IS THE GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG A DESIGNER BREED?

What does the average person in America think a German Shepherd Dog looks like? Now clearly I�m not talking about a breeder or a show person. I�m talking about �John Doe� that lives down the street from you. How would he describe the German Shepherd Dog? What would he say he looks like? What would he say about the disposition of this breed of dog? Are we the breeders representing the German Shepherd Dog the way most people think of them? Or have we designed a dog that most people wouldn�t identify as the �average� German Shepherd?

If �John Doe� came to a dog show or if he looked up kennels on the internet, I dare say he would be faced with many different types of German Shepherd Dogs being represented. Just take a look on Facebook at all the breeders and the pictures of their dogs on there. I have never seen such a variety of German Shepherds in one place.

What does the general public think a German Shepherd Dog looks like? I bet if you asked them, a majority of them would probably describe a black and silver or black and light tan dog to you. They would probably describe an ordinary looking dog with a protective type of personality.

I was disappointed the other night when I was watching �The Dog Whisperer� and a poll was taken asking the general public which dogs were the most aggressive breed. I knew that the Pit Bull would be the first dog people would name. However, the German Shepherd was rated as being the most aggressive right under them and then followed by the Rottweiler! It doesn�t look like our breed has such a great reputation! I�d rather them be listed as a protection breed for their family and loved ones rather than an aggressive breed. It really is two different things, in my opinion.

If a person �Googled� the words German Shepherd in the search window, thousands of breeder�s names and kennels would come up. Now if you went on those web sites, many times you would see a dog that looks different from other people�s dogs on their websites. Oh sure you�d see the same noble looking head with his ears standing up straight on his head that most people would associate with this breed. But many times this is where the similarity would end. You�d see many different colors of the German Shepherd Dog�s coat. You�d see short coats and you�d see long coats. You�d see average sized dogs and monster bone sized dogs. You�d see American style German Shepherds and you�d see German style German Shepherds. You�d see light pigment. You�d see deep, dark Mahoney red pigment. They�d be straight backs and there would be roach back dogs. You�d see short backs and long backs. Some would stand straight and look boxy and others would be slopping with their rears close to the ground. This could all be very confusing to "John Doe" for he wouldn't know what the standard for our breed is. All he would know is that they all looked so different.

When one talks about one of �those� designer breeds, are we too not designers of our breed the German Shepherd Dog? If you were to look at the first picture of a German Shepherd when this breed first became recognized and look at it now, you would think that it is a different breed. So indeed, we as breeders have designed the German Shepherd Dog and how it looks today! We changed the whole look to the dog. In many ways for the better, I believe. But we have designed him to look a certain way and not the original way at all. I wonder what the breed will look like in another twenty years or so. Should we be changing the looks of the breed so much? We have a standard, but I see very few dogs look like what the standard calls for. Because a breeder is a designer of sorts, he will have bred for a certain style of dogs. Many kennels have generations of their lines in their breeding program and one only has to look at their dogs to know that this is from their kennel.

Are we all heading in the same direction with the same goal to breed the best representative of the German Shepherd that we can? Or are we all doing our own thing and designing a dog that doesn�t really fit to the standard at all? Take a look at the dogs on some people�s websites or on Facebook. Have we created a designer dog or do they look like the standard set for our breed? You decide!


My rating: Breeding to the standard: (4)

LETTERS, I GET LETTERS.....

All right so I�ve worked on this blog all morning long and wrote it, proofread it and it was all ready to go. I copied and pasted it to my blog and it came out a total mess. Sure I could have opted to send it out like that, but I�m too particular that way so this is what I�m going to write today instead. I�ll have to fool around with the other article some way to get it to print the way that I want it to.

Anyway, I get many letters sent to me privately and they address certain things with me or they ask if I will write about certain things. So because I�m keeping the authors of those letters private, I will still share some of their thoughts and questions here anyway.
Maybe some of you can offer advice to them or add your own ideas on a particular subject.

Yesterday a well known breeder wrote to me and suggested I write about this on my blog. Here�s what she said. �If you co-owned a dog and you found out it had been neutered without your consent, what would you do?� Now I don�t know the writer personally, but we�ve enjoyed some e-mails back and forth occasionally. So I wrote back to her with my answer. I told her: I�D CHOKE THEM! I don�t think she was amused. I think she was looking for more than that answer. But my quirky sense of humor what it is, I just couldn�t resist. Anyway on to her question.

Because I don�t have any other particulars about this question, I�m going to assume that the co-owners had a written contract. I�m going to assume that they had everything spelled out what each one expects. Sometimes in contracts not everything that can happen is spelled out. But in this case because this is a top breeder, I�m assuming she made it very clear what she expecting when this person bought a puppy from her. I�m assuming she might have wanted to breed to the dog herself and she probably wanted the dog shown.

Some co-ownerships can be a wonderful experience for all that are involved. For others, it can be a total disaster. It really depends upon the moral integrity of the person that you co-own with. Most people want to live up to their part of the co-ownerships expectations so everyone is happy. Unfortunately it doesn�t always happen that way. One may get greedy and want it the way that they want it, forgetting (or choosing to forget) their responsibility with the other co-owner. Some people�s true colors show their ugly little faces when they want to do it their way and betting on that the other co-owner never finds out. Well I just love it when they do and good prevails over bad and the truth comes out! I don�t know what the legalities are in the case of this breeder and her co-owner. Perhaps she might need to check up about that.

On the other side of the fence about co-owners, sometimes it can be truly a wonderful experience for all that are involved. Many of your top breeders won�t even consider letting some of their best dogs go if they are not a co-owner on that dog.

Another letter that I received awhile ago was about asking me to address the much debated subject of German vs. American lines. I told her that I had written an article about this all ready, but it seems that this subject will continue as long as there are German and American bred dogs in this country. I really could never understand the controversy myself. Isn�t a German Shepherd a German Shepherd no matter where he was born? I guess it�s just me, but like I never liked the division of �them against us,� �you against me,� �whites against blacks,� �Christians against Jews,� I really hate it even more when it comes to our breed. Why must there be this division within our own breed? Is it the way of human nature? Who knows? So to the writer that wrote me about this subject�..you say you�re proud of your German bred dog and plan on showing him anyway but you�re upset about all the snotty comments that are made to you. As I wrote in one of my other articles��..DO IT ANYWAY! The hell with the rest of them!

Then there�s the letters that I get from time to time from people that write to tell me that they�re afraid to stand up for their beliefs because they fear the criticism that they�ll receive. Now believe it or not, I�ve heard this quite a few times from those just starting out in the breed, but I�ve also heard from a judge that has been in the breed for many years right about this very same subject. Then there are some very well established breeders that have told me the same thing. They say that they just sit back and read what is posted, but no longer respond because of the fighting and bickering. What these people are saying is if they put an e-mail out over any of the specialty e-mail lists that many of us belong to, that they get ripped into or read the riot act! Why is this I wonder? Aren�t these lists places that we all should be able to give our opinions about any given subject? One would think so. Some of these people have written to me and have asked me to write about something or ask a question on the list for them. Many times I have done this for them. I've also addressed some of their concerns by writing articles here on my blog. Why should anyone fear to write what�s on their minds without worrying that someone is going to go off on them? I always look forward to a HEALTHY exchange of ideas.

Oh well there you have some of the letters that I get from people. I also want some of my readers that are not on these e-mail lists or maybe only might belong to one of them, many of the responses to my articles on this blog, you never get to read. I wish that some of them would respond on this blog so everyone can read some of the very important information that they share with the rest of us. Some people will respond here, but the majority responds on the e-mails lists. I send this blog to five e-mail lists.

So I thank you all from the bottom of my heart for the many, many wonderful e-mails that you send to me. I try to respond to all of you. Excuse me if I�ve missed a couple of you. Although that�s rare, it does happen. So now back to trying to figure out how to get my other article up for tomorrow. I hate modern technology that was invented to make my life a whole lot easier! NOT!


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My rating: Life hands us problems, it's how you decided to deal with them that matters: (1 - 4)