By any other name, SW is "cutting" her dog's hair--either with a stripping blade, Furminator, and/or thinning shears.
How do I know? Well, because, dammit, my first GSD female was a LC. Sure, we called it a "borderline" LC--which does not exist genetically. Just as their are different lengths of normal coats, long coats have different lengths, too.
Her name was Andrea's Annelore UDT. She did very well in AKC breed shows--won AKC points--once went Best Local Dog in Show over "real" AKC champions. I freely admit that I bred her and that she produced some fantastic pups. Would I do it again? Never!! However, I can think of no stud owners of the time who would have discouraged me or turned down a stud fee.
Why did I breed her? Because I was young (in my mid-20's), a novice, dumb, stupid, naive (you fill in the blanks). Also, more mature would-be role models in the breed also "cheated" and did not set good examples. I remember Walter Frost's LC Ch Fritz DeCloudt, Ann Mesdag's (Von Nassau kennels) Yoncalla's Barney, and a couple of LC female (a mother and her daughter) AKC champions here in California--finished and handled by Jerry Guzman.
If trimmed (beg your pardon--I mean "groomed") skillfully, a LC can "almost" pass as a normal coat (to the uneducated eye).
Here is my old Lore--trimmed :
This is Fels, a trimmed LC pup, at play--and all wet: