Are Longhaired Shepherds a Fad????? - Page 2

My LSC female has alot of drive, both prey and defense, and is high energy.   I am training her in PP, and watch her kick butt.  She also has a very deep nose.

She is WL and the product of two SC's.  I think she is beautiful, more beautiful than a SC sable, but that is JMO.   Not a fad to me.  :)

I don't at all think the long coats are a fad. Most people who have owned one fall so in love with them and the attention they get, that they will always want to have one. I know this is true about myself. I purchased two GSD's a year apart, two different breeders. I ended up with two lc's. When researching their pedigrees I found that they were cousins. They were gorgeous, smart and had the best temperament. I will always own one.

 

Redsable:  Yours is a typical "high-drive" LC-GSD.  The product of WL dog breeding who were not intended to have LC's and thus bred for working capabilities.  You may have the best of both worlds, but by looking at LC breeder websites, you can see that high energy/drives are not what they are shooting for..

Plush-coats are a little different and IMPO are fine loking with a nice full coated appearance.  My LC male is definitely an attention-getting-mechanism, and that is a double edged sword because of his defense drive and the fact that he does not like males in hoodies.  However, lenght of coat is not the trait that I look for in a GSD... Temperament, (happy/curious/bold) is what I look for in a puppy.  After that, I look for soundness and how light is it on its feet.  This may be just me, but IMPO, the smoother the gait, the less stress passed on to the hips and elbows.  I'd look at color over length of coat as I like richly colored bi-colors and silver sables over the other color schemes.

As to the price on LC's; I believe that if the breeding justifies $2.5K, it does so regardless of the coat. However, some breeders (probably WL's) don't want to mess around having LC's in their "program" as it might detract from their marketting efforts.  If I were looking for a WL temperament LC, I'd contact every breeder I might be interested to buy from and advise them that I'm looking for a LC pup of appropriate drive and energy level.  Some will very likely contact you as soon as they see one born and quietly sell it (and avoid a repeat breeding) to keep their stud from being ID'd as a LC gene carrier.