Perfect Gait - Page 3

As far as the genetics go, it was once thought you could eliminate the 'bad' recessive genes by close line breeding, which would bring them to the surface. Then of course, you would get rid of the dogs showing the unwanted recessive traits, and 'purify' your lines.

What we now know is there are far, far more recessive genes than were once thought, and getting rid of them all is impossible. You would wind up with lines that are so inbred that they would have all sorts of problems.

So, the key to keeping your lines strong is to avoid too much linebreeding. Yes, it may make it harder to fix desirable traits, but your dogs will be the healthier for it!

I met a Russian lady at trainng this weekend (new club member.) She had a dog that lived to be EIGHTEEN years old, and another that died at fifteen. Yet I've heard people in N. America say they consider any years after ten to be a gift??

Evolution favours heterozygosity and a high degree of variation in a population. That's what enables animals to survive if the environment suddenly changes. The show ring favours homozygosity: dogs (or other animals) that all look the same and conform to a breed standard.

The first video I've ever seen of Uran. He was a beautiful dog, my type of GSD. Not too heavy in body, not  squatty in the rear, fairly straight back, correct angulation,  no ugly Akita head with an apple skull and hanging flews. Uran looks like a dog that could have got the job done, not at all overdone. Movement hard to fault. I wish we saw more dogs like him today. Overbred? Probabably, but still he was what he was - a truly beautiful, agile representative of a correct male GSD.

About the age thing, Sunsilver:  was the Russian woman talking

GSDs, or dogs generally ?

I wondered, 'cos there is research to show that generally the bigger

the dog  the shorter the lifespan ...  I have never known any purebred

GSD make it to 18 (I have known a lot of smaller dogs get there, and

beyond).   I have almost always tended to be lucky with my personal

GSDs and those I have been paid to care for, the majority have

made it to double figures.  Unlike a lot of lines in other peoples'

GSDs which seem to regularly pop off at about 8.  So I do subscribe

to the idea that longevity in pedigrees is something one should take

into account when buying or breeding;  but I really would not regularly

expect to see dogs of 15 or more, either these days or 40 years ago.

According to the leading canine cancer vet in the US, the average lifespan of a GSD is 10 years, 4 months. The larger the breed, generally the shorter the lifespan. There are always exceptions, the occasional GSD that will live to be 15+ and the occasional GSD that will die much younger.