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| 1923 GSD conformation show judged by Max Von Stephanitz |
As I noted some time back, when Max Von Stephanitz created the German Shepherd dog, he was looking to create a "national" breed that would reflect strength and harken back to the Germanic wolf so important to the mythology of Volkish thought.
Von Stephanitz wrote that:
The breeding of Shepherd dogs must be the breeding of working dogs, this must always be the aim or we shall cease to produce working dogs.
In contradistinction to working and utility breeding is 'sport' breeding, which produces a temporary advance but is always followed by deterioration, for it is not done for the sake of the DOG, nor does it make him more useful, it is done for the vanity of the breeder and the subsequent purchaser.
He was right, and if one doubts it, one only has to look at other European shepherd breeds and types that have not been deformed by show ring pretenders.
One example is the Belgian Malinois. Here we see a reasonably wolf-looking dog in normal motion, feet on the ground, not cow hocked, and with a level top line.
This is the dog used by the U.S. Secret Service, and by the military and the police around the world.
Here we see a dog with weak withers, sloped back, and walking on his hocks. Is it any wonder that the U.S. Secret Service will not entertain the use of a modern German Shepherd knowing full well the wrecked gene pool behind so many dogs?
If we saw a wolf walking like this we would assume it had been hit by a car or bullet and had a shattered pelvis. We would put it down knowing that it could not feed itself.
And, to be clear, this is not some random dog; this is the Best in Show winner at the Westminster Dog Show in 2017.
Over at Canine Genetics and Epidemiology, published by BioMed Central, they review German Shepherd Dogs under primary veterinary care and in the VetCompass Programme data base in the UK.
The study found that the most common causes of death for GSDs were joint disorders (16.3%), inability to stand (14.9%), spinal cord disorder (13.6%).
To put it another way, nearly half of all German Shepherds are dying from structural problems.
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| Cow hocked and sloped back. |
3 comments:
GSD aficionados are blind to all the faults in their dogs. When I protest the breeding of these poor crippled creatures, they cry that I hate their breed. But GSDs were always my families breed until we lost our last one in 1962, and I wouldn't own another purebred because they were all so unsound, so I say "look what you've done to my breed!" Just one look at the photo you've included with your article shows what a GSD should look like, and it's nothing like the hock walking plantigrade animals going by that name today.
yes.
this is *exactly* the example i give (minus the wolf reference) to people who want an American GSD; and to breeders of ANY animal, who care more about registries and shows than health and function.
One feature I find odd about the majority of shepherds shown in the AKC ring is the incredibly deep chest and rather narrow body. It's like the trend toward "slab sided" greyhounds. I find nothing balanced about these dogs, despite the fact that the standard uses such adjectives as "harmonious" in its description. I don't think anyone would pen the description set forth in the breed standard while looking at these dogs, yet the defenders are always quick to shout "non-experts don't know what they're talking about!" while citing this standard that is so far off from the dogs they're producing it's laughable.
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