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President of GSDFED of RSA view on sport dogs in a breed ring! (2 replies)

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President of GSDFED of RSA view on sport dogs in a breed ring! by marions on 04 November 2009 - 14:11

marions Posts: 8 Joined: Wed Nov 04, 2009 01:56 pm

Question to President of GSDFED of RSA: I was recently researching some rules regarding breed shows as my email below indicates. You once told me I had a working dog that was capable of getting a V grading. Since then I have entered him in a few shows only to get told that he can get the grading but he needs a working qualification first. Can you please tell me why this is the case if a breed show is judging dogs on construction and not their titles? I find it a bit discriminatory to expect "working" dogs to have qualifications for breed shows when "breed" dogs do not. Do we all not own GSD's? As colour is not a fault so why the difference? Dear Christine, The so-called "working dogs" you are referring to are specialist bred dogs intended for Schutzhund sport. They are thus "(Schutzhund) sport-dogs", not "working dogs". Accordingly, I would never have said you had a "working dog". Unfortunately, most sport-dogs are anatomically very poorly constructed, which is why they almost always end up at the back of the class with low gradings. Other factors that contribute to their bad performance in the show-ring are bad training, inadequate preparation and indifferent handling. No sport-dog is ever given a lower grading just because it is a sport-dog or because of its colour. There are significant indications that the poor anatomical construction of these dogs result in physical weaknesses; hence the high injury rate in the sport. Furthermore, their temperaments are often unstable and thus many of these dogs are unsuitable as pets for the average household; where most of the puppies end up. To try and improve this unhealthy situation, the SV Breed Supervisor, Herr Reinhardt Meyer, has started promoting the better specimens amongst the sport-dogs by placing them higher in the ring, and awarding them better gradings and Breed Survey ratings than they truly deserve. In this year's Sieger Show the National German SchH Trial winner was placed high in the first ring, about 100 places better that his anatomy deserves. This policy, while controversial amongst the uninformed, is proving to be successful and there has been a significant improvement in the anatomical quality of sport-dogs over the last three years. This giving of preferential treatment to dogs with special talents and attributes is nothing new and is an integral part of the German system. As far as back as 15 years ago a German Judge gave our National SchH Trial winner Körkl 1 purely because of his SchH sport performance. I and other judges have been doing the same ever since. In South Africa the situation is even worse. Federation figures show that of the more than 2,000 specialist sports-bred puppies that have been registered over the last 10 years, less than 50 (2.5%) have qualified SchH1. Many of these dogs are simply too badly constructed to even pass a SchH, and yet their breeders continue to pass them off as superior "working dogs". In line with what is happening in Germany, our judges have also been awarding higher gradings and Breed Survey ratings to the better-quality sport-dogs than they actually deserve. However, in Germany, dogs (including sport-dogs) must obtain a SchH qualification before they may receive a V grading, which is not necessary in South Africa. Accordingly, before your dog will qualify for this preferential treatment, it must show that it can do what it was supposedly bred for: at the very least pass a SchH. Talk is cheap, money buys the whisky.

President of GSDFED of RSA view on sport dogs in a breed ring! by Tazmyn on 06 November 2009 - 10:11	Tazmyn Posts: 5 Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 08:59 am
"In South Africa the situation is even worse. Federation figures show that of the more than 2,000 specialist sports-bred  puppies that have been registered over the last 10 years, less than 50 (2.5%) have qualified SchH1. Many of these dogs are simply too badly constructed to even pass a SchH, and yet their breeders continue to pass them off as superior "working dogs".

President of GSDFED of RSA view on sport dogs in a breed ring! by Tazmyn on 06 November 2009 - 10:11	Tazmyn Posts: 5 Joined: Fri Jan 09, 2009 08:59 am
Probably find that Federation' s filing/admin system on the blink again!

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