We have a Breed Standard that tells us what a German Shepherd Dog is and
what it should look
like! The Breed Standard IS our German Shepherd Dog blueprint.
You can take a Dwarf GSD ( the DNA is there ) and breed to another Dwarf
or a GSD with down
ears and terribly undershot jaw ....straight shoulder and rear...with round
shallow ribbing and slick
coat to a Dwarf... or some other incorrect anomaly... and develop and
entirely new dog type within
a generation or two. YET....while continuing the breeding of 'something
wrong to something wrong'
( according to our GSD Standard ) and establishing an entirely different
dog.... you will still have the
DNA to claim it is a GSD if that is all that matters.
The DNA of a GSD goes back to many different 'non' breeds at the
beginning. It would not take that
many generations of poor breeding to bring back a dog that does not resemble
what we know to be the
GSD...according to our Breed Standard.
That 'new dog' might still do all the work, be easily trained and earn all
kinds of degrees and compete
in agility, Obedience, etc. with a great trainer.... even win High Scoring
Dog In Trial....and ...even if
there is no remote resemblance to our Breed as we know it... if we choose,
we could blindly continue
to refer to it as a German Shepherd Dog because of DNA...likely the same DNA
that started a few
other Breeds.
We either take the Breed Standard seriously ........or we do not....??
Carolyn marhaven@xxxxxxxxxxxxxx
www.marhaven.com
From: showgsd-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx [mailto:showgsd-l-bounce@xxxxxxxxxxxxx]
On Behalf Of Redacted sender "ELG440" for DMARC
Sent: Friday, March 04, 2016 7:49 AM
To: Showgsd-l@xxxxxxxxxxxxx
Subject: [ SHOWGSD-L ] The real question
The question is, "WHAT IS A GERMAN SHEPHERD?"
Each of us has to answer that question. If it is a dog that has the DNA that
Von Stephanitz decided to call a German shepherd, then it is a German
shepherd. That is what he decided when he made a new breed, and we decided
to accept his new combination and standard.
If it is just what you think the dog should look like, then that is what a
German shepherd is, in your opinion.
Certainly today Von Stephanitz would not recognize our dogs as what he
intended to establish. But, that is genetically what we did with what he
started.
It is a personal decision since there is no one in power over you who can
make you decide.
I guess I will share my opinion. Not that it has any value for anyone else.
To me, a German shepherd is a dog with the genetics of a German shepherd.
Only to me, it is not about color, hanging ears, yellow eyes, or short
tails. It is the genes in the dog that do it for me.
That's all I am going to say about that.
Evan
I think you have to take into account that when Von S. Said those words,
nothing was known about DNA, genomes etc. only what the eye could see. We
now know white does not cause paling etc. Do we always follow what was
written so many years ago? If we did where would we be with medicine.
Anne, GA
Sent from Anne's iPad
On Mar 4, 2016, at 11:27 AM, Theresa-GSD Yesko (Redacted sender
"scenecrest.geo" for DMARC) <dmarc-noreply@xxxxxxxxxxxxx> wrote:
Evan since you mentioned...
Captain Max von Stephanitz, 1864-1936
As written by Stephanitz in his book written in Germany...
"Although I stated in the first chapter that a dog's colour is without any
significance from the point of view of work, when judging him it cannot be
completely disregarded. However, the judge should not be influenced by any
artistic consideration but by the fact that a clear and strong colouring
points to a healthy and hardy physical condition of the dog. Any decline in
the strength of the original colour, called fading, is at the same time an
urgent warning of physical weakness and lack of power resistance, especially
towards diseases. Whilst an intensification of dark colour is, first and
foremost the outcome of selective breeding, paling is mostly a sign of wrong
breeding or overbreeding. For this reason the bearers of such colours must
be considered less suitable for breeding purposes. With dogs, however, who
have been bred to white colour, where the pigmentation has been retained by
the skin, it is not a sign of paling
but of breed. This, however, applied only to other breeds: for
shepherd-dogs, both smooth and rough haired, white is forbidden and only
allowed for shaggy haired ones as the descendants of the old sheep dogs bred
for white."
Theresa
scenecrest.geo@xxxxxxxxx
