I was wondering if any of you can give me an approximate size for a Czech dog. I have an 8 1/2 month old bitch that's 3/4 czech and 1/4 west german. She seems small to me. She's 21" and a fit 47 pounds. This is my first experience with a true working GSD. I am a professional dog trainer for personal pets. Most of what I see are the large showline or german imports. I have many pictures of her with 5, 6, 7 month old GSD pups that are in for training that are so much bigger than her!

I'm not complaining by any means, I love my little girl. I can do far more with her than I ever could with a larger GSD. I was just wondering if this is a normal size range for the Czech dogs. Her father, a full czech, was smaller than the dam. I did not see him in person.

Thanks for any insight you can give me.

Every dog will vary. Art Lavely has a giant moose of a Czech dog, and I have a small male showline GSD, and a very small 37lb adult female Dutch Shepherd, even though her father and male littermates were ALOT bigger.

21" sounds about right for a female pup.

-Be happy with a medium size dog.

Having a large GSD is interesting and fun to a point, but the shepherd dog should not be a large, blocky dog. It should be medium size and wiry like a live wire, a true working dog. When a dog is too big, the working ability of the dog tends to diminish. The German Shepherd dog is and always should be a working dog, not a show dog. Anything that takes away from that is not true to the standard.

I also have a 53# & 24" at the withers Czech Female and she is a great dog with a ton of energy and can run circles around my big male. If I had sheep, she would herd them all day long. She just flat out wears my male down because he is so big and gets tired easily. I think that she is what the breed was intended to be more so than the blocky Czech/DDR dogs that I love the look of so much.

Try and find that blocky look in Stephanitz's book "The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture" and you will be surprised how wiry the original foundation dogs were. Look and you will see how different than most of the dogs being produced today.

Then again, it is fun to see a big GSD take helpers down on the escape and courage test!

Let's not confuse a "herding dog" with a shepherd...not the same
German Shepherds were not meant to run circles around sheeps but bred to be courageous and not afraid to protect, watch over the "shepherd" and the "sheeps".
http://www.casaguidolin.it/razza_en.html

I like the big shepherds myself but I also like the medium size too. I have a pretty stocky female that looks great on the field, she looks like and acts like a male during protection. We have a very small Czech female in our club that is soooo fast and crazy , she is fun to watch. I would not get too worry about your female size..

Angelique,
You're right that the GSD was never designed to be a Boarder Collie. They were however bred to be herders, not just protectors or some kind of portable fence. Their natural easy gait everybody falls in love with, and with disastrous results in the last few decades tried to be improved on, is tireless allowing for an all days work. Be it moving sheep or patroling boarders. In fact most of what us GSD owners do these days is redirect that restless energy to something more in line for todays world. I disagree, they were bred as sheep herders (movers) as well as protectors if the need arose.
To the op, my ScH. club has a Czech breeder as the host for the weekly gathering. I've seen more then a couple of her dogs perform on the field. Two of them the same small stature you spoke of, very impressive dogs both of them. And very fast! Yes I'd have to say the Czech lines do have some smaller examples as an exception but they are no less impressive! What gems!

Never judge a book by it's cover.
Randy

Edited by randy allen (12/25/2007 06:31 PM)
Edit reason: contradiction in terms

Angelique my friend, let me help you a little bit on this one though. They were bred to do it ALL!

Stephanitz Quote:

"There is no doubt that the genuine and most noble vocation for the shepherd dog is tending flocks......"

Of course, we use them today for a lot more than herding.

Rebecca, my impression is that Czech dogs seem to be slightly bigger and perhaps stockier, but it's just an impression and may not be true at all of all Czech GSDs. Whether bigger or not, I'm a firm believer in sticking with the standard and not breeding for larger sizes. Keep it simple, keep it clean.

Here's a growth chart - simply a guide to the growth of a GSD broken down by months, not written in stone. Although just a guide, it still holds an end of growth standard that breeders shouldn't deliberately break away from, whether they be Czech, DDR, West German, or American lines: http://www.nwk9.com/weight_height.htm

According to the chart, Rebecca's pup seems to be within the standard for a GSD, whether Czech or otherwise.

Yes Sandy,
Almost all of her dogs do seem stockier, bigger heads, and heavier boned then the West German lines. It could be just perception, but I don't think so. The two dogs I spoke of are the only ones of her crew that break the mold, so to speak. Shoot, now that you mention it I'm not even sure what those two are! I've just asumed she raised only Czechs'. Now I'm going corner my host the first chance I get and get the straight poop.
Although I bet if I were to describe the dogs you could tell me exactly what they are.
Randy

 Quote: randy allen

Now I'm going corner my host the first chance I get and get the straight poop.

Randy, I had to laugh at that statement, unintentionally got this mental image of her handing you the pooper scooper

 Quote: randy allen

Although I bet if I were to describe the dogs you could tell me exactly what they are.
Randy

It would be fun to try! As long as I don't get graded on it . Also keeping in mind that from my understanding, Czech dogs were developed from DDR lines (massive heads one of their common traits, so it's said, however I always felt the DDR lines had less massive heads than the Czech). For example, in looking back at my Czech dog's lines on the sire's side, there are DDR dogs in the lineage. But my dog's head isn't, IMO, massive, not as massive as some of the dogs in his recent lineage.

Yeah, LOL.
You don't know this gal, she's a hot ticket alright. If I ask some kind of stupid guestion like, 'Duh, what kind of dog is that', she just might give a hand full something that won't bear repeating in a family forum.
Big heads? I'd say from the photo your beautiful baby takes about what a ten and a half or ten and three quarters hat? Thats one proud head there Sandy!
Ah now, on to the mystery dogs. Their general demeanor is GSD, their gait is GSD, and their over all body ratios are to my eye GSD. AS I mentioned earlier though the stature is smallish, I'd quess perhaps 20-21 inches and maybe 60#s. What sets them apart is they are both totally jet black, with a very short (quessing at 1/4 an inch, maybe 3/8) thick coat, and I believe there is no under coat. Nice looking dog over all, and tremendous workers.
Weather permiting we meet tomorrow morning.
I'll take my scooper!
Randy