>>843103They can be good, but as someone mentioned, finding a healthy one is hard as fuck, which is the case for any popular dog breed. Like there is a meta for finding healthy GSDs. For example, a breeder whose only claim to 'fame' is that they ship dogs from Germany to breed with theirs, should be avoided. The parents should be able to compete in some form of active sport, like herding, IPO, hunting, agility, etc. they should have a goal with the pups, as in they want to better the breed - not just breed to make more dogs. While this goes for any breed, it's especially true to find a healthy GSD. Both parents should have health checks, probably multiple within their lives (if you test at 1 year, most dogs don't have hip dysplasia at a year old, so it has to be done multiple times in their lives). And paying more does not necessarily mean you are getting better. There are all these buzz words for GSDs that make people pay a lot more for them. Basically to buy a healthy GSD you will need to find the right breeder, which alone can be a lot of work.
Alternatively, if you don't want that kind of work, you can support a dog shelter or rescue and pay a fraction of the price for a shepherd or lab mutt
>>843139Desensitization to keep them from running after game. This can be very hard for dogs with strong instincts. As for recall, that's much simpler. I'd suggest first training on a leash, then when recall is good there, a long leash. Just Google dog recall training. Take your pick. There's recall games, 'commercial break' training, training videos. But I always tell people that dogs aren't perfect, a dog can only respond to recall at most 99% of the time.
In my Area you can legally shoot a dog chasing a deer, so it's very important to be able to distract and call my dog back.
