Fashion vs The GSD  by Les Pauling

A correspondent wrote:

“Well, Les, your comments got me wondering so I did some 'surfing' and you just need to have a look at any of the multitude of sites displaying pictures of dogs competing at Crufts to see they are handling the way I was taught to as well ( for All Breeds ). Gee.... and to think you got me doubting myself!...”

I should just think you would! Now go gargle with Lysol, you foul-mouthed ingenue! "Crufts" indeed!!!! ( The fact that my first 2 High Clear bitches had as their grandsire 1965 Supreme Champion Fenton of Kentwood, the first GSD to win BIS at Crufts, is besides the point - I was a newby in them thar daze and actually thought that the Alsatian Police Dog was a genuine GSD, just as you now think that hinge-backs and banana-backs and Hyaena Dogs are genuine GSDs. They aren't, they are fashionable deviations. )

I was going to send you to the photo gallery of American Grand Victors, as a horrible example of where the current fashion leads to, but the GSDCAmerica site has been modified, and I can no longer find that page. Some examples:

Those 3 being a US&Canadian Sieger, a US&Canadian Champion, and the 2002 & 03 US Grand Victor, Ex.Select, Ch.

 

By the way, THIS is the drawing given in the Illustrated Standard of the GSD adopted by the GSDCAmerica and the AKC, for breeders & judges to accept as their visualisation of the correct GSD:

Readers willing to tolerate semi-literate Americanese and to think about the ideas intended should visit:

http://www.gaardog.com/breed_types_&_standards.htm

and the pro & anti links it gives in the “German vs American” page, and to various other “types” of alleged GSD.

The next column reminds you of what was winning in Alsatian Police Dog daze (NZ had only 3 GSD clubs back then, and they ran 1-breed versions of all-breeds shows, except that the WDGSDC twice used SV judges "on loan" from Australia's early GSD Nationals):

 

And for contrast, here is the dog that shocked me into realising that Alsatian Police Dogs were WRONG:  

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

German Sieger 1969 & 1970 VA1* HEIKO von ORANIEN

 

 

 

 

Heiko was born in 1966. Now, although the breed has CHANGED immensely since then, I do not see all of those changes as IMPROVEMENTS. The most obvious of them are actually CONTRARY to the Standard! And people around the world who are involved with DogSport are bitter about the various changes made to soften SchutzHund, so maybe the modern characters aren't all they might be, either.

 

 

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• If you want to win, you have to obey the fashion and be more extreme than the other extreme handlers.

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•  If you  want judging appointments, you have to obey the fashion and place the most extreme of the fashionably extreme mutts.

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But if you want to have actual GSDs then you have to obey the International Standard. Easiest access to that for speakers of English is Honey's official translation for Australia:

 

http://www.ankc.aust.com/gsd.html

 

 

See how closely Heiko fits it?

 

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You can SEE where his wither is, it is not merely part of his neck or part of his back.

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 You can SEE where his croup is, it is not merely part of his loin, nor is it forced down way below the correct 22½° specified in the Standard.

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His top-line HAS the "continuous curve" that used to be in the Standard - which used to also call for a level mid-back ( still does, in the totally-ignored rebel American version ). For those too lazy to read & LEARN the whole International Standard of the GSD (produced by the WUSV, on which NZ has 2 seats), here is one relevant excerpt:

 

 

BODY - The topline flows from the set on of neck over the well defined withers and over the back, sloping very slightly from the horizontal to the slightly sloping croup without a noticeable break.

 

Now, how could Honey have made it clearer that the International Standard calls for the BACK to be close to horizontal? Just rising to the wither and then rising again to the neck in front, and dropping slightly for the croup behind? As seen in Heiko, born in April 1966! NO exaggerations!!   

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His knee creates the specified angle of 120°, and his heel has a pretty similar angle, unlike the often-sickle-hocked deviations you see nowadays.

 

 

 

For those unsure of the term “sickle-hocks”, it is where the angle around the heel is sharp – 80-100° instead of the desired 120° or the permissible 105°. As a consequence, not only do the over-long stifles increase the mechanical disadvantage ( remember your high school physics? ) the hind-quarter imposes on its muscles, but the knee lies below the heel so directs propulsion forward-&-down instead of forward-&-up. Many sickle-hocked animals will stance with their whole right hock on the ground:

 

 

 

 

Many also weakly place their whole hock on the ground when gaiting –

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

the hock ( the arch, in our foot ) does not have pads to protect from those impacts, and so such a dog can NOT stand up to the GSD’s traditional all-day patrolling of the flock.

 

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 His chest-depth : daylight ratio looks to be spot on the 45 : 55 ( down to 48 : 52 is allowed ) of an enduring herding

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

dog, as opposed to a the chested sprinters that win shows nowadays. That problem of excess depth is not helped by our DownUnder dogs being surveyed for Life while they are still mere under-developed 18 and 19 month striplings. The Germans sensibly require a re-survey at or after the age of 3 years, but it didn’t stop them promoting this VERY deep Youth Siegerin & VA6:

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

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His upper-arm is not perfect for the 45° of the Alsatian Standard, but looks mighty close to what's specified in the International Standard of the GSD:

 

 

 

The angulation of shoulder blade and upper arm is, in the ideal case, 90°, but as a rule 110°.

 

 

Okay, that's the basics of the structure. So now the posing:

 

 

The purpose of a stance is SUPPOSED to be to show the judge how closely your dog fits those requirements.

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

 

How does this show the judge that this pup fits the Standard re any part of his top-line?

 

However, place his left rear paw 1cm forward to make that hock vertical, and his right rear paw CONSIDERABLY forward (so that its knee forms that desired right angle), and he will be quite close re angulations, as in:

 

 

 

If you get hold of either of Nem Elliott's long-ago GSD books you will see that she often states that such & such a dog looked better when left to its own devices. I feel that way about today's "handling", although several of the dogs have actual constructional deviations in addition to their exaggerated posing

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Another of my favourite true GSDs:

 

 

 

 

German Vize-Sieger 1970, Italian Sieger 1971 VA* MUTZ von der PELZTIERFARM SchH3 FH KKl.1, born 1966, and a dog recommended for the improvement of proportions.

 

December 2004 ◘

 

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