German Shepherd Dog - Page 1

Hello,

I wanted to know the show aspects of the German Shepherd Dog, what does a judge look in a dog, what differntiate a dog from another, what makes a dog a VA, and another one is down in line, i love this breed, so i wanted to know the aspects that should i look for, because in my opinion they look all similar.

thanks in advance.

Jovic, the best advice I can give you is to attend as many shows as possible if you want to learn about structure. Look over each dog carefully, watch them move. Get a catalog, take notes, then compare then to the judge's critiques, and take notes on that, too. Invest in a few Urma books, so you can compare the dogs from the front to the back of the class.  Keep in mind every judge is slightly different and may favor different attributes.

That's good advice from KCzaja.  The differences between most VA dogs are tiny and often the winner is simply the judge's preference. The bigger differences are between the VA class and the end of the V class - that's a lot easier to see. These are all great dogs, but some are better than others. The way to improve your eye is to study the standard and the photos of VA dogs (study video if you can get it), go to lots of shows and watch carefully. 

Just to the left of this post is a little section of the sidebar called 'About the Breed'-- it contains the breed standard, & lots of helpful information. Also study the pictures, you can kind of get an idea of what's what that way, makes it a little easier at the shows to pick up on what they're talking about with each dog. Hope this helps! jackie harris