The basis of success:

“Breeding means thinking in generations!”

The crux of successful breeding is to understand the meaning of this quote, to grasp it and ultimately to implement it in a targeted manner.

To be able to do this, you need a wealth of experience. This is made up of a lot of joy, at least as much suffering, and also the conditions of luck and bad luck.

In the end it is necessary to understand (and it was the same for me); the basic principle of successful German shepherd breeding is the realization that only healthy, strong nerved, instinctively strong and anatomically standard-compliant animals should be used for breeding.

The type of dog and, above all, the expression within the framework of the breeding guidelines naturally also depends on the respective breeder and can be clearly identified over the years and generations of dogs in a successful breeding program. That is to say, a breeder who plans purposefully embodies a notable style, and that's a good thing.

At some point, I realized that a certain female named “Manta Nivalda”, who was line-bred to Quando Arminius, but mainly to the unspeakably transmitting Palme Wildsteiger Land, produced incredible offspring in all respects, regardless of the sires used.

With this in mind, I finally acquired the female puppy Zad Feetback. She was line-bred to Manta and largely met my requirements at the time.

Zad was a great dog and repaid my trust with 5 fantastic litters.

Ultimately, I was able to breed Daisy von Melanchthon and, of course, her well-known brother Dasty through Zad and Remo Fichtenschlag.

Daisy received the VA title twice and exhibited all of my visionary ideas and thoughts in four litters.

The Daisy/Yoker Pendler daughter Amy remained in my breeding program and also achieved the VA title and produced (via Ares dei Verdi Colli) my next, highly placed female Jamy. Jamy is still alive today, an elderly lady, but still in great health.

I owe my current V 7 female Vee Melanchthon to Jamy.

Numerous young animals from this excellent maternal line are very promising and are waiting to be used at a wide range of breeding events.

At this point, it must be mentioned that I was lucky enough to own the Vegas grandson Ares dei Verdi Colli (he is now 12 years old).

Regardless of his ratings at three German Sigershows, I am very grateful to him.

He turned out to be an excellent stud dog.

Numerous successful dogs, which strikingly carried on his type, his anatomical correctness and, above all, his strong mental characteristics, helped my kennel to achieve notable success in recent years.

I also owned the great female Tany Feetback, a Furbo granddaughter. From puppyhood on, I was personally convinced of her as a phenotype, but especially of her genotype.

Based on my conviction, I showed her quite often at breeding shows, but ultimately I did not achieve the big breakthrough with her. But my faith in her never waned. In my view, she was the ideal partner for Ares!

Six litters produced numerous top animals. Especially from the combination with Ares, which I repeated twice out of conviction.

Ultimately, Oana and Kara von Melanchthon remained with me to this day. Kara also achieved the title of VA and passes on unstoppable positive traits. So far, each of her litters has produced high-scoring young animals.

We are currently enjoying her daughter Dara, who was rated SG 3 at last year's 2024 Sigershow, and the truly exceptional Bhoss, who was rated SG 4.

I am very sure that this extremely solid male, through his sire and dam line, will sustainably pass on the desired characteristics of the German Shepherd standard.

I am telling the story of the development of my kennel over the past 45 years for one reason:

I want to convey that breeding German Shepherds is a combination of passion, joy, experience and an incredible amount of motivated work with lovable animals.

If you manage to share all these parameters with your family and friends and team members in the course of a breeding career, you will be just as fulfilled by your work and your life as I am!

I thank my wife, my girls and my team for that. At this point, I must not withhold my “big” granddaughter. She already has as much talent and passion as all of us! And the little boys take after...!

The bloodline continues......“thinking in generations”...!

Harald Hohmann