The German Shepherd is a dog of Nobility, a dog of Proud Heritage, a dog with a Genuine Work Ethic, a dog with a Game Day Play Attitude, a dog with a Shepherd's Heart, and a dog that will be your Best Friend.

Our pups are raised in our home living inside with us for the first 8-10 wks of their lives, playing with grandkids, our cats, our horses and the other dogs. From four to six weeks of age, we introduce those pups to different obstacles, surfaces, noises and other stimulus to develop them and provide them with de-sensitization of loud noise and other such things as they may encounter in their adult lives.

They learn to mouth different textured objects...tin cans, glass bottles, plastic soda bottles, leather, rope, rubber, etc. We teach them to follow moving objects to encourage the drive in each pup, allow them to play tug-a-war with another (supervised of course). 

We introduce them to the wading pool, steps, tunnels, see-saws, etc starting at 8 wks of age. They learn to ride in cars, live in crates and are generally house broken by this age. We also begin their leash training and insert simple commands such as the sit, down, heel and stay using encouragement and positive re-enforcement. We find that pups raised in this manner turn out to be able to better tackle the world outside of their first home and generally show the potential to move well beyond the traditional boundaries encountered by the average puppy.

 Our dogs have grown up to become service dogs, Search & Rescue dogs, livestock guardians, family protectors, Explosives Detectors in the US armed forces, and family members. They have excelled in obedience, agility, rally and other games. And they have moved on to provide the ability to use their minds, willing temperaments and strengths to be the dogs we hoped they would become.

We research bloodlines looking for specific tendencies and  those traits which we feel will produce only the best. We refuse to settle for anything less. We grow out some of our pups to ensure we have successfully paired the right individuals and have reached the goals we had in mind. And we stand behind what we are doing with the guarantee that we will be there to help if the new owner has any questions, to provide training to owner and dog, and to support each individual's efforts to become the best dog owner they can possibly become. We hope our dogs can provide them with unconditional love and devotion and expect the owners to return no less. And with Full registration, we offer health guarantees for hips, elbows, etc. For those who wish to enter competitions and achieve working titles, we offer rewards.

With Honesty and Integrity, we produce Quality. We are proud to call our dogs Van Rensselaer Haus German Shepherds and we hope you will be proud as well to own one of them.