working VS Show - Page 3

Maggie Mae look at the GS from the early 20's until today. I beg to differ I do not see any pics of working dogs with roached backs and cock hocked. In fact up until 25 years ago or so working dogs where also showed. Schutzhund is only a breed worthiness test. Yes it is a sport but a test as well. It is a test that most show dogs do not do well at. lack of drive, aggression etc. mostly lack of natural instinct. Evidently you never participate in schutzhund or work to say working dogs look like mixs. its very laughable. Ill take a nice bi-color or dark sable or for that matter black and brown or red dog from working lines any day. There are many KKL1 Dark sable big headed powerful working dogs here and in Europe.  There are a few show dogs that come over that can do schutzhund or other bitework sports but they far from excell at it like working line dogs do..

Some people like cream and sugar in their coffee -- I would take a beautiful Red / Black anyday.  My dog does not have a roachback ..... I can't stand the roachbacks.    It is all personal preference.

I have been showing dogs for 30+ years. GSD for 25.

I am addicted to "conformation" and conformation showing.

However, I will never own another GSD that is not capable of obtaining "real" Sch. titles. By this I mean the dog exhibiting the ability to perform the requirements of actually passing the test, not just fluffing by. Just passing a Sch. is no indication of "work" ability.

If you mean "work" as in LEO, then that is a whole other level, regardless of what anyone here tells you. I will say that very few S/L and certainly not all W/L line are qualified for LEO work.  

What is your defination of "W/L S/L".

Take this for what it is worth.

Rik

A German Shepherd to me, is the all around working breed. Forget about the lines, look at what this amazing dog does!  It is the eyes for the blind, finds people who are lost, recovers dead bodies,  visits the elderly when their relatives can't, or do not give a SH##. This has,  and is done by WORKING and SHOW lines.
This dog is what you make of it,  to serve his/ her master, not just SCH and the bitework.

Dawn -- well said.

Rik, I bow to you.......exactly what I am saying since yewars......Thankk >You Ulii

Hey Ulli - good to see you!  Your wisdom, kindness and  good humor have been greatly missed around here  for too long now.  I hope you and your family, both the two legged and four legged members are doing well. 

Wrestleman:

No the lines you saw and see from older germans lines are mixed of both long before they were divided as such...The breeding was done correctly for the structure of the dog to work but some were shown and some were only worked... It is a terrible picture to see progression to what showlines (being they are seperate in some minds ) look like and cannot do what was the dogs inheritance...  Very many lines have both in them....some DDR and Czech , etc lines have no showline but the mainstream of E and W germans , belgium dogs have some of both..

Mahon pointed out to me many of the pedigrees that people think are worklines are old showlines that use  to be confirmationally  correct and workabiltity to the superior.


just my opinion

YR

It is not the truth that if you want this you should get s/l and if you want that you should get w/l or s/l.  This attitude is the one which is so dangerous to GSD!!!
German shepherd is a working dog. PERIOD!  US show lines are in 99% cases disgrace to the breed. The reason is that you can show a brain dead pretty dog. Remember if you do not breed for something in 3 generations you will start loosing it.  Top sport is better then show, but not by much. Stephanitz said that breeding for any one sided extreme is a fault. Thus super high drive of a top sport dog is a fault. GSD is THE MOST VERSATILE DOG IN THE WORLD IT IS A WORKING DOG and if he can not be a house dog or S&R dog or Police dog, or guide dog for blind,  then the dog has a problem. Most top sport dogs can not be house dogs because they would climb walls all day long.  Most S/L  can not do 80% and most top sport line can not do 50% of what  real working dog should be able to do. Standard also says that GSD should not show signs of soft life. So there goes the US show line. 
If you want to own or breed a GSD then  
you must always strive for a total dog who can be  taken on any path and be good at it.  Beauty of the dog should strictly be derived from his ability to work . It is a beauty that of an endurance athlete which is backed up by stamina,courage, discrimination and temperament to perform well in any task.  Anything else should be eliminated from the breeding program. How can anybody argue with this?!
 For the sake of GSD!!!
Prager Hans
http://www.alpinek9.com

Well Hans, you certainly told us "what's what."     ....and I BELIEVE YOU !!

So, I hope this puts to rest all the BS that I have been reading on here about SL vs. WL  (and people talking about their "Working Dogs"  -- which are really "Sports Dogs."