Patrick, the last dog to be named Grand Victor at an GSDCA/AKC Best of Breed show and have a working title "LISTED" in his entrance name was Arno v.d. Kurpfalzhalle. His listed entrance name was Ch. Arno v.d. Kurpfalzhalle, SchHII. That was 1969. If you look at the Victor/Victrix winners going back from 1969 almost every single dog has a working title. (PHs, SchHs, etc.) The breeders/showers of the German Shepherd Dogs in America were quite familiar with working dogs. They patterned the American dogs after the German Seigers. And in a few years the winners of the titles, Seiger and Victor, were the same dog. Or, they were first Seigers in Germany and then Victors in America. The American lines could work because there was little distinction from the German lines.
A very popular way to win in America was to import great German dogs. You could get the dog of the plane and go right to show, and win.
Now the decline of the working ability, health, temperment, and original conformation began as the German Shepherd Dog became increasingly more popular in the US. That is where you see problems in any breed. Mass overbreeding, no controls of working ability in American shows, and a slow divergence of the two show lines, American and German. That is how the American Show Shepherd was formed.
The American Kennels that did train for Schutzhund or Police/Military work began to become more obscured by the huge numbers of show kennels. These few German Shepherd Dog people continued to run their kennels the same way as before. Import great dogs, breed a few generations out of them, and again, import great dogs. All the working line breeders in American now, still use that formula, because they know that as soon as the consistant breeding for only conformation began, the American Show lines were dead. This happened gradually from the 1970's to now.
As more and more Americans began breeding and showing the GSD without any type of temperment test (Like use of Schutzhund in the SV.) the working ability of the dogs disappears. Then you also have the problem of the Fancy.
The upper class American dog fancy had a direct hand in killing the German Shepherd Dog in American lines. The general belief of these people was that a dog was to be looked at, and shown off. It was a show piece in the home, in essence a very pretty pet. That is also where you see the continued divergence in conformation. The American show's became more and more competitive due to the increasing numbers of dogs being entered. Judges could be more discriminating in their selections. That is basically what went wrong. More extreme dogs that, in the Fancy's mind, exemplified the standard won the shows. Now everybody, each year has a more extreme version of the ASD to breed for. Angulation, the "flying trot", refinement of bone(slight of bone, weak of bone), decline of other colors (uniformity of the most handsome color, in their minds), and total disregard for working temperment. Not only disregard for working temperment, but extreme prejudice against it. Americans, Fanciers, show breeders, and the AKC want(wanted) pets. Dogs that under no circumstances have any level of inherited aggression, sharpness, or drive. This stems from a complete lack of interest, knowledge, or ability to train in any of the working disciplines. This was not always the case, and their continues to be a handful of working dog people in the United States. Most of them are in police, military, search and rescue, or schutzhund. (Schutzhund started to spread in the late 1970's) Before that time there were only pockets of civilian trainers that did guard work or Schutzhund. Most of these people were either German or Eastern European imigrants. Very few of the American's that knew anything about schutzhund or police training had the resources available here in America to continue breeding German Show dogs or Working lines. No SV. So, interest waned among the great working kennels. Cosalta Farms, Hessian Farms, Ruthland, Northmere, Shereston all have fadden away, or do not breed/import for work now.
Then on top of the growing popularity of the American German Shepherd in shows you have problems with politics, personalities, breed clubs, the AKC, rules and regulations, blah, blah, blah. . .
There could be sets of books written that explain the whole fiasco.
The German Shepherd Dog has been taken in, at least, three directions by three different groups of people. I think all of whom want different things. If American Show breeders really wanted good temperments or working ability they could go out there and find it, but they don't want to. Schutzhund and Police/Military training have been around. You just had to want to look.
No, I have never seen a good working American Show Shepherd. I was born in the 1970's.
Hi there Beth, how's it going? Did you read my last big post in the other discussion we were having?
Anyway, is there anybody else that can help me with this topic? I think I have the basic stuff that happened. I don't know it all, or very many specific details. Are there people that have been in GSDs for more than 20 years here that can shed some more light on it.
Lets say, anybody that has been interested in Schutzhund since 1974, or been a breeder of GSDs for more than 260 litters? <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/laugh.gif" alt="" />
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