Question for breeders and judges - Page 1

What size is a male or female considered either large, medium sized or upper medium sized? I have male who is 75lbs and 24-25in. What would he be considered?

You talkin' American lines or "European" (many subsets there). If you talk to one of my firends - you have a "good sized" male - If you talk to me -- you have a medium sized male, that needs to stand up really tall and look a bit bigger ! Hardcore SchH fanatics want smaller (but strong) dogs. American show lines are happy to be generally at the high end of the standard or bigger -- there is a German/American bitch in my agility class that is a full 28 inches tall and 90 pounds (and not FAT !) She makes my "full sized - top of the standard male look small !! That's sad. Once Males go over 26 - 26 1/2 inches I consider them large -- The biggest one I bred/owned was 26 1/4 and his top weight was 88 pounds -- That's a lot of dog. Under 25 inches is "kinda small" to me. 75 to 85 pounds is certainly big enough - for me !! You don't mention the age of this dog - They can put on another 1/2 inch in height between 12-18 months sometimes, and certainly put on 5-10 pounds between 2-3 as they continute to change and fill out - Males take a long long time to grow up !! Bitches over 24" are outside the standard -- There are plenty around at 25 - it's easy to get the size up -- harder to bring it back down - I think. Some people love little teeny bitches at 22 inches and 55 pounds too small for me -- I'm totally happy with the Standard as written -- too many people are looking to 'update' it to fit the wrong size/shaped dogs of today. Baloney !! stick to the standard -- there's enough range there for herding dogs, working dogs, agility dogs, show dogs, police dogs, etc. etc.

Hi Gimme you should start by reading the official FCI standard for the German shepherd. One inch is a huge difference in size. 1 inch = 2.5cm. The standard uses metric measurements, adult males go up to 65cm (divided by 2.5=26"). One cm above is still acceptable. Most males measuring in at 64cm are considered medium to above medium size. Age also plays a role. At what age does your dog have this size? Big difference if a one year old dog is that size and still growing, or a 4 year old dog, without any growth left. At 24" he is small for a fully grown male. What fitness level is the dog at in terms of weight? Are we talking lean weight of a fit and well muscled dog that has little body fat and you can feel ribs easily, or are we talking about a dog that is well rounded, ribs can not or only barely be felt, average to poor muscle tone?

Thanks everyone. I was talking European lines. My male is 25 in and 75lbs I made sure. He is registered on this database as Yasko vom Wustensand. The reason I ask is because there is a lot of talk about so many dogs be too large nowadays and then there are a few like Ghandi von Arlett who some say is too little. How big is he? I was just wondering how my male stacks up to the standard. I may just have to have a breeder look at him and tell me his ins and outs.

Sorry about that. This is a little off the subject and just for laughs. I had a young male in class that had been bought as a breeding prospect. At seven months old he was already 26 in. and weighed 80 lbs(not fit). The breeder assured the owner that judges didn't really care if the dog was oversized.

Upper middle size

This size thing has become a huge phobia. I have had more than a simple experience looking at my young 7 month old dog. "You will have to put a saddle on him" , "he will be the size of a pony". The worst thing was their advice to stunt growth. . .feed him very poor food to stunt his growth. And they are the people who I looked for to tell me if this dog was any good. What did he achieve? The dog has a record that most would dream of. "It is not over until it is over." And no, he ain't for sale. Never ever.