Love the look of this male! - Page 5

...and to show that I also can be fair when doling out the criticism, I am not overjoyed with the working line males that are extremely huge headed and front heavy and look like they are on the verge of tipping over onto their faces with the slightest gust of wind. While this dog is not an extreme example he shows that tendency toward front heaviness vs a tiny rear. http://www.shawlein.com/The_Standard/13_Breed_Type/ddr.JPG

This picture for me depicts a nice balanced working line GSD: http://www.pupcity.com/images/adpics/06028205148477_1.jpg

Quai, and dogs like him (and there are many with similar heads and body type), are just too much dog for me personally. I can't see them tending sheep 24/7 or having the agility needed to bring down the bad guy. I am a grassroots kind of person and think that survival characteristics must always trump cosmetics,  so I look for a GSD that appears to be athletic with a more refined head type with a bit longer muzzle, better length of leg, a flatter back, and less rib spring.   Can't really judge bone without touching the dog, so he might or might not be ponderous due to being too substantial. If we could see his movment, it would tell us more.

He is a very striking dog for sure and I can understand that those breeding for the show ring would want to produce a dog that looks just like him.  One would be a fool to not aspire to breed a dog that looks like Quai if show placements were the goal. While I appreciate the overall picture he presents, I'm just not so sure this is really what Herr Captain had in mind. IN my mind earning a Sch III doesn't really require the same level of endurance and agility as does tending a flock of 100 sheep or more or finding people beneath the rubble of a Ground Zero.

RE. the bitch I linked to above, can someone whose German is better than mine translate the following from her koer report, please?

nicht voll gefestigten Rückenbändern und kurzer, leicht abschüssiger Kruppe

I tried Bablefish already, and didn't get understandable results. I think the last part translates as short, gently sloping croup, but I'm a bit stuck on the first part, which babelfish translates as 'not fully strengthened back volumes'!!

Hre's another good example of the chow/akita head on a well-known male:

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/gsd/classifieds/44908.html

He looks so massive, I wonder how he can have enough agiity to work!

He is a striking looking dog due to his color and proportions. I agree the muzzle is too short and the dogs head actually looks too small in comparison to his neck and body. Not really looking like the GSD standard. I guess we are at another curve in the road of change. Out with the angulation, in with the weird heads/short faces? Looks nothing like the dogs of yesterday.

I like the body but, the head doesn't look like it belongs to a german shepherd.