Page 21 - ShowSight Presents The German Shepherd Dog

winner sieger or siegerin from each class. Now there are separate classes for proper long-coated dogs. All entries must have hip and elbow certification and the open classes must have working titles (sch or ipo or hgh-herding) with herding dogs judged separately in conformation.
The German Shepherd Dog Club of America was founded in 1913 on the east coast by a group of influential owners and breeders and its goals and purpose exist today in the hands of a very devoted board and membership which numbers are in the thousands—“the keepers of the breed”.
Each year, our national speciality has many events besides conformation; this includes obedience as well as herding and many other performance events.
In 2013, at our centennial celebration, we recognized and honored the armed ser- vices war dogs and handlers that have, and continue to, serve our country on a daily basis as a small tribute to our breed’s wor- thy existence.
Judging
We can’t stress enough “read the stan- dard and read it again and again” to help understand this wonderful breed. You the judges-all-breed and speciality-control our destiny and must (repeat must) take this responsibility seriously as i know you will.
The anatomy of the breed is functional as well as esthetically pleasing and strong secondary sex characteristics are a must as we do not have a “unisex” breed. It should be easily determined if it is dog or bitch without looking at sexual anatomy.
The male is distinctly masculine with a broad back skull and a strong muzzle and
under jaw with strong teeth numbering 42. Serious faults are more than 1 miss- ing premolar. The females have an equally strong head and muzzle but feminine.
The top line is smooth with no sag or roach and with equal proportions of wither back and croup with the back being short and straight—remembering that the back is that portion between the wither and croup and is not the topline or overline. The wither represents the highest part of the topline and gradually slopes into the back which then gradually slopes into the croup which should be approximately 23 to 27 degrees. The croup should be judged in motion as the angle varies according to the hindquarter placement set by the han- dler. The overall appearance of the topline or overline is one of smooth flowing curves with no break.
We say a dog is long if these proportions are not equal and is stretched if the propor- tions are equal but slightly lengthened.
Judging begins with overall appearance and starts at the nose and ends at the tip of the tail.
Forehand angulation is approximately 90 degrees and with the dog standing 4 square the hindquarter angle is the same— but in the typical show stance the hind- quarter angle becomes approximately 120 to 130 degrees.
The underline should be as long as pos- sible with a small degree of tuck-up age dependent. The loin should be short.
Pasterns are approximately 25 degrees and the feet are short and compact. The long-bones when viewed from the front should be absolutely straight and should be approximately one foot width apart when
standing naturally. The pasterns are well formed and strong with the hocks being short and powerful.
Pigmentation should be strong and rich with dark eye color and ears should be full erect and approximately perpendicular to the skull and closely parallel to each other.
Much has been discussed about the motion of the breed and it has a character- istic gait sequence that is similar to other breeds but more extreme.
The natural gaits of the German Shep- herd Dog are walk, slow- to medium-trot and gallop. There is nothing in the stan- dard that mentions the “flying trot” which has been taken completely out of context. In most cases.
Our breed, in motion, can best be described as having a very powerful gait that is buoyant and suspended. There is tremendous power generated from the hindquarter transmitted over a very strong back to the forehand which reaches to the nasal tip and remains very close to the ground without lifting.
An analogy is that the hindquarter is the engine—the back is the transmission and the forehand is the steering mechanism. The hindquarter generates approximately 97 percent of the power in motion with the forehand contributing 3 percent to the forward thrust. The last ounce of power from the hindquarter is seen with the last flip of the rear foot as it extends back before starting its forward motion. The racing gait that some find exciting and crowd pleas- ing is really incorrect and as mentioned the slow to medium trot is correct. Suspension and buoyancy can be seen without racing around the ring and judges should insist on the proper gait. If that were the case many owners could show their own dogs with- out “being able to keep up.” The dog single tracts in motion and is naturally coordinat- ed in all phases of its gait covering as much ground as possible with no wasted motion and seemingly effortlessly—that is the Ger- man Shepherd Dog!
Proper anatomy results in proper move- ment and the German Shepherd Dog is a trotting breed that can herd sheep all day, scale a fence with little effort, search a building and apprehend a criminal with- out endangering its officer, patiently guide a blind person through a maze of traffic, play ball with a child and sleep next to you when you are feeling terrible and know he is needed to watch over you without being told—this is the German Shepherd Dog!
SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, JUNE 2015 • 253