Why do they breed them like this? - Page 1

I'm sure this has come up time and time again, but I've been looking at a few showlines.....not to buy, I just saw the ads on the database at the top and bottom......but does anyone know what is the point of breeding them to get  their backs like this.....or as others I've seen are bent even more than that. To me a lot of them look painful....what benefits does this have for the dog? and what is so desirable about it? I know nothing about show lines and will never get one anyway,  so maybe you guys would have some advice on that.

I have been bitching about this same thing for a long while.  look at the pup, he is even cowhocked in the rear, which does not help the extreme slope of the topline either.  but what do you really expect, he is sired by the GREAT Vegas!  there's a thread a few days ago about how wonderful and great VA Vegas is as a producer. there have been some nice pups produced, but there has also been alot of extreme rear angulation being produced.  I just don't care for what the Ando line has produced in regards to all the angulation.  and it isn't just the hips angulated, even the long bones in the legs are at an extreme angle in some of these dogs.

the reason they are being bred like this is for one, the judges keep putting dogs like this in the ribbons, so thats what breeders are choosing to breed towards.  I place more of the blame on the judges, if these dogs were winning that look like this, then the breeders wouldn't be breeding them. 

GSDguy, you see that black mark on the dog's back that ends near the tail? That's actually the cover for a pair of wings. This has been developed so the Shepherd can spread its wings, and have that fabulous, floating 'flying trot' whis is so desirable in the show lines dogs.

They are making the dogs' rear ends smaller and smaller, so eventually, the dog can tuck its hind legs up under the wing covers, and REALLY fly!

(Sorry, I'm bored today. I studied entomology in university, and for quite some time, have been thinking those rounded, hunched backs looked like the backs of some strange new species of beetle...)

To give you a serious answer, I've heard various excuses for the roached back. One was that during the 50's, many of the dogs were descended from Rolf vom Osnabruckerland, who tended to produce weak, sway backs. As a result, the Germans, or more specifically, the Martin brothers, began selecting for a roach back, as they believed it acted like the curved span on a bridge, and made the back really strong (the so-called iron back.)

Another reason I've heard is that the curve helps the dog reach under its body more easily with its hind legs when gaiting, thus giving it a longer stride. The Germans have done this through the roached back, while the Americans have done it through increasing the length of the upper thigh.

lol you guys are brutal :)

What I concider a complet and absolutely stuning look of a GSD is this

http://www.frauengarten.net/Carol1.html

Sorry Shell I had to I am inlove in this dog. This is how total GSD looks like, at least to me. Obsolutely beatiful beast :)

me too! snaiper69 you and i have similar tastes in type of gsd's  i just love the picts of T; hope to meet him one day and possibly get a pup if all goes well

I just find it fuuny that after all the years that "German" show breeders made fun of and hated the "AKC" Show breeders, they have essantionally made the same dog just with a shorter body, sharper croup with a roached back.

Tina

k9 mom how true your statement is. even the german conformation shows are looking like the american shows now.

 i made my switch. working dogs from now on!!!!!!!!

That's a pretty pup in my opinion.  I'd love to meet him in person.  He may be cow hocked and is a little too stretched for the photo, but I do like him :-)

Just a puppy, and  a beautiful one! I would love to have one looking like him. But I would not stack him like that, though.