Information re tdifferences in advertising. - Page 2

Kroger, Please re-read your entries on this topic--sit back for a few minutes and ponder on what you are saying. I do not want you to take this as a hostile retort-take this as a constructive critisism. You are accusing contributers of being inflamatory, thin skinned & paranoid. You opinions are your opinions. But you opened yourself wide open for some serious debate & corrections. I agree with Johanna with much respect in regards to your comments about the Martins. I would urge you to consider doing a little research on the background. (I don't mean discussing it with just one person that has a slanted point of view. While I appreciate your analogy of the Equine variety, this was without merit-the point being that you were using different breeds of horses. The German Shepherd, whether they are beautiful,good, bad or sawed of little Gremlins, are all German Shepherds no matter how you slice it.

Is it a full moon?

Very well put, victorianblu.

A little bit more information for people that are wondering where my questions are coming from the Australian scene is a real mixmash of different rules. Our National Kennel Club allows us to show under both the British Standard and the FCI rules (without the working parts). Shows here are all breed shows with all breeds judges where we show in the small ring. And Specialty shows were we show under the FCI rules less the schutzen with ever dog lined up and critiqued. With regards to hips, elbows and haemophillia our Kennel club requires that we hip and elbow x-ray however they do not require a pass. However ou Breed Club the GSDCA requires our dogs to pass Hip scores under 18 (breed average here is less than 16)and elbows under Grade 3. Both Breed Club and Kennel Control require a haemophillia certificate. Some Dogs that arrive here from Germany fail the hip or elbow x-ray scheme when they arrive here, and our breeders will not use them. Namely due to legal advice that as we understand the scheme we must provide a puppy that has a good chance of being HD free. Under our breed club rules we Breed Survey (Kkl) with either Class 1 or Class 2 or failure. The majority of imported GSD's to Australia are "showlines", however in the last few years some "working lines" have been bought in to the country. It is extremely expensive to bring a dog to Australia with our quarantine laws, it costs approx USD25,000 to bring in a dog be it an adult or puppy. Normally we bring in to Australia 2 to 4 new dogs arrive in year. If you want to use a Dog that is at stud on our west Coast it will cost us USD600 to fly a bitch across country. Here that is the average weeekly wage for 2 weeks. The ban on importing GSD's to Australia was lifted in 1972. I apologise if I am not 100% accurate and somebody in Australia might like to correct any mistakes. With my own dogs I show both rings, obedience, tracking, agility, flyball, schutzen (not recognised) USAR,ET and anything else that Shepherds can attempt. I also have Black and red-gold, sables and bi-coloureds. I am only interested for personal clarification. Not for reasons of show versus working. I was also interested also to see if west German and East German lines had merged after the fall of the wall. Jacqueline freundhund2@hotmail.com

Kougar, I have stood fast on the fact that this is an open forum and no identity is required. I have not wavered on that in any of MY posts. You have the option of signing up under any name you choose, but at this point I don't think it would take long to figure out YOUR comments under any name. PS Quarter Horses that are reining champions, very often compete in Halter classes. It is sort of like a confirmation presentation (they call it showmanship). And I owned Morgans, at any given show they pulled carriages, competed in Park Horse classes, Open Hunter, Dressage and Western (believe it or not a Palomino Morgan named Californio was a top reining horse in the midwest). Guess they are pretty versatile also.

I just wrote a long post. It got lost - probably a good thing...Ang Ghost - I saw YOU applaud someone who not only did a personal attack - but identified me. That did not sit well given your stance that you not be identified or your credentials called to back up your opinions. In fact - no one ever asks for credentials on a showline person - just on people who Showmanship is NOT a conformation class. It is judged on the HANDLER's skills and not the horses conformation. It is common at 4 H shows as the child is not handicapped by the price of the horse. I spent many years judging open shows and truly understand this...even the AKC dog shows have "showmanship" classes. I stand well behind my QH analogy - I see enough of them. I had a Morgan as well...and the horses showing at the Grand National or Gold in fine harness sure do not look like the horses bred by the Univ of Vermont...and neither does Waseeka's Nocture - another one of my faves who I saw while living in New England...no one said they were not versitile. And take a look at a TOP winning show horse - it sure wouldn't look right in front of a plow.

"I was also interested also to see if west German and East German lines had merged after the fall of the wall." On the other thread it was mentioned where the first division started. Another reason for the spit and divsion of the breed occured when the wall came down. There was a merging of East german judges into the SV as a gesture of inclusion by Herman Martin and the policy of the SV in west germany. Right after the wall fell, most of the DDR dogs were sold off, many to the US. They were sold very fast because it's common knowldege the breeding pool behind the wall was very limited and health problems existed. During the 40's and 50's, Due to problems associated with isolation, The east germans attempted to resolve this problem by adding Rottwielers to the breed. The dogs who carry this infusion have a distinct color pattern and structure unlike any other GSD's from other countries. Today, we have people promoting and establishing their kennels in the US with DDR lines they advertise to be strong tough working dogs based on the image of the old soviet union and communist ties. All the hype I've read about these lines eludes to the isolated genepool being somehow superior to the open breeding of the west. The Bias brought in by the East Germans and advocates of the DDR type into the SV has been festering over the years and contributes to the continued divison of the breed.

Come on, Kougar, spell check isn't a requirement here.

Is it really safe to ask such a profound question, "Is it a full moon?" You're taking your life in your hands, Joanna! I gotta laugh at this one! How quickly some get offended, defensive and critical! (still chuckling to myself) Ya gotta love that Kougar for being so darned opinionated!! *I'm in the USA if anybody's taking notes.

Thanks Jacqueline for sharing info regarding the requirements and describing the ventues offered in Austrialia. This is certainly interesting. It must be very difficult to broaden the breeding base with new bloodlines with the restrictions and quarantine laws. I have friends, who visited Austrailia and came back with positive impression regarding the GSDs they saw, but they were equally as impressed by the openness and committment to the breed by Austrialian fanciers. USA....and Germany Joanna