LOL, Carolyn, but you are preaching to the choir. My point is not to disagree...but to share the viewpoint of the majority of the public (in spite of people who get calls from people looking for American style...I'm speaking of the majority...of John Q Public) and of many judges and people in other breeds. ` We can all continue to ignore this perception of the breed as we like it, and say "well, I don't show at the all breeds," while specialty entries continue to dwindle, and clubs fall by the wayside, and new people don't come into the breed, OR we can set about educating OURSELVES on how to dispel this idea...WE KNOW our dogs are as good as any and better than many...but we need to know how to answer these people. The judge who asked the question, who is very open to discussion and learning, is going to be applying to judge the breed, obviously...shall we leave her to her idea that our style of dog is wrong and just not show to her, or the others who think this way, or teach them...convert them, if you will? I think we should try to convert them...get them to realize why we pose our dogs as we do; why they move as they do; why we want them this way...and not blame it on the better press from the German side...for so many years now, we have had (as a fancy) the attitude that the all breed rings don't matter, that only specialty wins count, and guess what? That's not true. SOME people who come from other breeds have a lot to offer...but if we don't teach them, we can just go on our merry way, waiting for specialty wins (provided you can find a handler, because heaven knows most of us can't compete with our own dogs)--the dog fancy is changing, and not for the better...entries are falling off...just in the GSD world, we've bemoaned the lack of handlers, the lack of new people, and the loss of clubs and how hard it is to get majors.........we have to do something....HOW are we going to get to these people? Peggy Carolyn wrote: > Those "BLANKET STATEMENTS" that come from those with the German > lines are what is > causing the public perception of the American Bred dogs having > problems... > and > Tell them they ARE pets because they don't have the slope.....they > don't need to worry....<G> > > > ============================================================================ POST is Copyrighted 2006. All material remains the property of the original author and of GSD Communication, Inc. NO REPRODUCTIONS or FORWARDS of any kind are permitted without prior permission of the original author AND of the Showgsd-l Management. ALL RIGHTS RESERVED. ALL PERSONS ARE ON NOTICE THAT THE FORWARDING, REPRODUCTION OR USE IN ANY MANNER OF ANY MATERIAL WHICH APPEARS ON SHOWGSD-L WITHOUT THE EXPRESS PERMISSION OF ALL PARTIES TO THE POST AND THE LIST MANAGEMENT IS EXPRESSLY FORBIDDEN, AND IS A VIOLATION OF LAW. VIOLATORS OF THIS PROHIBITION WILL BE PROSECUTED. For assistance, please contact the List Management at admin@xxxxxxxxxxxx VISIT OUR WEBSITE - URL temporarily deleted due to AOL issues ============================================================================