Please show me your WL gaiting! - Page 16

I corrected it and now it reads right, thanks for the correction.

Excellent posts as usual, Ibrahim. 

Thanks Ramage, I take the chance to interact when my knowledge permits, lol

Thank you, Ibrahim, your diagrams are understandable for everybody - I´m not good in explaining structure and angulations, I´m only able to tell someone if it´s a good structured dog or not. The easiest and fastest way for me is touching, stacking, and handling the dog in question.

Sitas: " frankly, i just don't know how the handlers keep up with them."

Handling at training at least twice a week several dogs week after week for years, and handling every Sunday keeps you fit and slim.
But you are right, it´s not easy, and even I had to realize that I became too old and too slow for this kind of fun

Yes Susie, what you said is very important and I would like to highlight that a bit more for new friends in GSD world. The basis is actual practice, learning GSD structure and locomotion is best achieved by watching GSDs gait live in real life, and feeling bones by hand, seeing real stack and doing it yourself. Theory and sketches is a way to explain why a dog's structure is correct or is incorrect.

People in real life action know and can spot a correct or incorrect anatomy & gait and so on though they might not know the theoritical reason or know how to explain it to others, but they know good from incorrect.

 

Ibrahim

So in the end, does a steep shoulder dis a dog which has excellent working ability, athleticism, drives, temperament, etc. over a dog with "correct" shoulder and lacking in the above qualities, but only to a degree which can be masked through training? I know my answer, but what say others?

Sorry ,double post.

I personally think a GSD is a working dog that has a unique structure for endurance. A GSD should be able to perform the job it was trained for be it herding, guarding, patrol, detection, SAR etc. Correct structure + correct temperament/traits leads to optimum performance. A GSD that has super anatomy but lacks temperament to perform real job is incorrect, a GSD that has super temperament but lacks correct structure that allows performing the job and provides endurance is incorrect.

Temperament + Anatomy = correct GSD, lack of either one does not provide you a true German Shepherd Dog.

 

Any working dog that can perform a real job is a functional working dog, A GSD is special because above that it has a special build for endurance, not speed but endurance.

In my opinion breeding only for anatomy/ breeding only for temperament lead to two lines, show and work. A breeder should breed for full package, temperament & anatomy, breeding for either one is wrong.

A show line that runs away in real life situation is useless, a workline that fails to go on after half our run or trot is also useless.

Also, breeding for extreems (either structure or temperament) does a disservice to the breed we love.

A GSD is not a Mali and shouldn't act or look like one.

A GSD is not just a show dog and must have more then just a pretty gait.

I've seen some really beautiful WL and SL dogs that could gait very nicely and recieve high scores at trials and have the temperament off the field to be confident and loyal companions.

Back to photos of WL gaiting, I'd love for them to be more often trained to gait and show, as its part of the breed survey process. Unfortnately, WL owners don't take this seriously.

Ibrahim and others, thank you for the informative discussion!!

 

Can anyone post some shots of stacked dogs showing the steep versus sloping forearm construction so I can compare? Also, Can you draw a line over the forearm so I can see where it connects? Thanks!