Don't let this happen to any other breeds...

[Sue R]

I was at a dog park last winter and there was a GSD puppy there. The dog was massive and extremely out of proportion for it's age. The poor thing ran around on its elbows and was in obvious discomfort. It couldn't keep up with the other dogs, had a hard time turning and just moving in general and looked so sloppy and disfigured The poor thing looked like a dog running with flippers on his front feet.

 

The woman was as proud as can be about the thing and bragged about the "show litter" it came from and his potentional in life. I wanted to throw up All I could think was, she's going to have to put that poor dog down in the next year because she's not going to be able to carry his 100lb body in and out of the house to pee. You could see other folks at the park pointing and wispering about him too. Very sad

I worked with a number of GSDs when I helped with puppy and family dog classes. In general, the pups tended to be very "shy" and we had to work very hard with most of them to help socialize them. Most were worrisome as potential fear-aggression cases in adult life without serious work.

 

Most were from the "roach back" school of breeding. One enormous youngster was already walking on his hocks and had very poor front legs, also, with his pasterns sloping badly - maybe partly due to his enormous size and lack of sound build?

 

The instructor has a gorgeous, not-show-bred GSD, as have been her other GSDs. The difference between hers and those brought to classes (virtually always by well-intentioned but ignorant owners who bought from BYBs or show lines, depending on their intent to "do well" in their purchase) must have been obvious even to the uneducated - if they would just open their eyes to see.

[alligande]

Regarding the importing of working dogs from europe, after talking to some people involved I think the GSD has gone the way of the Border Collie 2 lines - working, show and in europe there is still a demand for the working ones and so there is a larger supply of them.

[G. Festerling]

I own a few GSD's.

It is not a US only problem. But as mentioned before a conformation breeding problem. It makes me sick to see those dogs.

 

This is what amazes me though. It is 2010. For decades now we have the internet. Many people browse, read, participate in all kinds of sites, forums...etc. Of course all groups have their own agenda. Fair enough.

But at what point is a halfway capable person not able to put these things in perspective? I can not grasp how many more breeds or even species have to go down the drain until things change. Look at what is happening with our horse breeds? It is horrible to watch some of the things that are going on. Breeding follows trends that are the new fads in the show ring.

Is it that for the most part breeders do not work with animals anymore? As in daily labor to put food on the table?

That it may just really be that hard, for the person that has never seen a GSD truly work (not a barely trained SchH test) in either protection or tending a large herd, to understand what this dog is supposed to be? That they don't get the total package idea of this breed?

This is going to sound very arrogant of me to say, but I own one of those dogs that is 100% stable minded, sound, will do the protection work and yet can turn around and go off and play with kids in the woods 3 seconds later. She is more than glad to assist with the livestock and a wonderful companion to me. But, because she is oversized, not well pigmented, straight across the topline and very masculine looking, the show folks don't like her. Because, in her bitework, she does not work pretty, the protection folks (as in sport folks) don't care for her.

Because of having been around the GSD's for a while now, I would have a tough time finding a dog that could fill her role.

Because of the reasons others have already mentioned. They are hard to find.

Personally I prefer the east/czech and even west german working line crosses.

I will say this though, a good GSD has to be nearly one of the easiest breed of dogs to live with.

My first breed will always be my Border Collies. But I adore my Germans.

Please excuse my girls dirty looks...she had just come out of the pond after a nice refreshing swim!

[The Good Shepherd]

I applaud you

I could not have said it better myself!!!!!!!!!!

 

My 3 fall right in line with yours and I would NOT have it any other way

[MyTDogs]

I love GSDs! As a kid we had a GSD/Collie cross & a GSD. They were both just awesome dogs- put up with all kinds of "Jungle Jane" antics from me as a 6 & 7 year old with nothing but love & devotion. I always thought I'd end up with one but now I don't even know where I would get a suitable one with out spending a fortune...& even then.

 

In my recent searches I came across a Panda marked GSD- something I had never heard of (they look just like my GSD/Collie cross). When I was researching them I found a BB thread of conformation GSD folks going on & on about the 'non-standard color" They were really hostile about it too. It was shocking to see owners of obviously crippled dogs go on & on about a dog of the wrong color! Some even suggested that a Border Collie must've jumped the fence & bred the bitch! I say they should be so lucky

 

FYI, the Panda is apparently derived from a single mutation in a single dog (Frankie) from...Phenom Shepherds? The breeder is a conformation breeder so not really my style though her white Shepherds don't look crippled like the AKC approved dogs do. I wonder about their mental stability though- most white shepherds i've dealt with have been woohoo! Looney!

 

[geonni banner]

For those interested, here are two more videos. Both are of GSDs trotting. The first is more like what I think of as a "normal" dog. The second is supposed to be the best moving GSD ever.

 

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BbJlyZkGmmg&feature=related

 

The second dog's name is Dingo vom Haus Gero. He was whelped in 1978

[Pam Wolf]

The 2nd dog is crabbing. His left rear gots to the outside of his front foot with his over reach from the rear. His right hind foot goes to the inside of his right front foot with his over reach. This is not effecient movement. Additionally, the 2nd dog has poor muscleing in his rear thighs. And there is quite a bit of bounce to his movement.

 

the first dog does not over reach so badly most of the time and while the film is jerky it appears he has less bounce to his movement and better balance. It also appears he has better muscle in his rear.

[juliepoudrier]

Interesting. I know lots of working order collies that crab, which makes me wonder just how inefficient it is.

 

J.

[Sue R]

I don't see what is inefficient about mild crabbing (in a dog) that is just enough to avoid interference. I see it a lot in trotting Border Collies (and other dog) with a long gait. If a dog that over-reached didn't crab, just what would it do? Bring both hind feet up outside or inside the front feet? That just *seems* to be to be indicative of bad movement (but I have nothing but my personal "feeling" to base that on, coupled with watching lots of animals move).

 

When I use the pause function on the first video, while the over-reach is much less than in the second, the dog still appears to be crabbing just enough to avoid interference and, interestingly enough, with the hind end shifted to the left, as seems the case in the second video. My dogs all tend to do the same thing, and on the same side.

[geonni banner]

Is crabbing the same as sidewinding? I've had a number of dogs that trotted with their bodies at a slight diagonal, and I always heard it called sidewinding. I never noticed the placement of the rear paws inside or outside of the front ones, but all the dogs did overreach the footprint of the front paw with the rear paw. I always assumed it was their way of avoiding striking the foreleg with the hind foot.

 

I've had dogs that paced rather than trotting, but they were usually as tall as they were long, and it seemed like it was another way to avoid striking. I've heard people say that pacing in a dog is less efficient than trotting. But people who do harness racing (with horses) say that the pace is the faster and more efficient gait. Perhaps that is because horses have more rigid backbones, so the mechanics of the two species trotting/ pacing are evaluated differently?

[ocbizlaw]

I used to be a deputy sheriff and I bred and trained police K-9s. I had a breeding pair from Germany. I bred for only two things, temperament and physical ability. The first thing that everyone said when they saw our dogs was "they're so small." Our dogs were pretty much right at the minimum AKC height standard, sometime even a little under. But they were calm, stable, healthy, had long working lives and absolutely ferocious at their jobs while being the perfect family and kids dogs when not on the job. I got so sick of seeing ads for GSDs that said "big boned," "over 100 lbs" etc. The dogs in the video are simply tragic.

 

As for as BCs go, I have a red and white BC right now that was dumped by a breeder because she has an overbite and, in the breeder's opinion, was low energy. In reality, she is the perfect dog. In reality, she has multiple personality disorder. She is low energy in that she is perfectly happy sleeping all night at the foot of our bed or under our legs while we're watching T.V., etc. But when she sees sheep she is one hundred percent drive and focus. It is as if she were two dogs. I am a firm believer that pretty is as pretty does. It amazes me how the AKC people can explain (rationalize) why their deformed (and deaf and blind and unstable) dogs are better than some compact little dog that can perform its job 18 hours a day for 10 or 11 years. I have no interest in AKC whatsoever and don't even register my dogs anymore.