Change of the topline in standard of German Shepherd - Page 5

morning Abby.have just logged in.yes my girl is getting on now.she will be 8 ,next week(2nd dec).she looks very much the shape of the animal in pretoria,s photo,but in the photo of her on my facebook page,i feel she looks more curved in the topline,but not that extreme.i do agree that a few of the german side are overangulated at the back and do appear to drop(slope)excessively from just behind the withers,which i find makes me cringe too.i am curious to know which german shepherds that are being shown are in your eyes as having a correct topline and which top winning ones yu consider do not.i wish to see if your thoughts agree with mine.so i wondered if yu would pm me.i assure yu that i will keep your comments confidential.Carole S.P.S.BTW.the photo were i feel she looks more curved is when she was 18mths.old and therefore still filling out.

thanks,wasn,t expecting yu to put em on here.god it would cause a riot.just want to see if we agree or not.as i said it will be kept confidential between us 2.Carole

So why hasn't the poster of the six month old pup photo been hammered like I was, when I only gave a link and not an actual photo?

UBERLAND.i have only just been able to get the photos up on this thread and PDB.in general.i,m talking re the link on your post 26th nov..now i,m on the german side of the breed here in the uk.i am apalled at the overangulation on this young dog.i agree this animal does appear as he is crippled.he reminds me of a puppy i bought in 1987,unfortunately this pup had one very displastic hip(H/S at 12mths.3 on one hip and 45 on the other)highest score here in uk is 53 per hip.he appeared to me to sink down at the back when he walked.THIS IS NO WAY CORRECT TO MY UNDERSTANDING OF THE STANDARD RE THE TOPLINE.Carole S.

thanks for the reply noddi

years ago, I breeder I knew (she no longer breeds) bought a VA Guido daughter (from Schneiden Fels). the poor girl had a terrible rear, very overangulated, and she had the egg beater movement in the rear.  at 1 year old, she OFA prelimbed as severely dysplastic also.

I have recently help whelp a litter from a VA male, one of the pups was another very overa angulated dog, but she supposedly has a normal hips, a low zw in the low 70's and is now a SCH2 and not even quite 2 years old.  her rear was soo bad she would poop on her hocks.

this is becoming a worrying trend, just from what I have seen and experienced.  I sure hope the german breeders do not go the way of the extreme american line dogs. 

It worries me, too, Uberland. One of the things that characterizes the American line dogs is their loose-jointedness.  A former board member told me about choosing a pup from the kennel of a well-known American show judge. He showed her how he picked the pups with the loosest joints, as they had the potential for the greatest reach.

These pups are so wobbly and floppy at a young age that they bunny-hop instead of trot, and can't control their legs well enough to do stairs until they are at least 3 or 4 months old. My German-American cross was introduced to stairs when I brought her home at 12 weeks, and after some initial hesitation, had no problems with them at all.

The other day, I was at the dog park, and saw a young pup there that was around 3 months old. It was SO floppy, I was sure it was an American showline. I asked the owners, and was shocked to find out it was of pure German showline ancestry!

I told y'all years ago the WGSL is going to get there. They are doing same thing as ASL and they will end up in the same place eventually.....Time tells all!!