Structure opinions please - Page 1

 She is 8 months old

Is owned by a friend that I co-own with

She is out of working lines

Thanks EK

Her eyes look very light and her body seems a little short.  But other than that she is GORGEOUS!  Nice job!

Excellent proportions.  Her body is not too short at all but meets the standard.  Most WL GSDs are way too long and have bad proportions, but many are kennel blind to this due to incremental acceptance over time of GSDs that are too long.  (Note:  the GSD featured on Oli's header for correct proportions as do any of the recent VA1 dogs at the Siegerhauptzuchtschaus).

Front looks good, a slight bit rumpy in the rear right now, not at all unexpected for her age.  By rumpy I mean slightly steep in the croup right now with accompanying results.  Overall looks to be a very attractive WL GSD (much better than typical for WL).  Nice angles, nice head.  If she moves good, has good joints and is healthy with good and correct temperament, this is a very nice GSD no doubt.  Overall a very, very nice looking bitch of good proportions with an especially praiseworthy front and nice, correct non-roachy back of correct length. Congratulations to the owners.

Preston  that coming from you  Makes me feel so good as I am the breeder.  WOW Thank you !

I like how she is coming along but is ALWAYS nice to see what other see as yes, we can be kennel blind  (sometimes :)

He brother was posted a few weeks back and had nice reviews also. So I am  very happy .

EK

Her brother  Sorry

 Nice girl for an 8 months old..Nice bones too..I like sable. They're is not much in Am. Lines..her croup going to get better. It takes time to mature. nice size too.

She got that look..The I'm ready look. We like seing that. Good job

Hi Ek ,

A medium strong, grey bitch with medium bone and very good proportions. 

Excellent head with correct planes, ear set and light eyes which mars the expression.

 High withers, a firm back and a short and steep croup.

Good front and hind angulations with good depth of chest.

I could be wrong here , I find the front feet pointing east /west and the right hind foot stepping in a hole. 

 The dog is not standing balanced.     Ek please let me know if I am right or wrong .? I could be seeing things.                                                                               

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Sonora I went looking for other pictures just to see.  The top on is free standing  (durning alert training)

and the other picture I did not care for the angle that I took it and Dads legs were

blocking the top line. As for East to west  I see a little,  not much.  As for the hole it looks it but no there was no hole

if there was it would of thrown her off balance ( I am very picky about my pictures) .

As for the eyes- Mother had really light eyes early on too but as she got older they darken up

EK

There appears to be an irregularity in the photo at the right pastern/foot.  It is likely configured the same as the left foot and if so front is fine. 

In the last 95 years there has never been a GSD of good WL or SL west German, Czeck or east German breeding that has been too shor, but there have been way too many that are far too long, especially in WL breeding and in the American Shepherd lines.  Coupling that is too short just doesn't happen.  But excessive length is one of the biggest problems in the breed today and getting worse.  I know of a couple of breeders of euro WL GSDs that breed and sell short coupled WL GSDs, however, and these dogs tend to also have very correct working temperaments and are good family pets too, but these folks are the exception.

Why is this so??? Because the difference between proper short loin/length and excessive loin/length is very small genetically and proper short length is a recessive gene combination to excessive length.  A breeder typically has to breed purposefully in order to get the correct short coupling which is so necessary for proper proportions.   Most GSD enthusiasts just don't know the standard and have adjusted their perceptons to accept excessive length as normal and even desirable.  I suggest that folks buy tracing paper and start tracing GSDs of correct length and then theirs and place the transparencies one over the other in front of a light source and compare them.  If you do this many times you will start to get a good feel for correct short coupling.

Just to make the point of how difficult it is to produce correct short coupled GSDs take the example of V1 Henry Dunishienke, a very correctly conformed GSD with very short, very correct coupling, fantastic working temperament and very good hip joints.  He reproduced his very good hip joints but did not typically produce GSDs as closely coupled as himself.  Why???  Because the short coupling gene combos are recessive to the long gene combos.If one truly thinks that there are GSDs of good breeding that are too closely coupled (ie too short in loin/length), please list them here and tell us why their specific length is against the standard (actual proportional unit measurements height to length and how it adversely affects their movement, aglity, etc.

Hi Ek,

Thank You for clarifying the 1st.photo.

 The other photo shows the fronts are better.

Thanks once again.