The German Shepherd Dog is meant to be a courageous defender of its family and flock, and therefore needs to be in excellent health, which begins with genetics! At vom Felsenhof kennel, our family strives to improve the German Shepherd Dog breed in the United States by utilizing a very carefully and highly selective process of choosing (including very close scrutiny of each dog's conformation, temperament, health, drives, as well as pedigree)  which animals best represent or better the breed as a whole, and which produce dogs who are as close to the epitome of German Shepherd Dog perfection as we can currently achieve! Our goal is to improve what we have (and what our clients have access to at the same time!) with each generation of breeding, which can only be done with a highly thoughtful process of selection, including watching the dogs as they grow into mature adults to see what they ultimately become. Without keeping back puppies from select litters, there is no real way to see what vom Felsenhof dogs are producing; this is why we often keep back puppies from various litters throughout the years.