Type has always varied in the breed some being more Bull, and some more terrier in their build, within the scope of the standard.

Most standards allow for a little flexibility as dogs, or any breed or race are not clones.

Our standard does allow this, a dog not so long ago got his title,he was 17 inches at the withers,but everything about him was there.Beautiful Dog.
He's sired some fab pups.
Personally 17 inches I think is fine,anything over that I believe in the current climate is dangerous ground with dogs falling foul of the DDA.

Responsibility apart 5 years old is already too old for a first litter.

Secondly temperament and character are affected by upbringing, but are inherited.

I have now owned 6 generations of my breed, and also a male that I and 3 friends own jointly that was imported.

The puppy we imported at 9 weeks of age, at which point the only socialisation he would have had would be with his own litter mates and the dogs owned by his breeder. She lived out int eh country so not much traffic, though the pups went in the car a few times.

He spent 6 months in solitary confinement in Quarantine kennels. I and his other owners visited him on average for an hour 3 or 4 times a week.

Other than that he would just have had the kennel staff to feed him, the Vet to check him etc.

At 8 1/2 months he came out of quarantine, was absolutely great with other dogs and people, not worried about traffic or crowds when he was at a dog show 3 days later having to be gone over by a stranger. The only things was he hated riding in the car at first.

Why did he cope so well, because he had an absolutely solid temperament.

My Jozi has so many character traits from her father it is spooky, yet they have never spent much time together other than having met at dog shows.

This is inheritance.

What is upbringing is her naughtiness off lead, where she will bog off. I had sold her and had her back at 8 1/2 months old where she had not been trained and being independent minded had learnt that she could do as she pleased when a baby, and is not reliable the way her Mother and Daughter are off lead whose training of recall was concentrated on from little knowing the breed traits.

I have met dogs whose parents were sweethearts, but back in the line was a nervous dog or one a bit guardy and lo an behold out the traits come, especially if you inadvertently mate two with similar problems in the background.

well today they came round with their female (sheba) and i have to admit she is the biggest german shepherd i have ver seen. our male tyson is 5 months old and his paws are twice the size! so i think we are going to end up with a very, very large german shepherd. he is the size of an adult shepherd already and bigger than a lot of adults! anyway they got on fine but i was dissapointed as they only told us today that she is only pedigree and not kc registered and also that they do not have the paerwork for her as they didn't get them off the previous owners. she is 5 years old yes but dosen't look a day over 2. do you honestly think 5 is too old to breed? as i thought a lot of breeders used their bitches until they were 6 years old. she is a beautiful dog and a lot whiter than ours, but we are having second thoughts about this one due her paperwork not being present. as we don't know what's in her history. also she has had no tests done. we told her that we are having all the relevant tests when he is 12 months old but she didn't really seemed concerned about that. she just wants a pup from her so she has another generation of her beloved dog. what do you suggest?

I think you know what mine and a few others answers will be.
I was asked a few months ago if our dog could be used on un tested unregistered bitch my answer was No.
You don't know the history of the bitch or what possible genetic or hereditary conditions she may have going through her lines,you have no way of checking this out.Without any paperwork you don't even know if she's a purebred dog without anything been added into her at some point.

If this mating went ahead it would tell me a few things that the health & welfare of the breed doesn't really matter and the stud fee is all that's important.