Titled dogs vs untitled dogs when looking for puppies

This is a big one. Everyone, including me likes to see titles on dogs we are looking to get puppies from, or use for breeding. For me, it is in my foundation for how to look at a dog. It's stuck in there really good. Today, titles mean a lot less than they did 40 years ago. The sliding scale hit dog sports really hard, and people took advantage. Today's IPG is no longer a test of breed suitability. The worst is they whored out the title into different catagories, "club" and "competitive" Now, before we get into that, lets talk about the elephant in the room. Logistics. This is a mess. More than anything logistics has contributed to the decline of titles worth in dog breeding. How you may ask ? Lets say you live in the lovely US state of delusion on 30 beautiful acres with your dogs. PERFECT for breeding right ? Half right. In the state of delusion the nearest club is 2 hours away and not the sport you want to play in. So, right there, gas money, how many dogs can you possibly take, how much for each dog, and how much time do you have to commit to this ? There are way more little things that I am not coming up with, this is off the cuff, not some sort of well researched blog. HAHAHAHAHA What can we do as breeders of working dogs to make better educated decisions when the one thing Germany was using as a breed test is effectively gone, no one in the area wants to start a club, and the closest club is just too far away ? Dock diving. It's a confidence thing. You want the dog who, in a perfect world, goes flying down the dock and leaps right in with great abandon. That's perfect world. Since we rarely start from that, then the dog who figures it out almost right away. KEEPING IN MIND that the thing we are missing in the GSD is the dog that flings himself with great abandon. We may or not find that in our program right away, but the confidence is what we are looking for 1st, then the dog who after getting experience, figures it out, and put in a pet home the dog who runs to the dock, shuts completely down, then hops in after months of work. No, not for breeding. Weight pulling. This is a willingness thing. A desire thing. Are you willing to strain against the weight that seems impossible till it moves because I am asking you to ? This exercise is super obvious. dogs will, or they won't. We are looking for the dogs who again, make your life super simple and are like HERE I COME ! Any sort of Jumping. You are looking for the dogs who you don't have to train to jump, the pups that just dive over the jump without all the BS of trying to go around, running up and stopping, that sort of nonsense. The GSD should not have to be "trained" to jump, but here we are, and my theory is that jumping again, confidence, but also tied in to maturity. Some day I will write something about my hatred for dogs that at 3 or 4 are magically different dogs thanks to them maturing late. If you hear "My lines mature late" run. Never talk to that person again. They KNOW their lines are broken, but are breeding anyway. Yeeeeeeech, useless. Barn hunt/nose work. Since everyone myself included have a short attention span, and this is getting a bit long, this is another thing a breeder can do to see how their dogs act. Some dogs have issues going into tunnels. Barn hunt they have to. This is a sport that you should really, other than "Hey, the rat is in the pipe" go into your first competition totally unprepared. See how your dog works with only the super basic idea that he/she is looking for a pipe with a rat in it. Nose work shows you hunt drive. Most dogs that look for a ball it's sort more a carry over from prey, and the conditioning that the ball goes out, you bring the ball back. There will be time spent showing the dog he/she needs to look for this random smell, but then we are looking for a dog who gets it, enjoys it and does the work with great joy. We are looking for the dog who is super easy. Keep that thought in mind. A good breeding dog is super easy to deal with in training getting the initial idea. Agility. One thing, does your puppy do ok with height, or does he/she shit the bed and need lots of work. Go over the dog walk, the real one, not the puppy one. You want a puppy who does recognize he/she is up in the air, and respects the edges, and goes happily across the walk with no issues. Stopping to look over the edge is not an issue. Walking straight off the edge is. Watch that puppy carefully, because it's either it's OH SHIT moment, or "LOOK YOUR FACE IS RIGHT THERE" happiness moment. Lets think about pups who are oblivious to the edge one way or the other. There can be some sort of avoidance in that behavior, cause we are looking for a pup who is easy, and just walks across with very little luring and will go back and do it themselves.