GSD on the way out?? Here is the article - Page 3

Here's what I said....might as well say it here, too.

GSDs, once the breed of choice for Seeing Eye and service dogs have been replaced by labs and goldens. I can't remember the last time I saw a GSD service dog (except for my own, which I trained myself.) Police departments are abandoning them for Czech GSDs and mals. Insurance companies are refusing to insure people who have one. And you don't see a problem here? Pedigree Dogs Exposed was on TV again last night. You guys remind me of the breeders and judges who insisted the GSDs whose hocks were so wobbly they could barely hold a stack were 'the best representatives of their breed', and fitted the standard!  When the RCMP is willing to pay $5,000 to import a Czech GSD, instead of using dogs bred in this country or the States, there's GOT to be something wrong somewhere!

I still love the GSD, and always will. I know Jemima Harrison's film was very controversial, but we cannot afford to hide our heads in the sand the way many of the breeders she interviewed for that film are doing. Standards need tightening up to prevent fad breeding from harming the breed, and reducing it to a dog that's only good for running in circles in a showring, as has happened to a large degree with the American GSD.

Sometimes I think of changing breeds, but then I look at how badly f**ked up and deformed many of the breeds in that documentary were (e.g., the peke that can barely walk, and needed surgery so it could breathe without collapsing, the bulldog, that can no longer reproduce itself without help, and those poor Cavalier King Charles spaniels, that suffer from syringomelia because their brains are too big for their skulls; and I think, "Well, we're not there yet!" But we do  need to be on our guard, and look at the changes that have happened in the last few decades, and ask ourselves: "Is this REALLY benefiting the breed?"

Remember that bassett hound with so many wrinkles that it resembled a shar-pei, and whose belly was so low-slung it was dragging on the ground? To the non-show person, it appeared grotesque and ugly. When the interviewer mentioned that the bassett hadn't always looked that way, the judge replied, "Well, yes, but we breed better dogs now!"

How many times have I heard that from GSD people, when they explain the changes that have happened to the GSD in the last few decades!

"When the RCMP is willing to pay $5,000 to import a Czech GSD, instead of using dogs bred in this country or the States, there's GOT to be something wrong somewhere"

GOT to be? This is not logical.

Do you mean $5,000 for a Czech pup? No

Would americans and Canadians buy imported GSDs and train them in NA?

What is the hourly rate in the Czech Republic?

The popularity of the GSD is like #2-4 at any time.

It will take a lot for the Mal to become popular.

There are reasons why the Mal will never be as popular as the GSD. The Mal is too high energy and too vocal for the suburban home. They are too atheletic so they are more inclined to escape from confinement. Six foot fence won't do; this alone will suppress the popularity of the Mals. Most people will not want to deal with this.


 "

Personally, I don't want the breed to become more popular, in fact I don't think that half of the people that currently own them should.  I would rather they were less popular but in the hands of people who understand them and work them.  THEY DON'T BELONG AS PETS.  So keeping them out of the "suburban homes" and day care centers and dog parks is just fine with me.

Do you mean $5,000 for a Czech pup? No

 

YES, I DO! If the pup washes out of the program, they replace it. This was from an RCMP K9 officer who was teaching a tracking seminar I took part in. He gave a demo with his police dog. It was small and very quick moving, and its energy level reminded me more of a Mal than a GSD. I forget if it was a male or female.

Duderino, poplularity has spelled the death knell for many breeds. That's why I asked you about the Beaceron not too long ago, as it was only recently recognized in this country, and the kennel club hasn't had time to mess up its working ability yet by breeding strictly for show. Border collie breeders fought hard against recognition for many years, as they saw what had happened to the rough collie, and they knew their dogs, like the mals, are too high energy to make good house pets.

The current rough collie carries far too much coat to be a working dog. It would weigh the dog down if it got wet, and tangle in briars and twigs. At least 90% of them have inherited eye problems due to inbreeding. I've heard that many of them are so inbred, that genetically the are as close as if they were brother and sister. No wonder border collie breeders wanted to stay the hell away from the AKC/CKC!

All dogs in the world are first and foremost pets.

Why not?

If you are a dog, do you want to be a pet?

This is now 2011, with the exception of SAR and drug detections, and some other perhaps, most "work" for a dog is due to the perception that a dog's life is worth less than a human life.

It is not to say anything negative about "work", but it is a matter of universal or broader perspective.

"Work" by a dog has far less actual utility than many devotees of dog sports care to admit. Dog sport can be fun and give a certain satisfaction, but one should not be provincial about the superiority of dog ownership for sport over that for companionship.

Many things have cause and effect. In the USA, we cherish freedom excessively perhaps. We want as few rules as possible and as much right to bear arms as possible. This is an additional reason why "protection" from a dog is worth less in the USA.

"Duderino, poplularity has spelled the death knell for many breeds."

The terminology in this thread is very strange.


The GSDs are dying out because they are popular. 


Yes, I do get the logic. The "breed" dies.


The breed GSD has died for a long time ago, to use this line of logic.


The S in GSD has pretty much died, so the breed GSD should die and has died.


It is a provincial mindset to claim that "work" is as good "herd" or "pet" is not "work".


We have field and show lines of Labs and many other breeds of dog. It takes some one stubborn to lament on this.


I do like to see the "working line" of GSD continue as a variety of the breed; and I think it does.   

All dogs in the world are first and foremost pets.

In many countries which are not as urbanized as N. America and Europe, that is not true. Dogs have jobs, and are not treated as family members/pets as they are here. If you saw the conditions dogs live in in Africa, the Middle East, and even as close to home as Trinidad, you would be shocked. Feral dogs roam the streets at will in many of these places, and their lives are worth very little.

Also, when you say dogs are first and foremost pets, you are forgetting one of the most important things our breed founder said about the GSD towards the end of his life:


"Take this trouble for me: Make sure my shepherd dog remains a working dog, for I have struggled all my life long for that aim.” 

iZn Ub 

It's the microwave mentality of the "whatever" video game generation of America.  Sorry, my dogs are not pets, they don't climb on the couch or sleep in our bed and conversely I don't sleep in their runs or climb in their crates.  It's an agreement that we have come to over the years.  Hey, if you want to make the GSD into a pet, which in my (and many others) opinion is contributing to the ruination of the breed, you go right ahead, it's not my chosen breed but stay away from the Malinois when you can no longer find a healthy dog that has the drive/willingness to work.

"breed founder "


I do even care much about what the founding fathers of this country intended, I mean the few old white men.


It should not come as a shock to you that I don't care what the founder of the "breed" actually wanted 100 years ago.


Irrelevent.
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What I like the most about the GSD?

Its appearance has wildness in it but it is also a fully domesticated affectionate companion animal.

There is a lot of simplication in this description. The GSD has charecter, aloof and not sociable with strangers.

What Max wanted is irrelevent.

Different times different places