Structure of the GSD - Beneficial or Detrimental? - Page 4

Testosterone is a powerful drug, HM. It makes men out of boys.

ok, so their conformation won't keep them from participating we'll use your word instead.  does it really change anything?  so, what is your breed you've taken nationals with?  I can't believe you beat thousands and thousands of other handlers that are merely participating and not competing :)  kind of like Highlander....There can be only ONE :)  and I find it even more amazing a dane beat your GSD and every other dog in the nation, or did you have another gsd that was faster than that dane as well and he only beat one of your GSD's?  maybe you even have owned a gsd that has beaten a lot of other dogs like BC's and other breeds?? maybe I could even find videos of them on the internet?

I'm fairly certain there's more than a couple GSD's that have beaten quite a few dogs in flyball.  but anyway.  I don't even know what point you're trying to make anymore other than to be right about something.  
My fast flyball dog is a bully mix (like a pit bull x whippet or some such, I don't know she's from a shelter).  One of my flyball GSD has competed at Nationals but not in a high (fast) Division.  I only know of three GSDs that can run faster than the Dane did, but still none of these GSDs or the Dane are anywhere near the speed of, say, the top 5% of flyball dogs or the teams that are competing to win the fastest divisions.  If there are GSDs running faster than a 3.9, I would like to know about it.  The fastest divisions will be running dogs 3.4-3.7 or so (a tenth of a second is like ten minutes in flyball).

I'm not sure what point you are trying to make either?  I thought we are saying the same thing....that flyball is NOT a breed assessment for the GSD and should not be used to criticize their conformation just because you don't see GSDs on the Division 1 or world record teams.....?

My point is that people constantly say the GSD's conformation is fine for this or that but they are thinking of those activities on more of a novice type level.  There's a difference between doing a sport and really competing in a sport.  You don't see top seeded flyball teams running GSDs.  You don't see very many top agility people running GSDs (and often the ones that do already concede they are not as fast as other breeds).  Yes, GSDs are very easy to train and there's no reason they can't do these sports, but there are reasons they don't usually do them at the TOP level, most of which have to do with how they are put together. HOWEVER I argue that agility and flyball are not breed tests for a GSD, so it's not fair to say that because GSDs aren't the top at these sports means their conformation is bad.  Rat Terriers and Saint Bernards don't do Schutzhund/IPO or police work....  If one wants to do a sport with a non-traditional breed, that is totally fine, but then you can't knock the breed or the sport if you can't ever compete at the top level because of physical limitations.

It matters because it depends on what the OP is looking for....to just participate in certain sports or to be really competitive?  A half decent GSD can train and participate in pretty much everything. If the OP really wants to be competitive in flyball and ringsport, get a Malinois.  But again, that's not saying the structure of a GSD is bad.

Very well put, VK.

The structure of the GSD is not bad for.......but not as good as a Mal. If the structure of individuals of ANY breed limits the dog's ability to run, jump, turn, bite hard without breaking down,then IMO, then those individuals of that breed are not sound. Edited by jr

Depends what it was bred to do.... mals cant trot behind a flock of sheep all day because that is not its intended use. Gsds can jump but they were not built to jump walls only. When you make an animal a multi use animal it will not be as good as a single use animal or as efficient as what the single use animal is bred for.

you really are a newby, and not just in gsd as your name suggest, what do you think original mals,terv,groendaal and lakenois (belgium shepperds) did??? swimm all day to keep the japanese koi's inline?????

Ouch.

Would that be considered koi tending or koi herding?

LMAO!!   You gotta watch out for the women on this board! They really go for the jugular!

depends on brest crawl or back stroke blitzen