Longcoat pups higher cost? - Page 4

If your looking for less shedding get a LC.

The GSD is intended as a utility dog. As such it should be maintenance free, be able to do more than its share of the work, and not make a burden of itself. While a coat may or may not "require" grooming, it certainly has the potential for fouling etc, not to mention the tendency of very long coats to part along the back affording no protection from the elements. The issue is similar to that of ears. Dogs with soft, folded, or hanging ears are more likely to have injuries to their ears or to harbor parasites and debris. Such a dog can certainly work given the skills, but as breeders we only justify our existence if we breed the best dogs we can. Jonah

I agree jdh.. IMO some people have strange likes and breed for anything different/ JMO so easy does it..

Blitzen: My first long coat (Reno)has an undercoat and will blow her coat a few times per year. She actually sheds less than my two stock coats (except during a brush out during shedding). Hers is more like dust bunnies that can be picked up by hand. My younger long coat turns 1 in a few weeks. Her coat does not seem the same to me as Reno's but then again it has been 13 years since Reno was a puppy. I certainly hope she doesn't shed more than Reno and that her fur does not mat either. Still confused about the concern of long coats not handling the weather as well as the stock coats. My two long coats prefer the cold concrete in the kennels and are always pushing the blankets/mats away, while my stock coats are always found cuddled up on them. I have never really noticed a difference of them handling the weather any diffently. They all seem to handle all weather pretty well.

Reno, I'm pretty sure if you exposed your longcoats to the same weather they would encounter as herding dogs working sheep during the winter months in Germany 24/7, you would see that their coats are not weather proof unless the guardhairs are very harsh and the undercoat very thick and oily. It's not only about keeping warm, it's about not getting wet to the skin and then freezing and forming ice balls. Every longcoated dog I've ever seen also has long hairs between their toes and that's another bad thing since those hairs will collect ice balls and those dogs will become lame in a very short period of time. You're sort of comparing apples to oranges thinking that because a coat can survive and be comfortable in a cement run it could survive herding sheep during a cold, wet, snowy winter in the mountains of Germany. Also consider how much extra weight a longcoat would carry around if it were soaking wet, especially if that coat froze solid. Stockhairs also need thick undercoats to survive, guardhairs would not be adequate to keep them warm enough. I don't know where herding GSD's sleep when they are tending during the winter. Do the shepherds provide them with shelter, do they sleep among the sheep which would provide them a lot of warmth, do they sleep in snow caves they dig or on top of the snow? All of that would factor into understanding the ideal coat for the survival of the GSD in it's native environment. I see where you're coming from thinking a longer coat means a warmer dog and yes, it does as far as a kennel dog goes, but it means certain death to a dog tending sheep in snow and ice.

Blitzen: Thanks for the clarification. It has been a while since we had some snow and I forgot about the ice between the pads on their paws. Reno has gotten that in the past and I have had to clean them out for her. Molly has yet to experience any significant amount of snow, so I would expect that she most likely will have that issue as well. C

You're welcome, C. There are so many things involved in how a dog survives in a cold climate, a correct coat is one of the basics. I think to really understand any breed and why the standard is written the way it is, one needs to know about survival characteristics. There are reasons for a certain coat length and texture, shoulder layback, rear angulation, backline, croups, etc.. The SV and the AKC standards are both written to describe the ideal GSD herding dog, not the ideal GSD show dog LOL.