Ideal confirmation in a young male - Page 2

Sunsilver: "They are both very nice looking dogs, though, of course, Preston's needs to mature a bit more." So did mine. Heavens, at 3-4 months, he was as homely as sin--gawd-awful gawky, dry, close-coated--LOL! These lines are very slow in maturing but are worth the wait.

That's a damn good looking dog for 6 months, Louise! I thought he was older. Preston's looks a little leggy still.

Preston, this is a very nice pup. You are going to have a lot of fun with this young fella. ecs.

I doubt that the dog is Preston's--don't know. However, I do agree on his preference for dogs of the 80's and early to mid 90's.

Why Louise, clever girl, you can post pictures on the message board - magic? Anyway, I think both dogs are gorgeous.

sueincc: "Why Louise, clever girl, you can post pictures on the message board - magic?" ***************************************************************************************** It sure as hell is not genious--LOL! Out of sheer frustration, I just did a little problem-solving work-around while Oli is working hard trying to get the "bugs" out of the system. We have to use many similar problem-solving skills in dog training--when we won't take "no" for an answer. Me? I'm a very stubborn old bitch!! Like, many without any knowledge of HTML, I will appreciate the return of different sizes of fonts, colors, highlighting, etc. for message board postings. It's too bad that, in the meantime, we can't all agree to use the same browser. I'll bet that use of IE7 would solve a lot of problems. I have other browsers (Firefox, Safari) on my desktop but rarely use them.

BTW, the same "creative" technique may be applied for posting photos in a user's comment or when sending a PM. How do I know? Out of curiosity, through the process of trial and error, I tried it and it worked! I was amazed.... Hmm, if I say any more, Shepherd Woman will have a photo-posting frenzy--LOL!!!

The weltum puppy I commented on above is not mine. I don't know anything about him or the breeder. Nor do I know about his temperament or working ability, coming & going, etc. I pointed him out because I ran accross his photo on this site and felt his apparent confirmation from the photo was outstanding and represents what was typical in Germany in the early 1980's in working or showlines. And I have seen puppies like this from working lines and showlines over the years. They occur infrequently and should be used whenever possible. I do not think this puppy typically represents the Uran or Ursus stuff seen so much nowdays. What I especially like is the straight vertical of his lower front arm standing, properly proportioned body and legs and very short back. I view this dogs proportions and angles as perfect or nearly perfect. I believe that this is what the standard call for and is possible to breed this look from show or working lines through careful selective breeding. What I don't like is longer dogs, or dogs who set themselves up with the front lower leg titled forward toward the head from the ankle upward (which was typical for most of the GSDs of Capt. Von Stephanitz's early days in the breed--he was selecting away from this when he died). This is only my view and others are certainly entitled to their own opinions as much as anyone else.

Preston, if I were to fault your example at all, I would criticize his height to depth of chest ratio (the SV judges would say that he cannot get any deeper) and his having a short underchest--in my opinion.

Maybe, but for a 7 or less months old puppy male, I see this as ideal. I think he has pronounced posturnum and a well placed and angled upper arm and sternum. If the dog maintained these proportions and look as a fully mature adult male, it would look fine to me. I would likea bit plusher coat, but it is okay as is. My view is that folks have been breeding GSDs which vary too much from the standard because they have a warped view of the standard. I think that this puppy male out of Weltum exemplifies the standard. It is my view that overall, this puppy male is superbly well proportioned with an outstanding and correct male head. This doesn't mean that I don't like many other well proportioned GSDs, just that this is my favorite type. Not overdone at either end, probably the kind of dog that moves correctly in a balanced manner, and can do so and work all day long. I just think that breeders, both show and working line should breed in this direction for an overall better constructed GSD.