Dog That Catch Your Eye, Part II - Page 1

A dog that catches the eye of someone who either has a natural eye for a good dog or has developed an eye for being able to recognize a good dog, is a dog that is alert and confident with eyes that radiate  intelligence. awareness, and sound temperament, who structurally is a well-BALANCED German Shepherd Dog and whose body language also indicates calm confidence. 

Balanced conformation  is something that is easy to recognize in almost any breed of dog when that dog gaits.  Dogs that look balanced standing may be an illusion, but a truly well-balanced dog shows that balance in gaiting at almost any age, providing of course, the dog is sound and healthy.  

A well balanced puppy will show this balance in movement even when he is just barely old enough to be able to trot across the floor. At such an early age, the femur, humerus, and croup havent yet begun to grow and will still be proportionately short, but correct angle of croup and balance in motion will be obvious even in a puppy this young.  (Of course, an outstanding puppy has a LOOOOONG way to go and much to prove before he is an adult, and only a few outstanding puppies manage to become equally outstanding as adults, when such things as hip and elbow soundness, etc are required to be part of the criteria for an adult dog to be outstanding.)

One thing I enjoy doing just to test my eye for the dog who shows itself to be the best in conformation shows, is when watching dog shows such as Westminster on TV, to try to determine which dog in the group competitions, etc overall show the best balance standing and moving, who show confidence and that indefinable quality called "presence", etc, and then see how the judge's placements compare with my own assessments.  Most of the time, my picks while watching, have agreed with the judges picks.  This is a fun way to train and test the eye to become ever better at learning to recognize even subtle aspects of a dog that make it superior even among a group of excellent eye-catching dogs.

GSDgenetics,

What you said is great and benefitial (not sure of the spelling), I like the way you present your thoughts, very clear and sound.

Ibrahim

GSDGenetics

"A well balanced puppy will show this balance in movement even when he is just barely old enough to be able to trot across the floor. At such an early age, the femur, humerus, and croup havent yet begun to grow and will still be proportionately short, but correct angle of croup and balance in motion will be obvious even in a puppy this young."

At what age does this ballanced puppy start trotting across the floor?

Can you put a link to some dogs you think are superior?

Giving this a bump, so people will post here instead of the old thread...

My alltime Favourites:
Timo vom Berrekasten,
Ghandi Von Arlett
Vegas du haut Mansard