100 YEARS OF THE GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG
Quo Vadis, Pastor Canem
Germanus?
By Fred Lanting
The author of this article, Fred Lanting, has
written many books, including several on the German Shepherd
and on Hip Dysplasia. He got his first GSD in 1947
and has been a student and scholar of Canine all his life. He has been an AKC
specialty judge for many years and has judged in 15 different countries. He is
an internationally recognized authority on German Shepherds,
gait-and-structure, orthopedic disorders in the
canine, and is one of only two SV breed judges in North & Central America,
recognized by the WUSV. He is the only American ever to judge at the Australian
Main Breed Assessment (their highest annual GSD event) and any GSD specialty in
There is no one in
This article appeared first in the
All right, for those of you who failed
(or failed to take) high school Latin, that means, "Where is the German
Shepherd Dog headed?" This year, 1999, is the 100th anniversary of the Schäferhund Verein (SV), the
heart of all GSD clubs in the world, located in the motherland (used to be
called "das Vaterland"
by everyone until a crazy Austrian [Adoft Hitler,
ed] applied unsavory connotations to that term)
of the breed. What has happened to this noble dog in the ensuing century,
especially in the
|
German
(working) Shepherd |
German (show)
Shepherd |
American (AKC)
Shepherd |
Before the end of the previous century, several dog fanciers, but
especially a cavalry master named
Max von Stephanitz,
organized what was to become the world's largest dog breed
association, with what became and
remained the
most populous and popular breed in most
countries. Captain von Stephanitz had the advantage
through his privileged office and service, to have traveled
over almost all of Europe and some other countries, and the voracious seeker of
canine knowledge collected photos and meticulously accurate reports from others
who had gone further and seen more in the further reaches of the world. He
proved what I was later to learn, that one gains a fuller appreciation for a favorite breed when he delves into the depths of all breeds
- indeed, even comparing the dog to other animals. This is why my college
buddies heading for medical school took Comparative Anatomy; they weren't going
to operate on cats, but it helped them understand the human body and various
systems better. Max built up a wealth of knowledge and shared
much of it in his monumental work, which every dog owner should read, "The
German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture".
They started with utility, and von Stephanitz
kept stressing that concept. Even today, the president of the SV echoes him by
re-stating it: The German Shepherd Dog is first and
foremost a working dog! The founder said that the true mark of beauty was
utility, preached that form follows function, and discarded any bitch that was
not above all an ideal mother (from whelping through weaning). Where did we go
wrong, since today in America and some other countries that drifted away from
friendly relations with Germany during WW-2, we find people using artificial
insemination, heroic efforts to save the weakest whelps, and below-grade animals
for breeding? Why are "we"
in America, Canada, and to a lesser
extent some in the
The FCI has recently decided to break up the
How
is the American Shepherd different? In many ways, for most individual dogs, and imperceptibly
for some others. But all over the rest
of the world, the typical American-Canadian (and the Alsatian half of the
But in what specific ways are the dogs different, and how
did the breed get that way? The picture
that unfortunately comes to mind for most people may be something like the
large, plush, GSDCA Grand Victor who, Capt. Arthur Haggerty once
described in his report on Westminster, cowered behind his handler in the Group
ring (which means he got Best of Breed!). Or the picture may be that of a
straight-fronted, long mid-piece, long-in-second-thigh animal that looks like
it can eat peanuts out of a Coke bottle, as we say in the South. One thing that
saved the American Shepherd from total oblivion in the minds of multi-breed
judges and other observers was the elevation of
Meanwhile, the specialty judges were going merrily
along the path to destruction, having neither any education in proper breed
type or direction from the laissez-faire parent club as to what to look for or
how to recognize it. The ills that the founder warned against proliferated:
"hyena dogs" with high fronts and sharply-sloping backs to a
much-lower hindquarter, a stance that was too "backwards", by which
he meant the hocks were too far behind the torso for any useful work, and the
spookiness
that now indelibly marks the "American" branch of the breed. Proportions range all over the map, but
mostly very low-stationed (short-legged) dogs, chests too deep (not supposed to
be over half the withers height), and bodies so narrow they disappear when
facing you head-on. The kind I call Dick Tracy dogs - remember you would only
see him in profile? Two-dimensional, that's why! But these dogs, including the
ones with pasterns so weak they look like they are running around with floppy
socks too long for their feet, and knees that are actually below the hocks when
posed with the metatarsus vertical, are winning.
Perhaps it isn't fair to call them "American
Shepherds", since there are many good examples of the breed in this
country. Maybe "AKC-Shepherd" may be a better tag to hang on them,
and we can allow the better examples to be dual-registered in an organization
that conforms to the breed Standard and the judging styles and decisions used
around the globe. There are good American Shepherds, but they either get lost
in the crowd, or look too different for judges to realize what stands before
them, or (mostly) they stay home and guard the kids and property instead of
wasting their owners' money on shows.
Is there anywhere else for the international-style,
more correct GSD to go? Yes, where, the AKC wants to keep as a big secret, but
there is another home for some, another breed club. The organization known as
However, when talking to the SV and WUSV, the WDA puts on its "affiliate
hat" and says "We are an integral part of the GSDCA"; when
talking to or facing toward AKC, it waves its constitution and says, "No,
don't punish GSDCA, because we are a separate organization". Makes one
wonder what the meaning of "is" is! But it works, so what the hey! Meanwhile, the
The WDA and
While it rightly belongs to subject matter in a separate article, I must
mention this before hearing a roar of disapproval about "German toplines". During the couple of decades before the
present administration of the SV and WUSV, so much emphasis was placed on
powerful drives in the rear, that the outline of the West German dogs (and
therefore in much of the world buying them) had too many "boomerang"
or "banana backs". This resulted not only from "the push for
push", but also from the attempt to get the appearance of a long croup.
Thankfully, this trend has been stopped and is in process of reverting to the
more normal topline without sacrificing strength,
power, and the long croup needed for both. If you still have a hang-up over the
overline, at least consider its functional purpose in
comparison with much worse problems in a trotting breed, such as short legs,
heavy bodies, upright/short upper arms, and steep/short croups. Judges, please don't put up a question-mark temperament over
a comma-shaped topline.
In the
Where is the GSD going, and what kind of body is
carrying it there? Anybody who has any interest in seeing what the breed can
offer in the way of uniformity, soundness, consensus-type adherence, and proven
character owes it to himself to look outside the AKC yard to the greener grass
of the WDA and USA Sieger Shows, to actually see that
body, that style, that truer-to-type dog. There are far more AKC shows to go
to, but you'll have to look longer and harder, because the tendency is for
American Shepherds to keep going to shows until they win enough points, no
matter how undeserving they are. Judges who pick the truly normal,
closer-to-Standard dog may get fewer assignments, but what you see in their
rings will be fewer of the extreme caricatures, and more of the right picture
of the dog of the future.
A big current difficulty for GSD fanciers is that the WUSV has announced that
membership can and might be denied clubs that do not accept and cause judges to
abide by the world Standard. Despite warnings a couple of years ago, the GSDCA
is only now sluggishly beginning to take the edict seriously. AKC is a big stumbling block because while they say that the
Standards are the property of the breed clubs, they really don't mean it, and
want to keep control over these themselves. So any deadline is made
doubly violated when AKC must be appeased by the GSDCA. If GSDCA refuses to go
along with the rest of the world, as it has in the past, it could lose WUSV
membership. That would put an end to the masquerade of WDA legitimacy, and that
group would probably lose the privilege of holding recognized breed shows, and
probably would be unable to get SV judges anymore. If all this happens,
My predictions or answers to the question of "quo
vadis?" are that the WDA and USA will eventually
get their differences straightened out, the GSDCA will have at least a 60-40
chance of losing or dropping WUSV membership, and the breed itself will have a
respectably large enough chance of being split and renamed. The AKC-type
extreme dog will continue, but owned by a smaller group of show-only and
win-at-any-cost people who breed to and "put up" each others' dogs,
blithely going down their own slippery path. If registration is not disrupted,
there will continue to be some cross-over, but it will all be AKC-American
Shepherd bitches going to international/German studs, almost never German-style
bitches going to American Shepherd studs.
Just as in any futurist's prognostications, this view can change considerably
in reaction to a change of heart or decisions on the part of one or a few key
people. Jim Crowley as late as February said that AKC's
position re schutzhund has not changed and that any
violations would be investigated, but they've known all along about the
GSDCA-WDA, so they will probably continue to dance the Clintonesque around that
bush of thorns. The president of the WUSV may soften and decide to let the
American club retain its membership and just de facto ignore its presence
instead of requiring GSDCA to march in proper Teutonic time. And if the courts
do get involved with the name of the breed, they may find "German Shepherd
Dog" to be non-copyright protected. But one thing is almost certain: there
will continue in America a high-profile (although insignificant on the world
scale) coterie of canines with a wide variety of type, all called GSD but actually
identified by the label that one long-time pro handler has called them,
"Pretenders".
Return
Home
Copyright 2001 Fred Lanting, Canine Consulting.
Mr.GSD@juno.com. All rights reserved. Please
view his site Real
GSD.
NOTE: A well-respected AKC and Schaferhund
Verein judge, Mr. Lanting has
judged in more than a dozen countries, including the prestigious FCI Asian Show
hosted by Japan Kennel Club, the Scottish Kennel Club, a Greyhound specialty in