1926 Frankfort dog show - Page 2

Donna, this is a link to all the Siegers and Siegerins to date. If you click on their photos, it will take  you to their pedigrees. You can backtrack to the foundation dogs. It would be faster to start with the oldest dog first.

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/siegershow_winners.html

Thank you Blitzen. I assumed that the website would be able to do this but did not know where to start. 

I enjoyed looking through the list again, and there is always something new that strikes me.  Topline and angulation aside, what caught my eye today was length of leg. While some very early dogs had exceedingly long legs, even in the recent past we had dogs that had a longer leg and as a result look more proportionate overall IMO. Of course I am not a judge or conformation expert,  this is just to my 'laymans' eye. You can plot the change of leg length and it's quite dramatic. Dingo had a good length of leg...go on a few years and compare to for example Vegas. What also is apparent is the heaviness that came in (and still is), at the same time of the reduction in leg length, which seems illogical to me to have a heavier dog with shorter legs. Just an observation looking at history again.

Every day in practically every country around the world, German Shepherds are working to serve and protect “their” people. Military dogs in war zones, Law Enforcement dogs, search and rescue.  Often called upon to sacrifice life and health, which they do willingly. None of them know what color they are, if their back is straight, roached or saggy or maybe their croup a little short, they just know the work at hand.

To say that von S. could not find German Shepherds that would meet his vision discredits not only his ability to see what was possible but the many brave GSD that do real work and the good breeders behind them.

I think for sure he could find German Shepherds he would be proud of. He just might have to look a little deeper than pictures on the internet or a couple laps around a ring.

To be clear, my opinion is based soley on phenotype - show dogs vs show dogs. It hard for me to think that Stephanitz would be overjoyed  by the typical GSD seen at shows today on either side of the pond. He was a man who was always looking to improve the dogs he had in order for the GSD to become a better working dog, not so they won more in the show ring.  The photo shows dogs entered at a dog show and the difference between those show dogs and our show dogs is rather obvious and shocking. Yes, he would have to look deeper to find GSD's he would be proud of, but we are talking show dogs, right? At least I was.