Are Longhaired Shepherds a Fad????? - Page 1

Please excuse this question if I am out of line.   However, it appears that much of the controversy that has been on this site during the past few months regarding improper registrations, forgeries, puppy mills, and the like are coming out of the the LH fans.

I guess I have missed something concerning the LH dogs.  Are they in very high demand? Difficult to produce? Or simply a fad? Personally I like my short-stock coats.

TUFF

Hi Tuff, I don't think LC is difficult to produce.. alot of people want to stay away from it. We live in California and it gets darn hot here, we don't need the LC dogs per se. But there are are people that have had LC dogs in the past, and they will ask for them agian. I don't think it should become a fixation , but to each his own.

I own a stock-LC male shepherd and I have my own ideas as to why some folks like them as well as to why their makeup is such:

Those specimens that are correct, tend to be striking in appearance and look like they belong working a sheep herd up in some highlands.

They don't shed any more than any other GSD. Just longer hair.

They do well in sub-freezing condition, and not as badly as you'd think in sub-90 F temperatures.  By the same token, I don't have to take him on such long walks in the summer as I do in the winter.

Temperament.  IMPO, unless they are an unintended consequence of a working-line breeding of two LC recessive gene carriers, LC shepherds are not primarily bred to have intense drives nor  as high energy levels as working lines dogs.  Most LC breeders seek even tempers and drives.  Thus, they offer many of the advantages of a GSD without some of the more time consuming aspects of GSD ownership.  My uncle, whose father was German, brough back a gorgeous LC GSD from a trip to Germany and that dog was high energy and had a very strong temperament.  However, that was back in the early 1970's.  My LC is a blend of about 60% Show and 40% working lines and his WL background does show.

As to the question of "demand", they have been recently "re-allowed" for competition and that may have fueled a bit of demand, however, those who know a little, understand that this has only been fueled by the governing body's desire to increase the participation (fee$) in shows.  Once they get the numbers of standard coated participants up again, there will be lobbying to exclude LC's from the ring again as they may affect the business of the stock-coat Showline breeders.  It has happened before, and it will happen again.

In my case, the coat length is not a primary criteria for selecting a dog.  I look for temperament first.

Interesting Charlie that you mention there personality. It is possible that the link that most call " docile" in the LCs may be attributed to the fact that the show lines carry more of the gene vs the working lines. I am interested and would love to hear from real working line breeders how common it is to get  LC in there litters.. where are the dogs breed from ie : Czech, Germany,Hung, EU etc.

Whisper

THere are still LC breeders in Germany that breed for both conformation and working ability- House of Barret being one of them (they breed showline dogs). All of their breeding dogs are titled. I am not aware of any here in the US.  The LC has been around since the GSD was first developed, so it is nothing new.  BUT, the fact that the SV has decided to recently acknowledge the Long Stcok Coat and establish a separate registry for them is probably one of the reasons there is a lot more talk about them. I am not aware of any working line breeder either here in the US or in Europe that strives to produce long coats, although anytime you have both parents carrying the resessive LC gene they are going to show up. There are some LC breeders here in the US that have working lines, both German and Czech, in their pups pedigrees, but that is as far as it goes.

In the past I always had stock coats, but my latest is a LC rescue and I've grown to love them. I must admit they have a softer look to them which likely makes them less desirable for the working dog enthusiast.    

Well, I would not consider my GSD "docile", but he has a lot of defense drive and his breeding was not geared for an extremely high drive litter.  In reality, I believe that the WL breeders tend to breed what their market demands.  Those are dogs with high prey drive and gobs of energy (dogs in prey drive do get tired, whereas that is not the case in defense drive) which are easier to train and can score well in sport.  However, those that do breed for LC's in the US, don't seem to breed for high prey drive as their marketting seems to be geared more towards a dog that is otherwise correct.

I don't have any statistics, but the LC is a recessive gene trait and thus requires both sire and dam to be carrier in order to manifest it in the litter.

Abby,
Your are 100% correct and thank you for clarifying that.
Char

I have access to a LH GSD if anybody is interested...He's in a shelter in Merced, CA.

 

Champion - German Shepherd male.  3 yrs., 85 lbs.  Champion is a gorgeous dog with a very happy, friendly personality.