Do you think she is a purebred? - Page 1

I adopted this dog as a puppy from a rescue and I have always wondered if she is a purebred. It doesn't matter enough to me to have a DNA done on her but I figure you all are the experts and was wondering what you thought... these pictures aren't great for conformation but just wondering what you thought. Let me know if there are pictures I can take that would give you a better idea. She is a little long and lanky but my vet told me that was probably because she was spayed when she was 8 weeks old. Anyway, would love to hear any opinions out there!!

Here she is at 8 weeks old


Here she is at 5 months old



Here she is at 1 year old



Here she is today at 2.5 years

Looks like it to me, and looks like a nice dog as well.

Purebred with some American lines in her. She looks noble and easy to handle.
Stephanie

Purebred. American. Poor thing, spayed at 8 weeks. That accounts for some of the physical immaturity (lankiness, narrower head, etc.)

She must be American working lines but she isn't easy to handle at all... she has been quite the challenge good and bad. It is too bad the city shelters have to spay before they release a dog. She is very thin/narrow also. Hope spaying her that early doesn't have any long term consequences. 

She looks 100% GSD to me! jackie harris

She is a pretty little thing..Looks just like a GSD to me..:)

Enjoy her..:)

Got my vote for 'definitely purebred.' However, I don't believe there is such thing as American working lines. American line breeders breed based on AKC standards, usually with little to no regard to working ability - as long as they display the 'flying trot,' and have extreme angulation, then they're fit to breed.... 

I think she's purebred, wouldn't want to guess which lines since many randomly bred GSD's are combinations of both. There are no "American Working Lines" per se, but not all Am dogs are worthless. Some have OB titles, work in search and rescue, serve as service and therapy dogs.

I would be extra cautious if she's very long and narrow because of bloat. Some say there is a correlation between lenth of torso, depth of chest, and lack of good muscle tone/strong ligaments and bloat. I know an old breeder who swears the better structured and shorter-bodied WL dogs have a slighter incidence of bloat than many show/pet lines because the structure is "dryer" and firmer, tighter, etc. Breeding for a lot of angulation and unnatural structure leads to looser ligamentation which may be in various parts of the body and be connected with a higher chance of the stomach actually flipping (torsion) if the dog ever bloats. 

There is absolutely no "proof" of this theory that I can find, but he bred GSDs since the early 1960's and never had a dog bloat...which is ungodly lucky if you don't believe he was at all correct in a body type more/less likely to bloat. There is also a genetic component but it's been proven that it is less related strictly to genes than environment.

Anyway...in what ways is she difficult to handle? Is she just high energy and puppy like or really difficult to manage?