Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show 2004

2/10/04

[anniegetyourgun]

YOUR THOUGHTS, COMMENTS, PICTURES ON AMERICA'S DOG SHOW HERE!

Thread from first night here.

Your hosts on USA Network:

[Buffettbassman]

Forget the NewF! I LOVE the STRAT!

[Buffettbassman]

Forget the NewF! I LOVE the STRAT!

[HairOfTheDog]

Before the name:
Ch. = Show Champion
Am./Can = American and Canadian Ch.

After the name:
CD = Companion Dog - First level AKC Obedience Title
ROM = Register of Merit Sire... dogs who have produced at least ten champion progeny (I think 10)
SchH = Schutzhund (German for Sport Dog) Titles... SchH III would be the third and highest title. (police dog work) Includes Protection, Tracking and Obedience.

Haven't looked at your links yet..... these are just the ones I spotted and knew! - Did you find all that at the AKC site? Isn't it amazing that they backloaded all that data?

[HairOfTheDog]

OFA is a medical hip certification.

I think the Kkl ones are German grades or ratings for breeding suitability.

[Indy Pendance]

hahah, I didn't think CD ROM meant a computer disc! I started with google, the list came from this site:

German Shepherd Club of America

But.....I searched dog names and found the specific data links that way. Once I got to this link, I just started going backwards.

Thanks for the definations. What do you think? Is this a good line?

[Indy Pendance]

I didn't find diddley at the AKC site. If I knew a name, they gave me a number. If I knew a number they gave me a name. No lineage whatsoever. Just 'name, rank, and serial' numbers. I think you'd have to pay for more information. That's not even gaurenteed you get what you were looking for.

[Indy Pendance]

What's really cool, is I was able to trace her lineage all the way back to GSD #1. SZ-1 Horand von Grafrath

[HairOfTheDog]

Certainly a bloodline! not some backyard breeder with no-name parents!

[Indy Pendance]

hahaha, I never really thought of looking it up until the OlLine Rebel started getting all professional on us *wink*. But his information was really intriguing, so I searched. It was so much fun researching your own dog. Especially not knowing where she came from. Isn't it amazing? We're her fourth home, look at that! She's a queen. I give her her pills every morning in a glob of peanut butter. I'm going to have to think of something more special for her majesty.

[the OlLine Rebel]

Fascinating bit of lineage, there! Sounds like your dog's sire was pretty popular in the specialty world - he was a Select at the National Specialty a few years back. Stupid me, I didn't even think of our GSDCA website as a starter.

Oh, BTW, hate to point this out, but I'm a "her"/"she", or in dog terms, just call me a bitch! (As the Dems do, anyway. ;-) ) [I'm not yet a dam, tho]

An explanation that Hair didn't cover mite help.

Every year both the GSDCA and the SV (Verien fur Deutsche Schaferhunde, or "Schaferhunde Verien" - Shepherd Club in Germany) have what you mite call "National Specialties". These 2 clubs, tho they've diverged greatly both in breeding and in philosophy, have similar end show results. As follows:

Top male - Sieger (SV), Grand Victor (GSDCA)
Top female - Siegerin (SV), Grand Victrix (GSDCA)
[1 of these is best of breed, the other is best of opposite sex. You have to look up the details to see who actually got BOB cuz the "titles" don't tell you that.]

Then, each male and female in the final class is lined up from 2nd best to "worst". So, Select #2 male is the 2nd best male, Select #7 female is the 7th best female, etc. Germans also number, but they specify also just how good the dog is overall (rating) along w/a number for that show. In fact, they get the rite to wear the best rating they get as a sort of title. Here's how they go:
VA - Select Excellent (I forget the German word for excellent, it's a V word) - top class. The Sieger would be "VA-1" for that year.
V - Excellent
SG - Sehr Gut/very good
G - Gut/good

So theoretically, a dog could be rated select in a German show, but still only considered "good" aka adequate. If people are really proud of their dog's placement, they will likely show the specific highest rank they ever got at the big show along w/the rating; e.g., "VA-3".

You have some serious legends in there, besides the recent dogs. I mentioned Pfeffer v. Bern earlier - rest assured he was a Sieger also. Utz and his progenitor Erich, legends. Erich the grandson of Hettel - and his frequent mate, the LEGENDARY (but too often neglected - something I'm trying to rectify on that German pedigree site) bitch Flora Berkemeyer, a lovely dog often called responsible for the beauty of the breed (look at her link) and perhaps in many ways, the mother of the breed everywhere!

Not to mention Beowulf and daddy Horand, the "father of the breed".

There are many varieties of German performance titles, some of which are in the dogs below. I can't recall all. PH is PolizeiHunde - Police Dog. Many very early dogs will have HGH - Herding Dog (yes, our dogs are ~shepherds~ - they were meant for herding sheep!).

The SZs you see are simply the SV registry # - Horand is the 1st registered dog, hence SZ1 (contrary to popular perception, he is not the "1st GSD"). Beowulf is the 10th registered dog, hence SZ10. Just like our AKC registries, but they continue to use SZ in Germany.

Have I bored every1 enough? Sorry. That's why I was trying to stick to "e-mail" for Indy so not every1 would be subjected to this! ;-D

[Indy Pendance]

No one will care what you say, this thread is dead except for a couple of us die hards. I researched the dam, and she wasn't noteworthy, nothing on her at all. So, it looks like someone was lucky to mate their dam with a really well bred sire hoping to enhance that line. Her name is Jerland's Dorian of Shel-Ray. You gave excellent information and links. Thanks so much for taking the time today to talk to me. It's piqued me! Keep in touch.

[Indy Pendance]

What a beauty, your Logan is. You'd think it would be desirable for field dogs to be lighter and more agile. I'm so sorry I missed your picture and post, you must be proud!

[HairOfTheDog]

He was a pretty dog.... That is a really old picture of him in his prime. He died last spring at 16 years old. He had a good dog's life!