Old fashioned straight backed GSD's Controversial

Can I ask why the gsd has the sloped back now ?? Is it purely for the show stance ???

i havent read this thread all the way through (too many pages for this time of night) but your post caught my eye, i have a straight back, my mum has a straight back and one with a very slight slope (almost straight) but her newest rescue even when standing relaxed is extremly sloped infact when she got her her first question was, is she healthy, has she been to the vet? i then asked my mum the very same question when i first saw her and the answer was that she was fine,

here are some pictures of all the dogs in a relaxed stance, i bet you can guess which one is the latest rescue

my dog ty (he has hd)


my mums dogs
Kaine


emmy


zara

No the show people had it bred in because it looks good trotting around the ring.

im guessing her new rescue is emmy, the back end doesn't look 'normal' does it

Load of rubbish, the dog needs a pronounced wither so that when it goes into an extended trot whilst working sheep/cattle the maximum reach & drive is possible without the dog having to expend energy in motion. Whilst patrolling the sheep & cattle boundary the dog should move with it's head & neck extended forwards, this means a dog that has a "Level"topline in stance without the pronuonced wither has to effectively run"downhill"ie head & forequarters lower than the rearquarters, this means the dog is wasting energy & hence unable to do the work it was bred to do QED really !

But then the dog isn't standing is she ? look at her tail for starters.

emmy is the new rescue girl, you can see just how pronounce her back end is and the picture i put up of her was when my mum first met her, here is another picture of her when she got her home

this is her sitting


one of her standing side on (not the best picture)


and just for good measure a video of her playing with kaine (she was just learning to play, emmy's previous owners paid for her to go into bording kennels for 2 weeks, went away and never came back for her)

This is my dog side on, and I suppose she has a straight back? I know she has a good topline, because I met up with a lady judge when out on a walk one day, and she said she can't stop looking at her beautiful topline, and when I asked her why, she said "because it doesn't move" she floats along the ground and the topline stays straight! Whatever that means lol!



Emmy is a beautiful rescue girl Lisa I'm still of the opinion though, if I stood my own dog in a proper show stance, she would look like she had the sloping hindquarters but I've never tried it yet!

Here is a pic of my german showline bitch whilst stacked and told to stand stay!
This image was taken years ago and she is a bit stretched as well!
She is also a rescue


More recent pics of her natural stance, they look so different








BTW it is the same bitch, her coat just changes throughout the year.
Another reason why i love teh sables, it's like having a different dog each season lol

dont get me wrong i always thought that too, infact i know i could if i could get ty to stand still but those pics of emmy are just everyday pics, no show stance, nothing, just her being her, what i think it shows though is that although any gsd can be trained to stand like that, is that it really does depend on breeding just how pronounced it can be, and imo and my mums, she is just too pronounced, you should see her when she pee's her bum is like an inch off the ground

zara is gorgeous but iv always thought that

My rescue shepherd, Anton, has a very straight back, I doubt his would even curve if I stacked him. In addition, he also has back legs with the least angulation ever.

A couple of stationary photos, showing his straight back and funny back legs (his back looks lumpy because he has really wavy fur along it).





And a few of him in motion...





Sorry about the picture overload.

hes gorgeous x

i agree, stunning!!

How about this for an example of an old fashioned straight backed shepherd?
http://www.britishpathe.com/record.php?id=47655

Anton is perfect to me, sound structure, no froglike stance, lovely head, just lovely.
Love GSD's but don't care how much people try to convince me otherwise, these roach backed dogs can not be right! I see all too many with the hobbling walk these roach backed sorts all seem to have, not pleasant.

my kai can look different in some ways shes stands. in my posting pic that is her dad who is a show type and not a working type her mum however is a working type so kai isnt straight she does have a slight slope but to me i would love her whether she was straight or sloped just for being her

I'll 2nd that, just goooooorgeous

Luke, I thought the "roach backed" ones were the ones with the humped backs??? They're usually very leggy too aren't they. I never like those dogs with the humped backs, and I wonder what they're called then if not "roach backed" gsd's? It's definitely not the same as the sloping backed gsd's coz what I class as roach backed they seem to just go up in the middle of the back, whereas the sloping rear end I kind of like, coz the withers are the highest point, not that big hump in the middle of the topline which I hate.

Interesting. I like the 50s GSDs - probably because that`s when I fell in love with the breed, so to me that is the `ideal` for me.

Looks stunning and powerful to me

The bendy backed dogs just dont have the muscle development in the back end and look like two dogs photoshoped together
and watching them trot it really makes sense why the muscles are not developing normaly, the power in the dogs legs is lost with having to have to much vertical motion - that boy looks like all his power is driving him forwards - as should be