What's to become of our purebred dogs?

[AGonzalez]

Doesn't look anything like the dogs in that video or that I see that are shown...no slanted back, she's square in the rear end, and has a nice natural looking run...
My working dog friends like her, the show people I know say "that dog would never win at conformation" - well, that's fine by me, I'd rather have an "ugly" sound dog than a crippled up beauty.

[smkie]

SHe looks outstanding to me!!!!!!! Noble head, strong back, perfecto!

[AGonzalez]

Truth be told, she has a GSD showline buddy...we walk 3 miles she's still good to go when we get back...he stopped at mile 1 and is exhausted.
It's sad to see he can't keep up, he's about 90 lbs and huge compared to her at 63 lbs (just weighed her) "ugly" wins, lol!

[Boemy]

Oh, if it's shots from that documentary, I watched that. I don't know how those breeders can look at their dogs without crying. I can't imagine purposely breeding an animal to walk like that. Kind of reminds me of mad scientists in old sci fi movies . . . "Ve must cross ze monkey wif ze walrus! SCIENCE DEMANDS IT!" And then it grows 50 feet tall and devours them.

[Xandra]

Well, while we're posting photos of GSD's.

These are natural poses.

As you can see he's got a long croup. He's kinda slanty when he poses. Otherwise his back is pretty straight.

While it may seem strange to some I am on a sort of crusade to get him posed like those show dogs. I post this next pic at risk of being called a dog abuser lol... I honestly had no idea I had positioned his feet so far apart until I looked at the photo after. I was trying to get his back end lower lol. Anyways it's as close as I've gotten so far. I think what needs to happen is less Twister stuff and his knee needs to drop a bit. lol

Actually the closest pic I have of the angle of his hock to a showline dog's is mine upon impact after jumping 9 ft or so.

Here are some neat animations I have


That's all

[Doberluv]

YouTube - History of the change in the german shepherd over the years

YouTube - German Shepherd half dog half frog

Sorry about the link screw up.

[DanL]

Mine's a little slanty but it doesn't keep him from doing what he wants.

[sammgirl]

Originally Posted by Xandra

Well, while we're posting photos of GSD's.

These are natural poses.

As you can see he's got a long croup. He's kinda slanty when he poses. Otherwise his back is pretty straight.

Wow. There are so many pretty shepherds on this board. Makes me want one.

Kenya, Lacey, Xandra's boy and DanL's dog are all making me wish for my own shep one day!!!!

[pawzaddict]

DanL your GSD is absolutely gorgeous!!!! That is what my mothers dogs growing up looked like, that is as low as it should be. Can I have him

[Xandra]

Thank you sammgirl.

Dan, Gunnar looks great... he's a very sturdy looking dog. How tall is he and what's he weigh? Mine is a little over 27" and all spindly lol. Ah well.

It's important to remember that GSD's are SUPPOSED to have a bit of a slope. Just because the show people have taken it to extremes of extremes doesn't mean that it shouldn't slope at all... everything in moderation.

To quote the SV standard:

Body

The top line extends from the point where the neck meets the skull past the well developed withers and the gently downward sloping back to the slightly sloping croup without a visible break. The back is firm, strong, and well muscled. The loin is broad, well developed, and strongly muscled. The croup should be long and have a slight downward slope (approximately 23 degrees from horizontal) and should merge smoothly into the tail set.

It's just the show breeders didn't have to worry about proper temperament or functional structure, because they didn't use their dogs in any way, so they had to think up *something* to breed for, they needed a goal. So they f'ed up the backs... couldn't they have done something with merit, like breed them so their ears didn't look RIDICULOUS at 6 months? lol Go figure.