Information on working terriers, dogs, natural history, hunting, and the environment, with occasional political commentary as I see fit. This web log is associated with the Terrierman.com web site.
The interesting thing about that GSD picture is that those two lower dogs aren't even "American Bred" conformation dogs. So many people like to brag that they have "German Bred", like that means the conformation hasn't gotten as out of hand as it has on the American breedings, but that horrible roach back that the German's breed is just as bad as the low hocks in the American bred dogs. East Germany still has some good dogs but even those don't look like the old style in the top pictures, which were a more athletic and better tempered dog. The breed went down hill when Hitler decided he could start picking the type of GSD that should be out there. That's when the heavy bone came in and it just went down hill from there. When I raised pups for Guide Dogs for the Blind in California, in the 80s, they still had very nice looking GSDs that could do a days work but they almost never breed a GSD anymore and they concentrate on the retrievers now.
These pictures are heartbreaking. I'm sick of what we do to dogs in the name of 'breed standard'. How anyone, let alone the K C, can prefer the sorry creaures shown in the bottom two pictures instead of the healthy proud beauties above, is beyond me. No true dog lover would have allowed this to happen to the once proud and handsome german shepherd.
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The interesting thing about that GSD picture is that those two lower dogs aren't even "American Bred" conformation dogs. So many people like to brag that they have "German Bred", like that means the conformation hasn't gotten as out of hand as it has on the American breedings, but that horrible roach back that the German's breed is just as bad as the low hocks in the American bred dogs. East Germany still has some good dogs but even those don't look like the old style in the top pictures, which were a more athletic and better tempered dog. The breed went down hill when Hitler decided he could start picking the type of GSD that should be out there. That's when the heavy bone came in and it just went down hill from there. When I raised pups for Guide Dogs for the Blind in California, in the 80s, they still had very nice looking GSDs that could do a days work but they almost never breed a GSD anymore and they concentrate on the retrievers now.
These pictures are heartbreaking. I'm sick of what we do to dogs in the name of 'breed standard'. How anyone, let alone the K C, can prefer the sorry creaures shown in the bottom two pictures instead of the healthy proud beauties above, is beyond me. No true dog lover would have allowed this to happen to the once proud and handsome german shepherd.
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