A big thanks to Jolynn @ Briairwood German Shepherds for compiling many of these pictures .....

Lanes or Asuperior shepherd -german shepherds in CA has also copied this page verbatum- I think the man really needs to pay for useing all of my hard work! He of course does not give me or Jolynn Credit for doing this page FOR HIM! I have once again done hundreds of hours of work writing ,compiling information and organizing pages to have them copied with no credit given .Anyway with that said please feel free to forward this page it is very good for people to understand what has happened to the great german shepherd. You can even copy just give me credit thankyou.

another great video that says it all about show dogs- notice the winner of the show is a 100 % german import- who is also a frog shepherd- they are NOT doing a better job.

Shepherd or frog dog

ALL PHOTO's ARE OBTAINED FROM PUBLIC SOURCES

German Shepherds from Past to Present

The illustrations below represent the sad state of German Shepherds of today (new lines). In the show ring today, both German & American, you will be shocked when you see the final pictures compared to the dogs in the 40's & 50's.

German show lines (German Seigers and VA dogs)are compared first, American show lines follow. The illistration below is what a shepherd should look like!

Early 1970's

Mid to late 1970's

The 1980's You can see the angulation increase an the shoulder becomeing higher then the hind end .

The 1990's Here the roach back really increases no dog in the wild would look like this.. Wolves and wild dogs have

straight back and hocks .

The 2000's

This Top VA champion German dogs topline and angulation is extreme notice the back hock touching the ground and notice his front feet the touch each other his chest must be very narrow in the front.

Now be shocked! The 1947 Sieger next to the 2003 Sieger & the VA 2 dog! And some say the Germans are doing a better job than the Americans? Not in my opinion!

` 1947 Seiger 2003 seiger VA 2 very extreme Notice the roach back or banana back, low slung hip placement and much more extreme hock angulation. Notice the level back and smooth, sound conformation of the 1947 winner. The Germans like to say they are doing a better job then the American style breeders? I don't think so.. and don't get me started about temperament that makes a great schutzhund dog , for most families does not make agreat family dog.

below 2004- 2007 seigers and va dogs they are getting worse I think, these dogs are looking crippled...

2012 when they move you can see how roached some of these dogs are stretched in pose although bad it makes the back look a little better.

I am also seeing female style heads in some of the german show lines now to the same that happened to show dog males on the american side this heavy line breeding may be the cause

This letter is from and old german- man that hates what he see's know I have deleted his name so he won't get the nasty emails I do..

Yes, I can confirm that. The breed which my dogs belonged to was dubbed "GDR shepherds" in Hungary, referring to their East German origin. (They were also called "Kántor"-type, after a famous Hungarian police dog in the 1950s.) Those small sized fashion-shepherds were bred in West Germany and were not really popular in East Europe for their small size, weaker physical abilities and severe inherited diseases, dysplasia on the first place. Not mentioning their price. Today's shepherds are generally a cross-breed of those GDR dogs and Western fashion dogs. They are quite sturdy and nice dogs, but still not the real shepherds they used to be. An interesting offspring of German Shepherds is the "Czechoslovak vlcak", a cross-breed of shepherds and wild wolves from the Czech mountains.

Thanks you need to respond to the german that just made comments all over my page i was trying to tell her the germans used to be bigger there I will forward the comments page she ranted on...
On Mar 11, 2010, at 4:35 PM, ****

Hi!

Being nostalgic about a beautiful German Shepherd couple I used to have some years ago I came across your website. Man, it brought tears in my eyes as these kind of shepherds are almost extinct in Europe. Congratulations on your kennel. Some of them are exactly like my ones were - the male was 145 pounds and the female was around 120. Well, thank you for letting me see some real shepherds again. :)

regards
*****from Hungary
former breeder and trainer

ALOT of People try to say the old fashioned shepherd was smaller I am sure some were but most were much bigger then the dogs today in the show pictures you can visably see these dogs getting smaller as the years pass BY!!!

HERE is a photo from 1939 !!

I would bet many of these dogs are at least 30 " tall and over 100 lbs

and one cleary from the 1950's male and female both are LARGE!

.

,, war dog ww1

American show line change below!

1940's

1950-1960's

Late 60's early 70's

2001 and up

1959 American Show Grand Victor: A BIG,(! would guess 29" and 120lbs) a beautiful dog, straight-backed, normal hock angulation... then compair to todays standards, Wow! What a difference! No roach, but low slung hips with extreme hind angulation, chest hangs below elbows and a much smaller dog as well.

1959 champ 2003 champ

American show dogs for 2007 are getting a bit better I think still. They are very narrow when looked at front on and have a tendancey to have bat ears. I really like the black and tan in the middle look at the solid round feet and good bone, (less angulation) but his head looks like a females not a male other then that I am likeing what I see better..

Royalair FEMALE german shepherds side views

,,

Above photos are my foundation girls zoey, emma and brandy pictured from the side

Working line German Shepherds

German shepherds of working German lines, those with little or no show lines still seem very normal and old fashioned in appearence, temperament of these dogs is probably high energy and more aggressive then old line shepherds but with the right control they are probably more stable then the show lines in many ways .....These are the dogs that are police dogs... breeders of these dogs in my opinion are doing a good job of breeding dogs that can be used by law enforcement and other agencies.... My dogs being bred for the family in most cases would be to "soft" to make a good police dog...

these working dog photo's "solid sturdy conformations"

Below are wolves & natural selection for them has selected, a straight back and a lighter eye wide head with a large heavy backskull (not a narrow colly head)also a wider front front legs do not touch because the chest is so narrow these are very skinny dogs so picture them with more weight and you have the look of the oldstyle shepherds a varity of colors too!

wild dogs -not wolves are the ancestors of modern day dogs You see the same conformation style as the wolves though -straight back, wide heads ,solid feet and strong back skulls, and tight round feet. Also notice in wild dogs and wolves natural selection does not select chests that hange below the elbows, nor do they select roach backs ,extreme hind end angulation or pidgeon toed feet- many wolves are large , weighing well over 130 lbs very lean...most have very light colored eyes. and the show ring almost always wants eyes as dark as possible. are we also breeding dogs to see porely to since nature selects light eyes in K9's? Many other breeders like to say big shepherds don't live as long. But the north amaerican wolf in the wild weighs an average of 130 lbs and Russian wolves average 33" tall and weigh and average of 145 lbs the biggest shot weighed 175 lbs And they say large size means less healthy ?? if nature selects it how can it be less healthy? and they are averaging 14-20 years of age in captivity. But the much smaller fox lives 5-8 years in captivity ? and they weight less then 10 lbs...and live shorter life spans ! When I bred smaller shepherds the average age was much less them my old line shepherds, I never got one german line to live past ten and they were so hyper./nervous. they just burned them selves out quicker and the hip rateings were mostly fair's with a few goods, and still produced much more HD... now I have lots of OFA excellents! and both my 125 lbs males are rated excellent by OFA on hips with normal elbows -against other german shepherds. I have had far less porblems , longer lives,.so to all you neigh sayers that say bigger is less healthy I believe you are wrong not within the german shepherd breed anyway. (small breeds of dogs live longer then large breeds of dogs in general ) I am speaking within individuals of the same breed. It's the lines, not the size! I have come to believe the higher energy the individual the shorter the lifespan . but that is just my thoery. I feel a nervous,hyper or high energy shepherd may burn out quicker.

a northern russian wolf averages 33" tall and weighs a lean 145-175 lbs and averages 14-20 years old in captivity northern wolf this animal has got to be at least 34" and 150 lbs or more

This Grey wolf was shot in Canada according to the photo I hate to show a photo of a dead wolf but it does illistate that a big dog often living to 20 years in captivity is often longer lived then the smaller wolves..lived... My mother raised newfy's for years a Giant breed and seldom did they pass on before 13 years alot of the shorter life span of the dogs today have to do with bloodstream insecticides and over vaccination (dog food full of BH corn) and early sapy and nueter (I believe)It is a proven fact that a spayed female will live an average of two years less then her unspayed or later spayed (after two years of age) littermates..

More photo's of wild K9's below all have a straight back!