The Showline Breeders MOVEMENT for the breed - Page 2

"Who are you?  Where are you?  Kirschental? Arlett?"

 “I think a lot of the actual problems in health and working abilities are the result of repeated inbreeding on the same ancestors, as we see in the Leistungszucht too.  I believe, and other experienced breeders will agree with me, that a litter without inbreeding (outcross) is more robust and there are fewer problems. You see the same in farm livestock breeding.  We did breed a wonderful unity in Type but what did it cost us?  The first 50 dogs of a Hauptzuchtschau are look-a-likes and have the same anatomy and outlook, BUT WE DON’T NEED A UNIFORM TOTALITY, WE DO NEED MORE DIVERSITY PARTICULARLY IN THE BLOODLINES.  WE DO NEED A WIDER BASIS IN OUR BREEDING.”  Karl Fuller, 2003, quoted from "Strengths and Weaknesses of the Modern German Shepherd Dog" by S.V. Netherlands Breed Warden Peter van Oirschot.  The entire article is here:

http://www.videxgsd.com/STRENGTHS_AND_WEAKNESSES.htm

 As for Kirschental and Karl Fuller, his breeding philosophy is well-known and he's doing the same type of breeding today that he's always done, which is to take conformation males to his HGH females in an effort to improve type and structure while maintaining sheepherding ability.  He doesn't exhibit his dogs in the main classes at the Sieger Show anymore, just in the HGH classes.  I don't know whether this is because he tends to breed dogs that are not as big (read: oversized) as the winning dogs today, that he's decided that it's a waste of time to show his "type" that tends to be less angulated behind than many of today's winners in the main classes, that he's decided that after fifty-five years of breeding his reputation is fully established and he doesn't need to show in the main classes to successfully market his dogs world-wide, and/or if now that he's in his 80s he's decided to relax a bit.  Maybe it's a combination of some or all of the above reasons, or maybe it's something else - I'm just speculating and don't pretend to know. 

 But he's probably the most versatile breeder in the history of the breed and someone whose success over the years in producing healthy and good-looking dogs that can work speaks for itself.  He's made very clear what it is that he does and why he does it, and he owes nothing more to anybody at this point.  It's time for someone else to step up.