oversize? - Page 1

All VA dogs are oversize

Isn't that SV is on their track to cut the oversize dog? It was mentioned by Herr. Reinhard Meyer on his interview with Mr.David, you may check on www.videxgsd.com

The same way the other ones do: they're the best one there on that day. {Waits for firestorm to start}.

Sure, size is a fault.  A serious one.  But there are a lot of serious faults and PERHAPS the winning dog, although oversize, was stronger in all other important areas whereas the other dogs were not.

Just a thought, because I've noticed in these oversize discussions that they're always stated as though the ONLY difference in the winners & losers was size, as though they were all IDENTICAL in every other attribute except for height, and I just don't think that's the case.

TessJ10, could not have put it better myself, 100% correct. And anybody who starts a firestorm are ignorant. liz

Oki whatever you say guys. Too big is too big, there is no such thing as good enough that day :). Just my 2 :)

I would be able to understand if this would be about working dogs, working show, working people that we talk about, since they stress about working ability of a dog rather than it looks and size. But show people talk about conformation and all of a sudden they say too big is oki? In my opinion it is a total b/s. Plus we are not talking about giving the dog some b/s title is a VA for crying out loud!!!! Have some morals.

"no such thing as good enough that day"

Except that SOMEONE has to win, unless you're suggesting that NO ONE win, which sure, why not have the option of having a judge say "No dog here today is good enough to win."  That'd solve the problem pretty fast, so I'm with ya on that one.  But from reading a lot of critiques, the breed has a number of serious problems, not just size.  Poor croups, to name one.  Too-short forearms, crappy toplines.  Look at a lot of dogs - you'd think the back half belonged to a much smaller (meaning TOO small) and weaker dog than the front half.

I don't like oversize either, but would take a dog pushing large over those sad little diminishing hind ends.  Size is just one aspect of conformation - if other aspects are incorrect, you have to take those into consideration too.

Many breeds have this problem, not just GSD.  Shelties, for instance.  At their National a few years ago the judge made a point of putting up dogs clearly excelling in specific areas where the breed was having problems, and said so in her critiques, saying something like this fault was becoming so prevalent in the breed that she deliberately rewarded dogs who were strong in this area because it was so important. As Andre Wijaya posted, I think this is what he meant by saying that "the SV is on track to cut the oversize dog."  I think so, too, but hope that judges are also on track to cut the poor hind-end assemblies, too.

"But show people talk about conformation and all of a sudden they say too big is oki?... Plus we are not talking about giving the dog some b/s title is a VA for crying out loud!!!! Have some morals."

No, too big is NOT okay, but maybe on THAT DAY it was less of a problem than other severe faults in other dogs.

AKC judges have the option of withholding first place, and although rare, they will do it.  I've seen it done more than once.  Do Sieger Show judges have that option?  Can they say at a Sieger Show, "Today I will not award 'VA'."?  If so, perhaps that action on the part of judges can be encouraged. What do you all think?  Would you like to see that?

The human eye is not perfect. If all the dogs are oversized by 1/2", none may appear so.

I heard that one AKC judge actually took out a ruler; any dog over 26" 1/2 were disqualified. This is seldom done.

The stud dog I just used is 26 1/2", about 95 pounds, pushing the limits, but he is OFA excellent and elbow normal. Fairly agile.