A look at conformation & movement of 2014 VAs - Page 3

Oops I got messed up by the labeling of the names.  Who I have been calling Gordon is actually Kimbo.  My bad, sorry about that and the resulting confusion.  I now agree with Ibrahim which two are the best. 

I measure angualtion differently Ibrahim,

Part of the picture of the angulation is the length of the stifle to the thigh and the rear pastern.  The stifle should not have extreme length or curvature.

The old time germans taught (and I believe it) that angulation is the angle of the bones with in the body of the shepherd and that they should be a parallelogram.

I.e.  the point of the hip down to the point of the hock is one vertical and the parallel verticle should be the rear pastern.  Also paralles should be the stifle and the line from the hip down to the croup.  This parallelogram allows for the best combination of movement, strength and longevity for the animals.  Opening the angles past 90 degrees is only done by allowing laxity in the joints.  This creates health problems.  It is only done by genetic manipulation through selective breeding and should therefore be avoided. 

Sorry that I don't have the technical skills to put lines in like you did. Your lines help the discussion immensley and I wish that I could do the same.   I hope you can understand what I am saying just from the description.

Caruso is nice, his rear angulation is good, steep croup. I personally do not like his type much especially topline and withers.

He is same type of Bax and Vegas whom I do not favor much

I do bzcz, thanks for sharing the info, I find it interesting.

He´s a "normal" dog - after all it´s about diversity within the bloodlines. He is no winner, but he might be a great producer.

To that I agree Susie, VAs are not only about winners, they try to always have VAs from various strains and that is not a bad policy. Frankengold has done the breed a favor by rebringing in a (unique), I don't find a better word, to the GSD population.

Ibrahim

I'm very well Abby, thanks. Do you think SV authority will pay attention to head as they promised they would do to angulation, topline and ligaments?

I agree - Gordon would be my number 2 pick. I guess I have a different way of picking my favorite dogs. The first thing I do is to see if the dog looks like my idea of a GSD. That is easy to do and doesn't take very long. First the head, then the feet and pasterns, then the length of legs vs depth of body. If the dog doesn't pass all of that criteria, I usually don't  look any farther. It's really hard for me to get past dogs that look like Ceresio. Many seem to favor that type though.

 

Pay attention? The judges are humans, at the end it´s about the breeders, nobody else.

Well, I hate to say this, but I think frankengold has an unfair advantage with his dogs. I don't like the topline at all, and for more than a few years I have seen more than one roachy looking dogs coming thru there.

   It does seem to be improving a bit, but still...

This is where I think po, itics play a big role in placements. JMO

Caruso - I'm actually on the fence about that dog.  He just doesn't look harmonious to me - like a composite dog, the head of one dog, the body of another. Might be the photo, I don't know. On the other hand he doesn't appear to me to have any major issues with his conformation. Just another GSD to me. I know little about German pedigrees other than my own dogs, so I imagine his older bloodlines, good or bad, would be a factor to the judge.