USCA to develop a plan to improve the breed - Page 2

Judyk, excellent concept: but I'm pretty sure it will never be adopted for obvious reasons.

Joanro, you are right about that.  Too bad because it's an excellent first step toward correcting some of the wrongs with the breed. 
Judy

Dog1, to answer your question, "Could the two be competitive in the same arena?" Depends on what the judge's orientation is. A judge who is a SL person will not even look at a strong structured WL dog. Same for a real WL judge...they won't give a moment's consideration to a typical SL dog. I can't see your idea working, unless the WL breeders develop dogs to resemble current SL structure ( which is unfortunately already happening).

The USCA can plan a manned mission to Mars and that's not going to happen either.  More bluster and BS.  The SV controls everything the USCA does as it does the WDA.  The SV has 63,000 members in Germany plus their very friendly SV clones in the neighboring nations of Europe compared to maybe 4,000 WDA and USCA in the USA.  If the SV pulls the plug on the USCA and/or the WDA both organizations are nothing.  Besides that the USCA and WDA members buy their dogs in Europe so good luck on changing anything so long as European breeders are serial selling all the brood stock to the USA breeders and no one in the USA has their own lines.  Maybe this is the follow up to the "immensely" successful USCA breed registry which is the SV registration papers with a USCA stamp on them.

You can change what you want!!You can change the Board,you can change the rules,you can change the name of the Organisation, but on the end every breeder does choose his breeding stock by him self.what does it help at all than??
 

I think if you place the focus on a dog's working ability than structure will follow....not the other way around. Form follows function.   I think one should seek to possess a working dog who is structurally correct with proper type -regardless of pedigree. But,  the emphasis MUST always be placed on working ability.  As, ultimately, it is the ability of a dog to work that truly defines our breed in type, temperament, health, and structure.  This must never be forgotten. 

Additionally, I, personally, would like to see USCA develop a program for American breeders. I would like to see more of an emphasis on producing American bred dogs instead of importing. Perhaps, USCA could create more programs that reward American Bred Dogs who trial. I feel there needs to be more support of Domestic breeding programs to create top dogs from home and not import them from abroad.

Sarah

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I really didn't think this would be such a hard concept to grasp. Let me try this again. If a breeder produces a showline that doesn't work. Guess what, it's not going to do well on the field is it? If it doesn't do well on the field,,,no matter how good the conformation is,,,,,Here's the main idea so follow closely,,, it doesn't do well in the final results! Breeders of BOTH lines will need to assess their program and possibly make changes to be competitive.

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I get it, Dog1. I also agree, Hired Dog, with your most recent post. 

It has to do with market. There is such a stigma with both sides, where the other side is concerned. It's a hard thing to get past and pushing for the total package will lose a breeder many sales. I know this first hand. I always try to breed for both structure and working ability, and I'll be honest- more than once, people have questioned working ability because I *do* emphasize structure and several have questioned structure because they're pure working line dogs. You have to really prove the dogs and it takes time for them to mature and start proving themselves. Once people, even on a small scale, see that dogs can be pretty and still work and vice versa, hopefully, they will be choosier in what they breed. It's not rocket science- take the time and spend the money on truly good stock, and be honest and only breed what is really excellent and we'll see less of both the coyote types and the big pretty dogs who run from their own shadow. 

OTOH, breeding for the whole package is not on most breeders' agendas because those dogs who have "it" don't come cheaply! When you demand excellent working ability AND conformation AND health, well, you're really narrowing the pool to pick from, and thus driving the price up. I've not iced that many breeders don't like to spend money on their females. They want to buy a bunch of $2500-$3000 females and breed them to whatever's trending at the time. If structure AND ability are being judged, that's going to affect their bottom line, and not in a good way. They use the excuse that "they're working lines" when someone points out their poor structure and generally homely appearance, or when they don't work, the flip side of that coin is "well, they're show lines."  Neither statement should be used as a crutch. Both sides should have both correct conformation AND proper temperament for a GSD, which ought to to include working ability!