Good news? SV soon to be splitted! - Page 5

P59, I think you will find the following address by, then new Breed warden, Helmut Raiser to be interesting:http://www.rhosyngsd.com/modules.php?name=News&file=print&sid=7 In it, he lays out his thought on the breed and the direction he desires it to go. He is pretty clear in his statement. There are many more instances available.

"I was the National SS last year and the SV judge made a statement at the judges dinner that I've never heard referred to again..he said "I don't know what you show people are breeding for but you need to get in touch with the working people and get this straightened out." Now if he had made a similar comment about out crossing. It would have been plastered somewhere." Was this the SS where a lot of dogs did poorly in the courage test? I can see why the judge might have been frustrated with what he saw, but I'm not sure from that comment what he meant. Was he dissatisfied with the level of training and therefore saying to the show-lines breeders that they should start working their dogs more? Or was he saying that many of the show dogs had poor nerves and the breeders needed to bring in working lines to firm up working ability? Spook, I did read that previously. I agree that Raiser spelled his goals out pretty clearly, but what I question is did he try to do the grunt work that's really needed to make a difference. The devil, as always, is in the details. There are plenty of theoreticians in the breed; what is needed is more detail-oriented managers. Improvement will come when someone in a position of authority gets down to the individual breeder level and works from the bottom up.

Cross Mali's with GSD's? Whoa! Talk about "Good-bye conformation!" WHAT gait??? WHAT topline? What happened to the tails? LOL

The VDH (German Kennel Club) is the one who will make a decision whether a new GSD club meets all the criteria to become a permanent club. And yes, many breeds have several clubs looking after them, some breeds have up to 4 different breed clubs in Germany. Some restrict breeding between the different clubs as part of their own club rules, which IMO is pretty stupid - no sense in reducing availability of suitable breeding dogs further. Some prohibit memberships in multiple clubs. Politics galore. Clubs come and go. Their founding members come and go, they get voted off eventually. Those big breeders that voted Raiser out had once voted him in. Or how else do you think he got in in the first place? There was a time when people had a lot of faith in him. Change needs to be gradual. Radical changes will always be met with strong resistence. Lack of patience and too much too soon produced the results that followed. Raiser had already announced earlier in the year that he would run for SV president and if he was not voted in (as if) he would start his own club. So here we are. Regardless of what club one belongs to and what these different clubs do, in the end it is always the membership that decides what will happen to the dogs. The members breed what and how they see fit. A club can only regulate so much, there is always room for error and interpretation, and a new club will eventually be subject to their own set of politics and favorisms too. Eventually founding members get voted out and a club can take a completely different direction as originally intended. There may be quite a few people who would join such a new club now, but without SV membership they would not be able to participate at LGA and BSP. FCI and mini Regional/National trials of such a new club may not be enough to satisfy the competitive soul of serious working dog enthusiasts. So we shall see how loyal that following will prove to be when push comes to shove. Personal prognosis: small club with very little influence in the big scheme of things, and within 10 years the membership there will have found a way or a reason to get rid of Raiser in that club too. If they manage to actually comply with the VDH requirements to even stay in existence. Have seen this happen with too many clubs. If Raiser really has the best interest of the dogs in mind then such a club will complement the SV and in time demonstrate how things might be done better. Tough challenge. We shall see if it just a means to fulfill the need for personal political gain, or if there is a sincere objective behind it that will benefit the dogs...

Actually, the statement was made before the courage tests. I think he was put off by the angulation and roach backs of most of the entries. I have no idea who passed the courage test, I didn't stick around for them. I had seen enough. Donna

Interesting. Then again, looking at the number of dogs pulled out of the competition (especially in the young classes), it sounds like he was heard loud and clear by many!

"Take this trouble for me: Make sure my shepherd dog remains a working dog, for I have struggled all my life long for that aim." Rittmeister Captain Max von Stephanitz 1864-1936

Maybe the German to English translation was done incorrectly. Seems more like... make it a worthless frog backed gimp.

p59teitel, Those dogs were all pulled before the judges dinner. The judges dinner is typicly held on Saturday nite. After the conformation classes. So that had no bearing on the pulls, especially in the young classes as they are usually the first ones to go. Donna

Helmut Raiser's puplication was due for the end of 2006 - like I was informed by my friend Hans Bodenmeier for more than a year ago the club elevation last week should be the last turning back chance for the SV "the doc" wanted to wait for. It's going a consistence way now - a lot of work in advance is done for sure.