Once Fit for Function

The modern show ring German Shepherd can barely walk, much less leap over fences. In fact, the American German Shepherd stock is so unfit for function that the U.S. Secret Service will not have them!
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Missing the Real Story of the German Shepherd

Author Susan Orlean has written a piece about German Shepherds for The New York Times, but the piece glosses over one of the important reasons the German Shepherd has gone into the shitter.

She blames puppy mills and popularity, not contrived Kennel Club conformation standards and judging, or the failure of the Kennel Club to mandate performance standards to win a championship, or the inbreeding required when a small pool of dogs is brought into a closed registry system. 

Having presented us with a half-baked cake, Ms. Orlean proceeds to ice it with a little sugary froth:

"Bad breeding is bad for everyone, and in recent years the American Kennel Club, among other organizations, has done its best to discourage it, and to encourage adoption from shelters, which have, unfortunately, an oversupply of abandoned purebred dogs."

What? Nonsense!

The AKC is fully in bed with the puppy mills and pet shops, and even cranks out special registration deals for them.

And the American Kennel Club is encouraging people to adopt shelter dogs? Nonsense again!  The Kennel Club is only encouraging people to buy dogs they can make money off of, and those are registered dogs from anywhere (including and especially pet shops and puppy mills), not the mutts and dogs without papers to be found down at the pound.

The back story here is that we have one more author who has written a book (this time about Rin Tin Tin, see end note to this piece), and she no doubt hopes for a little plumping from the AKC and/or dedicated German Shepherd owners.

At the very least she does not want to piss them off by telling the truth, which is that this breed was destroyed by Kennel Club pretenders and their show ring affectations. 

Now, here's the ironic part:  Ms. Orlean has made the same Deal with the Devil that nearly everyone does in the world of dogs.

Book authors do not want to park the blame for deformity in front of the Kennel Club's bizarre standards and judging protocols for fear it will hurt book sales.  

Veterinarians do not want to park the the blame for disease in front of the Kennel Club's closed bizarre breeding pool requirement for fear it will curtail business.

Dog trainers do not want to park the blame for dysfunction in front of the Kennel Club's bizarre rejection of performance metrics for fear it will discourage referrals.

And what is the result? 

The result is the lie that pedigree dogs are in trouble because of puppy mills or "backyard breeder."

In fact, pedigree dogs are in trouble because authors, breeders, veterinarians and dog trainers are loathe to tell the truth!  

Instead of parking the blame where it needs to be parked, they whistle past the problem.

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End note added three weeks later:  The book is not the oped .  The book is better than fine, and does not stray on to the cracked ice that the op-ed does.  Susan Orlean's book is written a straight forward account of what happened to the original Rin Tin Tin and the replacesment and bogus ones that followed.  It is an interesting tale worth the read!  Buy the book, skip the op-ed!
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• Related Links:
  ** Let's Do to Horses What We Did to Shepherds
  ** The AKC Helps Sell Puppy Mill Dogs for Petland
  ** The Wrecked German Shepherds of Crufts
  ** A Battle of Britain in Which the Germans Must Win
  ** The G in GSD Stands for Gimp
  ** Shitzhund Work at the AKC
  ** The Beam in the Eye of Kennel Club Breeders
  ** Making and Breaking Dogs In the Show Ring
  ** All at Sea at the AKC
  **  A Short History of Dog Training

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German Shepherd Video From 1925

German Shepherds are described as "Alsatian police dogs," in this British Pathé clip from 1925. 

Ascribing the origin of these dogs to Alsace was common after World War I and prior to the late 1950s due to prejudice against Germany brought by two World Wars.

In fact, the dog was actually created (or should I say bought for cash?) near Grafrath, Bavaria by Max von Stephanitz.

In the clip these dogs are said to "exhibit almost uncanny skill in 'speaking, tracking and holding' their quarry in 2nd Annual Trials, Crystal Palace, London." 

Notice how these top German Shepherds are lighter than most modern versions, and that they also have spines that are parallel with the ground.   This is the dog envisioned by Max von Stephanitz; not the half-frog mutants we see in the show ring today.

For other videos of working German Shepherds of the period, see this 1925 clip describing the dog as "the Acme of Canine Intelligence". 

The absolute best video, however, is of the Wonder Dog 'Wolf" who dives through some amazingly small hoops and leaps over school children as well. 

Finally, we get to see a picture of a 1925 Alsatian being sent to the North Pole for some sort of expedition. 

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The Battle of Britain for the German Shepherd

I was not much impressed by the British Kennel Club's minor changes to breed standards following the showing of Pedigree Dogs Exposed in August of 2008.

I was even less impressed with Kennel Club spokesperson Caroline Kisko, who repeatedly lied to the press about the degree of dysfunction in Kennel Club dogs. For the record, she continues to lie on this point.

But does this mean it is all window dressing and rot?

Perhaps not. We shall see.

The news this morning is that the U.K. Kennel Club has sharpened their message to the show ring German Shepherd community.

A vocal minority in the GSD community seems to continue to attempt to distract attention from the Kennel Club’s main concerns about the soundness of the German Shepherd Dog breed. The Kennel Club remains in no doubt that currently the single biggest threat to the reputation and interest of the breed is the lack of soundness in hindquarters, particularly the hocks.

The presence of this unsoundness in GSDs is generally recognised by most people in dogs except by some with vested interests in the GSD breed who steadfastly refuse to acknowledge that there is a problem in this area. The Kennel Club remains frustrated that something so patently obvious to many dog people - even those with a limited knowledge of dogs - is being ignored and denied by some people in the breed. Indeed the recent Bateson Inquiry singled out the GSD as an example of a breed ‘where drastic action is required’ to address conformation and movement.

The GSD community has commendably introduced a number of valuable voluntary health testing schemes addressing issues such as haemophilia, hip dysplasia and others. The Kennel Club has supported this voluntary testing and will continue to support all responsible breeders who put the health of their animals first. These tests are undeniably important, but crucially they do not address the most important current issue – lack of soundness in the hindquarters and hocks.

Furthermore, the GSD Partnership has repeatedly claimed that the Kennel Club is not accepting its proposed Breed Improvement Programme and its requests that the Programme forms the basis of a mandatory requirement for showing and breeding. The fact remains that no part of the proposed Programme acknowledges, let alone addresses, the issue of soundness in the hindquarters and hocks.

What happens next?

Time will tell.

A Kennel Club that is all bark and no bite cannot hope to defend dogs against bizzare standards, inflated egos, and contrived histories.

The Kennel Club needs to be willing to show it will put in the teeth for the health of the dog.

The German Shepherd is as good a breed as any on which to make that point.

That said it would be wrong to over-state where we are right now. A movement towards real change starts with a single step, but a single step does not a journey make.

Where is all this going? We shall see, we shall see ....

But is there a small hint of hope? Yes, there is. Let us applaud that!
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