I breed German Shepherds, but my dogs are the larger, straight-backed style...this dog is horrific looking but is an example of what some of the show dogs look, not just in the UK but Germany and even in America.
I breed German Shepherds, but my dogs are the larger, straight-backed style...this dog is horrific looking but is an example of what some of the show dogs look, not just in the UK but Germany and even in America.
overall health should be a criteria they are judged by.
I have one of these awkward gaited slope backed shepherds and I am glad to see that there may be a growing movement to change the breed standard
German Shepherds were always intended to be a working breed.If a dog can’t chase cattle or herd sheep all day long,then somethings wrong with it.
German Shepherd is just another in a long line of breed that have been ruined inbreeding by the Gog Show Purist. In most cases , the first thing lost was intelligence, then deformities start showing up as “Normal” or “Standard”. Hip dysplasia is just the first that comes to mind.
The first breed I became aware of this happening to was the Collie. Back in my youth a collie was a beautiful, intelligent working dog. Now it is not much more than a ornament.
To me it sad what the has and is happening to these breeds and others.
Based upon that video, neither of those dogs would have been in the running at Westminster.
later.
I hate that some breeders have gone this way. They took a perfectly magnificent dog and ruined it
Thank you for breeding the original. We need more of them
I prefer the Shepherds that I saw in Germany with the straighter backs. They didn’t have as great a tendency for hip dysplasia.
I’ve had great luck with my mixed breed rescue dogs. I’ve got six now and have fostered around 90. When people ask me what breed they are I tell them, “That’s a pure blooded Harley/Dasher/Bandit...”
Crufts is under fire for the Best in Breed Cavalier too. Breeding protocol is that they not be bred under age 2. This is a attempt to improve the health of Cavaliers, who are prone to a couple of nasty hereditary conditions, Mital Valve Disease and Syringamyelia. The dog who won had been bred at 9 months of age. Crufts claims they support ethical breeding and healthy dogs, but I think it is apparent the claim is false.
Have you seen this general registry for GS?