The SL people simply see what other SL people sell their dogs for and follow.  The working line people do the same.   Well exccept for this guy  http://www.protectiondogs.com/about_us/the_cpi_difference.shtml   who's a topic for a whole nother post.  Yeah ...... WOW.  He's not sheepish. 

But nothing will change until WL simply assign a higher value to their dogs.  The designer dog people have no problem doing it.  Needless to say ....... I kills me to see really nice working dogs being valued at less than a shitzapooop.

Anyway ......... just another thought on the topic. 

What's sad is you don't know why that's sad. If I don't want what a breed is supposed to be, I get a different breed, which in my opinion, you did. The proper bred Wl can live in a family. Go ask your local K9 officer

I'm not stupid Chaz, and you assume too much, which makes a** out of YOU, not me. Maybe if you re-read my post, you will see that a WL sable was at the top of my list. I chose a blk/tan because his breeding and background fit my lifestyle among other things. I NEVER stated that I DIDN'T chose a WL because they couldn't. There were just many factors that lay into my choice. I know several people who own WL GSD's as family pets, I just didn't find what I was looking for. Thanks.

That is Steve1's showy WL, the SG rated Gina.

And pretty much, your opinion means squat about what YOU THINK I got, since you don't know, do you? Assumptions...because I didn't choose a WL.

I asked you if you wanted the truth. Apparently not.

I think several people here have already stated very good reasons and logic behind the pricing. Your "truth" seems to stem from your flat out dislike of the Showlines. Your entitled to your opinion, but it doesn't make it the "The Truth". It just makes it "Your Truth" ;-)

"It is common and human nature to hope that price reflects quality, and that is what I would have thought was happening if I paid a premium for a pup. I"m not saying that will happen, but that is the hope. There could be some idiots with low self-esteem who need to brag about how much they paid for something, and surely they could let themselves be price gouged, but for most people that is just too stupid to contemplate."


I totally agree with you BT. 

I have found though that price does not at all reflect the quality of the dog.  It goes back to buyer beware.


I really agree with Dee's post.  I think that is it in a nutshell.

Steve,  I never did see the dog, the handler leaned over a little too far.  Have another photo

There was a time when WL shepherds were MUCH more expensive than SL. ( early 70's) We had a glut of Horrid quality WL border patrol line dogs imported in the 5 digits.  These dogs were down right vicious animals that were VERY handler aggressive.  My belief is that is where the idea that Working Line dogs were out of control monsters came from.  ( again this is my perspective only)  I stopped training all working line dogs at that time for my own safety.  In the 80's the show line dogs became much more prevelent and at that time they had exceptional temperment. Controllable and trainable with bites that would rival the best WL of today. People were no longer interested in the WL dogs at that time as they had a bad rap (and deserved the reputation!) On to the 90's now everyone and their dog is importing SL and the temperment starts to hit the skids in the search for the almighty buck.  The WL dogs being imported were really good as the culling process was hard, no one wanted one.  Only the best of the best were now being bred, temperment was closely monitered. yup i started training them again.  Sooooo now we are in the year 2011.  Showline dogs are going back up in quality as far as bite work and WL dogs are maintaining the good temperments.  Yup there are bad ones in both SL and WL but I'm sure we will see the scales tip back into the high priced WL dogs as soon as trainers recognize their qualities again.  And I might add WL are getting to be just a hunky as the West German showlines.  They are no longer the long lean coyote lookin critters of yester year!   Demand almost always sees a drastic shift in quality.