The GSD must SPLIT away from The Alsation! - Page 64

One of my best dogs was of predominantly Lornaville breeding, with a touch of inbreeding on Alf V Quenglebach.  He was a most handsome dog & I could not get down the road without people wanting to greet  him & he loved everyone admiring him.  He gained his Good Citizen Bronze at the first attempt with no formal training, was a registered PAT dog & represented his breed at Discover Dogs at Crufts & Earls Court for several years.  My fondest memory is of him lying flat on his side at Discover Dogs while about 6 children lay around him resting their heads on his side, all sighing in contentment. 

He was happy to meet anyone he met, young or old in whatever circumstances, but that is not to say he was a push over.  He stopped my neighbours house being broken into & when a drug crazed girl tried to attack me, he stood between us & gave her a stare that stopped her in her tracks.  He most definatley was NOT a parasite.  I would not use that term to describe any dog, ever.

I had only owned dogs of German type before this dog, but I found in him the true German Shepherd temperament.  All dogs whether of German or English TYPE, are still as German in blood & that is why there should not be a split.  Even if they do split, each will probably still develop their own types with in each breed, so what is the point?  each will become even more extreme.

As for 'They can keep .....all thier health problems', are the German type dogs a paragon of physical perfection?  I think not.  My current bitch, aged three years is a grandaughter of a top German sire, and her dam comes from a well known UK breeder who is a Champ show judge in the breed, favouring the German type.  This poor bitch has Petit Mals seizures regulary so has been on Phenobarbital for 2 yrs, has a food allergy so extreme that she cannot even pick up a stick, and has HD.  That's not to mention what else she might develop in the future.  How healthy is that?  She is not an isolated case, as through her illnesses I have been in contact with numerous people whose German bred dogs are in a worse state than her.

At a time when the future of Pedigree dogs & the world of showing in the UK is under threat we should be uniting to improve the breeds appalling health status, not wasting time on causing it to split.  Fashions will always come & go, and beauty is subjective.  Lets preserve our breed, not pull it apart.

 LilyDexter: A very good post, thankyou. I am sure there are problems of health in the German type, with many thousands born in the UK each year, and as with any living animal it is impossibe to eradicate all diseases. Breeders can only try and take as many steps as possible for excellent health in their litters, then nature comes along and kicks them in the teeth. We need to make some health screening compulsory, and we need to continue striving for health improvements, then and only then, will we have more and more offspring like your handsome male, and less and less like your poorly female. I advocate the split for many reasons, outlined in my posts within this thread, and I would simply sum up my feelings by saying we need everyone in our breed to pull together in the same or similar direction. I am afraid the Alsatianists are pulling in a completely different direction, in so many ways, and this seriously undermines our GSD breed. Therefore I strongly advocate facilitating that THEY go their way, and WE go ours. The GSD will certainly benefit, I have serious doubts about the Alsatian.