The Evolution of Conformation - Page 2

 So what do we think of this dog?

I would like to see him in a more natural pose as he is over stretched here - you can see that as his rear angles are not right.

If you brought he first pic dog into a ring, they would probably tell you Mals are at.....

Not my fav look for the GSD but here are some I like.

Here is one of the first to start being recongnizable as a GSD  still the short tail, but a more filled out structure and a GSD head. This next guy freaks me out becasue he looks like Crok but he is the 1920 VA Sieger. Those Roman noses still show up in some lines.

 snap of same dog

caption for gsdlvr......

look Mommy i killed him

He still has maturing to do and has very similar rear angulation to my girl so I like him.  He is certainly not struck with frog's legs, but if you show him you will probably find that he has not got enough length of thigh to do really well.

Frog legs ( when the legs look overly long and the butt overly close to the ground. In the stack the dog looks like it is squating to take a dump or jumping like a frog.) Reminds me of an accordian.

lvr2 the stack is a bit stretched, back leg is too far back, but his butt and perportions look fine. Still see some curve to his back, not flat or strait like I preffer but who the hell am I? LOL He looks better than most WGH on this site for sale.

The main diff in the old and new dogs is the old have the hips and shoulders at about the same level. Newer dogs have lower hips and high shoulders making them look front heavy.( If he was a staute he would tip onto his nose) I even see it allot in WL dogs. Now a flat back is called weak or incorrect. I don't get it, when Stephanitz's own dogs looked flat and square to me. Looking at he VA list you notice the front heavy dogs started popping up in the early 70's and it got more exagerated in time.

 I know, the stack isn't perfect but it gives a good idea. If the shoulder and hips are close to the same the dog will not be as fast. 

Here are pics of two bitches fast enough for catching rabbits (for real). I'd like to clock these two. They both throw it into a whole nuther gear.

It's the judges that decide what every breed looks like. Breeders want winners, so they breed  the type that wins and pretty soon the original purpose of the dog is ignored and soon to be forgotten.. If a GSD doesn't have a big side gait, it's not going to go Va. A big side gait is a result of more angulation, shorter legs, and a longer back. No idea where the roachy topline or froggy rears came from. Maybe  a physical compensation  to allow for so much rear drive/angulation?

One thing we know for certain -  the foundation dogs had more leg, less angulation, and a flatter back than the dogs we see today. It would be my guess they did not have a big side gait AKA the flying trot either. I assume there are few if any videos of the early dogs, so we can only guess how they would move based on still photos. 

so how close do you think we come? I think she looks much closer to the first dogs then many I've seen. She has her faults, don't get me wrong, but I think she's pretty