German Shepherds - suitable for agility? Agility

fluffies are also pretty imo.

The white dogs are not allowed for shows for one reason. It is because during WW2 GSDs were used as military dogs and white dogs were too easily spotted. have never seen a working line GSD white either - to easily spotted by enemy.
The same happened with boxer. One of the most known original boxer female (and probably more dogs too) were white and after the war whites can no longer be shown.
So was explained in one of the dog magazines. And there were photos of the "parents of the breed" too and they were really white.

Not vast quantities of them but like any breed they do crop up, the breed specific rescue I help fund raise for had 30 through their books last year that was all sizes!

Ah but a big mini or small standard would be similar size to a collie or if you want GSD big then an ordinary size Standard, they get to 25 - 26" at the shoulder you know. Poodles are very versatile, just think a breed of dog that comes in 3 sizes from 9" - 26" and a multitude of colours including black and tan and the added advantage of not shedding!
Becky (Poodle Press Officer lol!)

Sadly, all too often Claire, they need a strong, confident owner, they're such clever dogs needing constant stimulation! Well, most of them, except the rescue I now have!

She is stunning

Yep thats all it was down to on the name - I was just brought up calling them Alsatians. My father was a military handler and that`s just what we called his working dogs as opposed to GSDs, probably because my parents were around during the war when the name change happened and it stuck with them and then me, and I`m too old to change what I call them now lol
Even the KC use both, with Alsatian in brackets - if they were a different breed or `type` they would have a separate standard or one would be recognised and not the other so if the KC feel it appropriate to use both names for the one breed to make it perfectly clear that they are the same then that should be good enough imo ;-)

Many of the original dogs imported into this country were from French Kennels such as Ponthieu and Terraqueuse kennels. It was only from 1921 onwards that German Imports started to come into the UK in any significant numbers. Originaly the breed was known as the Alsatian Wolf Dog, Aslatian the French Connection and Wolf due to a lot of Early imports being grey sables. Approx 1921 Wolf was dropped due to people believing they were part wolf. Such was the anti German feeling at the time that a lot of these early imports had their names changed and were registered at the KC with an English name. In 1936 the officialy title of the breed changed to Alsatian(German Shepherd Dog) In the mid seventies it was reversed to German Shepherd Dog(Alsatian) as it remains today.

German Showline are capable of competing in Schutzhund, herding etc. They do as I already stated have to have a minium working qualification to be shown in adult classes, the decent breeders in the UK who breed to SV standards also compete and train their dogs whether here or in Germany to SchH3.
A few pics of SV standard lines both here in the UK and in Germany.
Dito van Noort

Tor di Casa Nobili

Antilli Aldo



A pic of not in stance so you can see they are level, in other pics its the way they are taught to stand, Tabo vom Zellwaldrand

Immo vom Thermodos (Zamp son)

Before you decide you need to visit shows, trials, schutzhund clubs etc see the different lines.
DDR workline: Evan von den Grauen von Monstab

How can you claim they are "level", jjust because they are not in a stance? They have backs as round as bananas, and the back end is much lower than the front.
I am no expert in shepherds, but that just looks awful to me.

I have to agree with DP, that is NOT a level back!
Becky

Mine never had a roachy bent look like that when he stood, [ in a show stance nor in normal standing ], those dogs in the pics look very rounded on the back to me and very unnatural - I would`nt want one like that doing agility, [ for instance ], if they were mine :?

same here patch - im looking for the working bred - so they are imo no offence 'normal'
!

The last one the sable is DDR workline, so perhaps what you are after is petline in the UK.

From this excellent kennel
http://www.schaeferhunde-ddr.de/

http://www.photoboxgallery.com/digidogs/7392059

Lots of GSDs working in Ob on this website, (lots of collies too!)

I want the teddy bear
Some cracking pics there - do any of them compete in agility ? I`m sure I recognise a couple of faces :-/ mind you I think all handlers start to look alike after a while

soz none there I liked there was only 1 that had a decent head, the rest no sex characteristics within head/face.

The croup should be long and have a slight downward slope (approximately 23 degrees from horizontal) and should merge smoothly into the tail set.
Problem is you are used to seeing pet lines that have no or very little croup and their tail literally starts where their back finishes. As you can see from the standard the tail set will be lower than the withers.

it is not so much what I am used to see, it is what I LIKE to see... you see.

Those dogs look unnatural and unhealthy. A bit like hillbillies... they are still human, but just not "right"

lmao, but how true, the dogs and hillbillies

This is the part of the standard concerning the back Back between withers and croup, straight, strongly developed, not too long there is absolutley no way the pictures you have shown us are dogs with a STRAIGHT back, they have a hump.
With regards to the croup Croup long, gently curving downwards to tail without disrupting flowing topline. Short, steep or flat croups undesirable.
The pictures you have shown do not have a gently curving croup, they fall under the steep bit.
These are extracts under the breed standard and that is what I'm basing my opinion on, that and a sort of reasonable knowledge of dog anatomy.
There is no way that the dogs you have shown are correct under the breed standard.
Becky

The croup should be long yes, but it shouldn't appear to start in the middle of the back as is often the case in dogs of this type ie those with an apex in the mid backline. This gives the impression of a long croup, but in reality, it's no longer than a dog's with a level topline.

I think most peole are used to seeing dogs in general, that have relatively normal canine construction ie with a more or less level and straight topline with the croup starting where the pelvis begins.

I do think part of the GSD fraternity have taken the notion of slightly sloping topline, and long croup, to the extreme.