so how good were the old dogs? - Page 1

keep hearing about how much better the old time gsd was, but how is this claim substantiated - the old timers never have to prove their shit thru you-tube like you will get called to do in a heart beat now, and you will be critiqued by experts from around the globe instantly compared with only live witnesses in yr own town/club seeing yr performance of yesteryear. sure we have old score books but i seriously doubt the old high obed scores would be anything near the performances seen today. the only thing the old dogs had over the new is that they had the capacity to withstand really bad training - is that a good trait?

jmo


btw i don't do schutshund so don't ask for my performance on you tube.

Seems like you answered all the questions.

Gustav is right - you gave your own answer.

aint nobody gonna defend the old legends?

Let sleeping dogs lie.

Can't say anything about the dogs but old trainers are way better/ smarter than today's. Technology makes everything easier.
my opinion.

not all modern trainers are high-tech so yr assertion is incorrect. i think dog training is like football coaching, it is just more proffessional now  and results in better performances these days period. were there abusive A-holes then like there are now sure, were there freaky naturals then like there are now, sure. the difference is entire systems have evolved that are humane and accessible to every dog and trainer that just get better results. that knowledge comes from a steady evolution and we need to acknowledge the past but also hold it accountable for it's wrongs in order to keep evolving.

more people had general animal handling experience back then raising/killling their own chickens, pigs etc and they just understood animals. compared to apartment dwellers now that are fundamentally useless but some of those useless city types can learn training systems without ever understanding animals and do great things.

If there not high-tech there using old methods from the old school.

Human needs change over time, dog breeding and training adapted to the new needs and changes, GSD is still a versatile dog in the sense we still use him for various jobs, the problems facing the breed in the past are different than now, increasing numbers of dogs naturally brought up more problems that were not obvious or noticed then.
In regards to all over structure today's GSD is much better, one can argue that today's GSD has faults that were not there years back, true but general structure has developed much.

In regards to temperament and function, I remember reading a view by Prager which made much sense, in principle he said allover today's GSD, his line of GSD, is better and that if he wants to reinforce a certain trait of the old dogs and bring it to the surface by using certain techniques and breeding over very few generations he can do it. What I mean is professional breeders can reinforce or hide a certain trait and build further. I think that is what actually was done over the years, GSD was reshaped as per needs and environment changing. Today we have more numbers of good dogs than before, we also have more distinct lines and bloodlines thanks to various breeding schools, East, West, Czech, German, Russian etc. People tend to praise old things maybe dog is part of that concept.

Ibrahim 

A wise man (competitor) once told me "Old dogs never die, they just get better with the telling" and another wise man (prison service)  told me "We had the best dogs in the past, they had to be to put up with our crap training"

Margaret N-J