Longcoat pups higher cost? - Page 3

I have yet to meet a long coat with a temperment problem. I have met many who can work and do. I have also owned 2 of them, 1 just left at my house. The other got in my car while visiting a breeder friend of mine. The 3rd time she had tried to go home with me, I just brought her home. I guess 3rd time was the charm, I feel very blessed she picked me, she was not a dog I would have brought home on my own.

I think long stock coats are really gorgeous, but I don't think they should be bred as long as the SV says it is a disqualifing fault. I was wondering if the reason they changed the standard is because they require more upkeep, matt, take a long time to dry & perhaps the dogs are more susceptible to heat problems? I don't care for long coats (no undercoats), the double coat is one of the hallmarks of the breed. Either way, I would run as fast & far away as I could from any breeder whos primary focus was oversized dogs or coat type or color for that matter.

Yes, Blitzen: they do...Jane Steffenhagen explained it to me,,,,we have 50-100 years ago to thank some one dogs for the coated dog...it was in the first breedings, thats why the dog was taken out of the breed program because of the inability to come back out of the field not covered from head to toe with brush, burrs , sticks, mud and tons of debris, it hinders the speed of work in the rough, vines and such attach to these dogs.....so why want to breed so many...if u get one , love it , sell it , do what u should, but lesser price because u can breed survey it., and most breeders want to keep the path going that way...they are soft cuddly and good tempered dogs, and cute as can be, and get a turned head every where they go.....but breeders agree to sell lesser priced....I know their are those breeders that belong to an assoc. for longhaired gsd's, but we are not....let them do what they want.....they dont do the sport or try to keep the standard...pure.....see www.bullingershepherds.com........she has a page on the longhair and what she believes as a conformation breeder.......

Myself I don't like the looks of a longcoat and would never have one. Hard for me not to be biased against them. But to each his own.

I thought that the long coat was undesirable because it is not weather/water resistant? Much like Alaskan Natives who bred and used Kenai River Huskies in the past. The long coated KRHs are the ones the natives sold to silly white people who didn't realize they were not good for real freight mushing, where weather is often a difficulty. Without the two layered stock coat, also favored by today's mushers of Alaskan Huskies, the dog's coat does not resist harsh and wet weather.

Thats certainly one of the factors that caused it to be pulled, culled or what ever u call it from the breed , not to be bred.....

Mushers hate long coats and you will rarely see any on a team, never on a team that competes. They form ice balls between their toes and pads and if there is one thing a sleddog must have it's sound feet. There are also problems with ice balls forming in the ears and over the eyes. That prevents mushers from keeping longcoats for sledding. Since serious mushers only use the best workers in their breeding programs, longcoats are never going to get bred either as they never get the opportunity to prove their merit in harness; the long coats prevent that and are considered as big a fault as bad feet. Long coats are not a survival characteristic in snow and ice. I can't dispute that LC GSD's can work, I would however have to question if they could herd sheep in a snow storm. A longcoat can be weather resistant IF the guard hairs are course and stand off from the body AND if there is enough thick oily undercoat to support the length of the guardhairs. A dog with a long, soft coat, with or without undercoat, will not be water proof. It will soak up water like a sponge and form ice balls all over its coat. If it's snowing, body heat will melt the snow forming more iceballs that twist the soft guardhairs and expose bare skin, frostbite. Dog with long soft coats can also freeze fast to the ground during the night. Mushers do not carry blankets and dog boxes with them in a race. These dogs sleep outside in all weather staked out on ganglines. They are the survival experts of the dog world. A GSD with a long soft coat is not going to be able to tend sheep in the German winters regardless of whether or not it has an undercoat. The longcoated dog with a coarse standoff coat has a better change of surviving, but it will still form iceballs between its toes and will go lame over time. There is a good reason why a long, soft coat with no undercoat is considered a fault in the breed; they would not survive in their native environment without human intervention. I never heard of shepherds carrying tack boxes and trimming their dogs' feet, so I doubt most would want a longcoat tending their flock. As far as using them for breeding goes, I'll let that discussion up to those who breed GSD. As a former breeder of Alaskan Malamutes, I myself did not use longcoats in my breeding program. I have always been very concerned about preserving survival characteristics in that breed and felt that I did not want to use for breeding any dog that could not survive in it's native environment. Some of my friends disagree, and use them for breeding. They never breed 2 longcoats to one another. I will say that those who use the soft coated dogs for breeding do not have good coarse texture in most of their dogs anymore. The coats are pretty show coats, but I doubt those pretty dogs could survive in the arctic.

I'm surprised to hear about a LC as a guide dog for a blind person due to the grooming required. Leader Dog long ago stopped using Malamutes mainly due to their double coat and the necessary grooming. Labs and GSD's then became the breeds of choice, one reason being they are short coated needing less grooming. Are other organizations now routinely using coats?

Maybe LC's (no undercoats) have become popular with the guide dog orgs because there is less shedding, Blitzen. I have often wondered how a blind person could deal with all the hair around---much easier to brush a dog than clean floor and furniture.

My first GSD was a coat with no undercoat and he shed all the time. Blitz is a stock coat with very little undercoat and he sheds all the time. My Malamutes had 10 times as much coat and undercoat and they only shed once or twice a year. What's with these German Shedders anyway? What am I doing wrong? LOL Next dog I get will be labradoodle. I understand they don't shed at all, right?