(American) Shepherd Breeders Point of View - Page 1

Read this article its pretty funny if you ask me. http://www.dogsgermanshepherd.com/american%20vrs%20german.htm

This is an old article written by a breeder who has since past away. I knew Bob very well and most times were at odds with each other over our opinions on dogs. I beleived we should be trying to intergrate some of the German line traits into our American bred dogs to improve health, longevity and temperment, he on the other hand felt they were too dominate and would undo all the efforts of the past in improving the American bred dogs. We dissagreed, but we both had the experience and sound fact based arguments to base our opinions on. Bob put in the day to day work with dogs for more than 30 years, I respected him, I hope you have the same amount of experience in order to call his article "funny".

I am not saying that his opinion was funny but I think the ways he refered to the German bred dogs was. He obviously thought the same way about German bred dogs as we do about American bred dogs. All the time when you see articles about German Dogs Vs. American Dogs it will be from the German point of view it was just different to see one written by an american breeder. (that obviously had alot of knowledge)

Sadly enough, after reading the article, the guy makes some good points with his critique of German GSD's. What the heck are we doing breeding "banana back" dogs? The roach back is a weak back, and no other so-called "working dog" breed has a naturally occuring roach back. Looking back at the pictures of the original GSD's you won't see a single one of the foundation stock with a roach back. Shame on us for producing, and buying, showline dogs with such distorted structure. Personally I wish the webmaster of this board would separate the classifieds and "dogs for sale" into working lines and show lines so people don't have to waste their time digging through a dozen ads to find a "super young male" (for example) that has a non-roached back or a narrow chest.

I have no desire to belittle anyone, but I feel compelled to clarify. This article came up a few months ago, so I read it then. I see little evidence of learned observation, but ample sign of ignorance and stubborn refusal to accept rejection for what it is. The point of view is typical of American line breeders who honestly believe that their distorted view is superior to that of the FCI, SV, and the world in general. He describes dogs with a correct level of drive as having bad temperaments. I suppose a potato sack or an Am. bred nerve bag are more to his liking. Only now with the NASS is the unholy aliance of AKC and GSDCA beginning to open its eyes to the true GSD. I have no illusions regarding the German breed. We have many obstacles to overcome, and I am not so sure that we are better in overall quality and correctness than 20 years ago. I do know that some of the worst declines in the breed have been in the direction of the American breed: Loss of working ability, weak nerves, oversize, long body, overangulation, lack of firmness. So far we have avoided sway backs, collie heads, and steep fronts, but we better watch out. The American shepherd is the laughing stock of the world, and not laughing WITH him. The GSD of the FCI standard is not perfect, and many breed outside the standard, but it remains the most LOVED and RESPECTED dog in the world-for good reason. Best Wishes, Jonah

Everyone just look at some of the dogs being sold on this website and you can see this is not a perfect world.. While you have many excellent breeders you have many they are not... In many cases small hobby breeders are producing superior dogs than others in my opinion.

im not familar w/ american bred dogs, or even what ther goals are. after reading the article i noticed that he mention beauty over and over again, but very little in the way of workabilty. he does mention trainability. what exactly are american bred dogs trained to do? he also mention that american dogs have more "discriminating intelligence" is there a test for this? lastly how exactly will the american dogs get dogs w/ more courage? and id be interested to hear if courage means a dog that stays and fight, or just doesnt run.

SchHBabe- You are mistaken. A roached back is NOT a weak back. An upside-down back, ala North American style shepherds is a weak back. Add the over-stretched ligaments that allow a dog to stand on its hocks and you have a structurally very weak dog indeed. How many North American-style ("Select Ch.") GSD's can retrieve a 4.4 lb. dumbell over a 6' A-frame? Of the ones that would even try, most would be broke down in short order. "Discriminating intelligence???" Bwah ha ha ha ha ha ha ha ha! Shelley

I was doing SAR and a local firefighter had a GSd from a well known American Breeder in Houston. My pup was about 5 months old and his was 9 month old. My girl worked circles around his to the extent that I felt sorry for him. His was nice looking and large sized but had low drives.