Keep in mind that the original use of the German Shepherd Dog (GSD) was that of a herding dog, and required that the structure was necessary to trot with ease and endurance, since it acted as a mobile fence to keep the flock away from adjacent crops in a largely unfenced countryside. Because of this, it had to move at a relatively fluent, even pace, with a minimal wear and tear on the dog's physique. The Shepherd also had to be able to stand for a reasonable time without tiring. The body weight must be correctly distributed and supported by his limbs. Any weakness in the ligaments and joints force the body to compensate and consequently lead to a loss of endurance must be faulted.
GENERAL APPEARANCE
A true-to type GSDs give the impression of innate strength, intelligence and suppleness, with harmonious proportions and nothing eigher overdone or lacking. His whole manner should make it perfectly clear that he is sound in mind and body, and has the physical and mental attributes to make him always ready for tireless action as a working dog.
With an abundance of vitality he must be tractable enough to adapt himself to each situation and to carry out his work willingly and with enthusiasm. He msust posses the courage and determination to defend himself and his master's possessions, should the need arise. He must be observant, obedient and a pleasant member of the household, quiet in his own environment, especially with children and other animals, and at ease with adults. Overall he should present a harmonious picture of innate nobility, alertness and self-confidence.
SIZE
When measuring the dog, make sure it is standing on a firm even base with the front legs perpendicular to the ground. The measuring stick should fall at the point where the wither begins to even itself out into the back.
Usually four measurements are taken. The size is evaluated as to how close the animal measures to the ideal height within a particular tolereance. The standard lists the ideal height of a male at 62.5cm ± 2.5 cm and the female at 57.5 ± 2.5 cm.
The standard links size with workability, and it clearly conceives a dog that is athletic, firm, agile, and adaptable. Oversize or undersize dogs who are sufficient everywhere else will be Korklasse II.
CHARACTER
The ideal qualities are steadiness of nerve, attentiveness, loyalty, calm, self-assurance, alertness, and tractability, as well as courage with physical resilience and scenting ability. Nervousness, over-aggressiveness and shyness
are very serious faults. All dogs over 12 months of age are tested for gun-sureness
using a .22 caliber blank-pistol.
HEAD
The head should be proportionate in size to the body without being coarse, too fine, or overlong.
The overall appearance should be clean cut and fairly broad between the ears. The Forehead is only very slighly domed with little or no trace of a center furrow. Cheeks form a very sofly rounded curve and should not protude. The Skull extends from the ears to the bridge of the nose tapering gradually and evenly, and blending without too pronounced a "stop"
into a wedge shaped, powerful muzzle, the skull is approximately 50% of the whole length of the head.
Both top and bottom jaws should be strong and well developed, the width of the skull should correspond approximately to the length.
In males, the width should be slighly greater, and in females, slightly less than the length. Mouth: The jaws must be strongly developed and the teeth healthy, strong and complete. There should be 42 teeth, 20 in the upper jaw - 6 incisors,
2 canine, 8 premolar, 4 molar; and 22 in the lower jaw - 8 incisor, 2 canine, 8 premolar, and 6 molar. Other than the first premolar, missing or extra teeth are
severly penalized. A dog missing one of the first premolars can still fall into Korklasse I, whereas a dog missing one of the other premolars will fall into
Korklasse 2.
The GSD has a scissor bite - i.e. the incissors in the lower jaw are set behind the incisors in the upper-jaw and thus meet in a scissor grip;
in which parts of the surface of the upper teeth meet and engage parts of the surface of the lower teeth. Over-Even bites are faults. Dogs with undershot jaws
(where two or more incisors on the upper jaw fail to make contact with two or more incisors on the lower jaw) are disqualified conformationally and are considered faulted. The Eyes are dark and expressive, medium sized and almond shaped rather than rounded. They should not be set in at a slanted angle. The Shepherd should have a confident, alert
appearance to the eye. Ears are of medium size, firm in texture, broad at the base, set high, are carried erect, almost parallel and not pulled inward, they taper to a point
and open toward the front. Tipped ears, hanging ears are a very serious fault, during movement the ears may fold back. The Neck is fairly long, strong with well developed muscles, free from throatiness (excessive folds of skin at the throat) and carried at a 45° angle from the
horizontal, it is raised when excited and lowered at a fast trot. COLOR
There is a whole range of permissible colors for the breed: Black and Tan (sg); Black with Tan markings (sgA); Black and Red (sb); Black with Red Markings (sbA); Black and Silver (ssigr);
Black and Grey (sgr); Black with Silver markings (ssiA); Black and Tan-Grey (ssg); Black with Tan-Grey markings (ssgrA); Bi-color (a true bi-color has black running down the back side of the hock
and should have black markings on the toes); Blacks (s) and Sable (gew). Weak pigmentation and marked color paling are faults and may place an otherwise good dog in KorKlasse II. Noses MUST
be black. Blues, livers, whites, albinios, and near whites are highly undesirable and serious faults COATS
The coat should be dense and hard without wave or wiriness and not soft or silky to the touch. The coat should NOT be long, although the gene for long coats is so widely dispersed throughout the breed you will be
lucky to get a line that does not carry it. BODY
The length of the body should exceed the height at the wither in the proportion of 10:9 or 10:85. The 10:8.5 is preferred because the dog can move with more ease. The length is measured from the point of the breast bone to the rear of the pelvis.
Faults are over/undersized dogs, stunted growth, high legged dogs and overloaded fronts, too short overall appearance, too light or too heavy in build, steep set limbs or any other feature that detracts from the reach or endurance of the gait.
The Chest is deep (45-48% of the height at the shoulder) but not too broad. The ideal depth is 47% of the total height; the distance from the ground to the bottom of the chest is 53%. The brisket is long and well developed. These figures apply to
the adult animal and it would be wront to criticize a yound dog as leggy, before reaching maturity.
Ribs are well formed and long, neither barrel shaped or too flat; correct rib cage allows free movement of the elbows when the dog is trotting. A too round rib cage will interfere and cause the elbows to turn out. A too flat rib cage will lead to the drawing in
of the elbows. The desired long ribbing gives a proportionally relatively short loin.
Back: The area between the withers and the croup is straight, strongly developed, and not too long. The overall length is not derived from a long back, but is achieved by the correct angle, of a well laid back shoulder,
correct length of croup and hindquarters. The withers must be long, of good height and well defined. They should join the back in a smooth line without disrupting the flowing top line, that should be slightly sloping from the front to the back. Weak,
soft, and roach backs are undesirable. A dog with a weak back usually will not be found in KorKlasse I.
The Loin is broad, strong and well muscled. THE FOREQUARTERS
The shoulder blade should be long, set obliquely (45°) and flat to the body. The upper arm should be strong and well muscled and joined to the shoulder blade
at an angle close to 90°. The length of the upper arm should equal the length of the shoulder, and it should lay close to the rib cage.
The forelegs, from the pastern to the elbows, should be straight when viewed from any angle and the bones should be oval rather than round.
The pasterns should be firm and supple and angulated approximately 20-30° from the vertical. Elbows should neither tuck in
nor turn out. Length of foreleg should exceed th e depth of the chest at a ratio of approximately 53% - 47%.
A short upper arm will cause the motion of the forelegs to interfere with that of the hind legs. The gait will be short and clipped, not the roomy ground covering gait
so typical of the breed. A dog with a short upper arm will tire more quickly than one with an upper arm of correct length and set. Pasterns that are excessively angulated ( > 30 ° ) will be weak, and will make the dog prone to injury at the fetlock. Pasterns that are too steep ( < 20 °) will be stiff; making the motion appear rigid,
and make the dog prone to injury at the elbow and shoulder. The opinion is that the pastern angle should be between 20 ° and 27 °. This provides the best shock
absorption without danger of injury to the fetlock. The wither should be of good length and flow well back so that the neck joins the back smoothly and with a gentle curve. The wither is formed from the spinal
tip for the first three dorsal vertebrae and should brotrude about 1" above the top edge of the shoulder blade. The Shepherd should have a practically horizontal back
when gaiting. THE HINDQUARTERS
The hindquarter ideally occupy 1/3 of the total standing area. It comprises the croup, hindquarters and tail. The standard calls for a lower thigh
(stifle), only slightly longer than the upper thigh. The croup should slope at an angle of 23° from the horizontal line along the back. The correct croup is smoothly
molded and is hardly discernable, it forms part of the one unbroken line from ear tip to tail tip. A flat croup will result in a high tail set, where as a steep croup
will make the dog appear to fall away behind. A steep croup will cause the hind legs to clip the front legs as well as cause the dog to place his hocks on the ground while trotting The Croup is long and gently curving down to the tail (23°) without disrupting the flowing top line. The Ileum and the sacrum form the skeletal basis of the croup.
Short, steep, or flat croups are undesirable. Hindlegs: The thigh should be broad and well muscled. Viewed from the side, the upper thigh should slope to the slighly lower thigh bone.
The angulation should correspond approximataely from the front angulation without being over angulated. The hock is strong, and together with the stifle bone, should
form a firm hock joint. The hindquarters overall must be strong and well muscled, to enable the effortless forward propulsion of the whole body. Any tendency toward over
angualtion of the hindquarters reduces firmness and endurance. In the stacked or show stance, the hindquarters form a set of parallel lines. On the forward leg, the upper thigh is postioned at a 90° to the pelvis;
the angle between the upper thigh and the stifle is 90° the angle formed by the stifle and the hock joint is also 90°. On the rear leg, the upper thigh and the hock
are parallel and perpendicular to the ground and the stifles parallel to the croup. Should the stifle be long, as in the case of many over angualted dogs, the angle between the stifle and the hock is reduced by more than 5° to as much as 30° in extreme cases.
This will cause the hock to lay flat on the ground. It will aslo require the animal to look over stretched int his position in order to make the proper angle between the stifle and the upper thigh on the rear leg.
The incorrect angulation will usually be associated with poorly set croups. The dog with the long stifles will be painful to watch move; they drive hard with the hind legs that five little forward impulsion.
Some breeders specializing in AKC show ring type GSDs have bred this problem into their dogs, because the judges have rewarded it. This is
because the national breed clubs associated with the AKC have allowed the show judges to get away with it. Tail: The tail is bushy-haired, should reach at least to the hock joint, the ideal length being to the middle of the hock bones.
The end is sometimes turned sideways with a slight hook; this is allowed but not desired. When at rest, the tail should
hang in a slight curve like a saber. When moving, it is raised and the curve is increased, but ideally it should not be higher than the level of the back.
A tail that is too short, rolled or curled, or generally carried badly or which is stumpy from birth is faulty. FEET
The feet are rounded toes, well closed and arched. Pads should be well cushioned and durable and nails short, strong and dark in color.
Dew claws are sometimes found on rear legs and should be removed at birth.
The GSD is a trotting dog. His sequence of steps therefore follows a diagonal pattern in that he always moves the foreleg, and the opposite
hind leg forward at the same time. To achieve this, his limbs mut be in such balance, one to the other, so that he can thrust the hind foot well
forward to the midpoint of the body and has an equally long reach with the forefoot, without any noticeable change in the back motion. In
movement the upper arm should extend to a 60° angle forward of the vertical and the foot should extend to a point directly under the tip of the nose.
This motion should be made with neither any twisting of the front leg at the elbow, nor any arching motion so that it appears as though the front legs would cross
each other at the maximum extension. The hind legs should create a hard driving push from which all of the other motion derives and finishes their
motion, without any rearward flip of hocks.
The correct proportion of height to corresponding length of limb will produce a ground covering stride that travels flat over the ground, giving the impression
of effortless movement. With his head thrust forward and slightly raised tail, a balanced and even trotter displays a flowing line running from the tip of his ears,
over the neck and back, down to the tip of the tail. The gait should be supple and smooth, long reaching to carry the body with the minimum of up and down motion,
entirely free from stiltiness.
DISQUALIFYING FAULTS
An interesting site "Canine Medical Information, Part II" with good information and links referencing the subject. To search for other related sites, just type in related word lists and hit the search button.
Contact
Brief History of the GSD
Haus Drachë HomePage
Member GSD Rescue
Pet Books
Links
Gift Shop
Health Links
e-mail
Copyright © 1998 This site designed and maintained by Jhrdwyn.
All rights reserved.