From time to time we will have litters born into the World Class (WC) Program that we will advertise here, and we will also post updates about previous litters born into the program on the World Class Litters LMI page and the Litters of Merit LMI page. You can find other Shiloh litters on individual breeder web sites. Most registries and clubs have a Breeders Page (see Links for a listing of registries and clubs).  In addition, the ISSDC site has a Puppies Page that lists current and upcoming litters and also has pages for older puppies and adult dogs.

If you are looking for a puppy, we hope you will check all the litters out. Consider using the guidelines in the Puppy Selection System, ask many questions and if you decide on a Shiloh puppy, we wish you a happy, healthy puppy that is a good match for you!

It is extremely important for us to clearly communicate that not all litters born to WC members qualify for “World Class” or “Litter of Merit” designation. With our members, “World Class” is something we aspire to be—we do not achieve it simply by joining the program. The WC Program takes responsibility for ensuring that our members uphold the terms set out in our Bill of Rights. If a breeder fails to comply with the stipulations agreed to for litters designated as World Class Litter (WCL) or Litter of Merit (LOM), including defaulting on contractual obligations, falsifying or misrepresenting data, conduct conflicting with the spirit of the program, his or her membership in the WC Program will be terminated.
 

The World Class Program does not operate by “controlling” its members. There are no dues, no demerits awarded, and no breeding privileges suspended or revoked--we do not tell our breeders what they can and cannot breed. We police ourselves by only accepting members who share a common philosophy and belief system regarding breeding practices. We spell out clearly and concisely exactly what we expect from our members and what it takes to earn a litter designation. And we accept for membership only those individuals who want to participate in the program. So if a breeder produces a litter that fails to earn a WC or LOM litter designation, he or she takes full responsibility for same and loses the benefits that are afforded WCL or LOM litters.

Our goal is that every litter born to a World Class member will qualify for “World Class Litter” status or “Litter of Merit” status, but human nature being what it is, things do not always work out the way we would like and we wanted to be prepared. We also wanted an environment where our breeders had complete control over their own breeding programs so that accountability will always rest squarely on members’ shoulders. To summarize, in the WC Program, we do not police what our members breed, we control how our litter designations are used.

When it comes to the designations “World Class Litter” (WCL) or “Litter of Merit” (LOM)—these designations are hard earned, and you will always know how a litter achieved said designation. It is also important to understand that a puppy from a WCL or LOM litter is no guarantee the puppy will have perfect health, temperament or conformation. In fact there are only two things we can guarantee you. 1) That we will make mistakes because ethical breeding is complicated but we will learn from our mistakes and 2) That we can prove to you exactly what we did to reduce your risk as a puppy buyer. If the puppy comes from a litter designated “World Class” you know everything outlined in the WC Bill of Rights was done on both sire and dam. In other words the breeder carefully selected a breeding pair based on health and temperament testing, compatibility of lines, and a conformation assessment that works hard to maximize virtues and minimize faults. And that is just the start—once all the planning is done and all the data is collected, the entire group goes over each report or document and weighs in on the level of risk and whether or not the litter deserves to be called World Class or Litter of Merit. This is how we avoid kennel blindness and how we keep each other grounded and striving to do better.

The Litter of Merit (LOM) designation was a consensus on our parts as a step towards achieving our long-term goals. We have a small membership and a small gene pool in Shilohs. Not all Shilohs are tested to the standards we developed for the WC Program and the Shiloh breed comes with a great deal of “baggage” (inbreeding depressions, compounded recessives, lack of data, mystery ancestors, etc.,) in the lines. We realized early on that we needed to take small steps in order to survive and hopefully thrive in this environment. So we developed the LOM to cover pairings where a WC member’s dog has all or almost all required testing and was bred to a dog that has less testing than what we advocate. LOM litters go through the same assessment process as WC litters but are scrutinized even harder because the level of risk is inherently higher due to a lack of information.

Where are we headed? Our 10-year plan is to achieve better health, temperament, and conformation through intelligent decision making. Through careful pairings and intense data collection and analysis, we hope to produce the dog—the one described in the breed standard be it Shiloh, Borzoi, Hound, German Shepherd, Poodle, etc., the one that drew each of us to whatever breed we favor--on a much more consistent basis. 

We hope you will continue to check back and see how we are doing!