Long Hair Link


This is what they look like. Unless you can show people a picture of your dog, I don't think you are going to get a good answer to your question.

Thank you Robert! Time and time again you've come through in the clinch.I'm happy to report she looks nothing like that. Thank you for the link!
If i was computer literate enough I Would post a pic but I can assure you she doesn't look anything like those dogs. yeahhh! <img src="/ubbthreads/images/graemlins/cool.gif" alt="" />

We have always considered our pup, Tyr, to have a long coat. He is not 'short' on undercoat, in fact, he has as thick an undercoat as our Mal. He does have feathers on his legs, behind ears and a brushy tail. Rest of body hair is about 2 1/2 inches long with strong undercoat.

We had our pup in training and a gal came up to us and asked if we would consider letting her show our pup in AKC. I indicated that the pup had high drives and that we had no interest in the show ring. She explained that under AKC rules for show a longer coat is acceptable as long as it did not have the 'fault' of the undercoat lacking. She shows two other shepherds for the owners and thought that Tyr's confirmation was unusually of 'type' (whatever that means). She explained that we would not be able to neuter our pup if we agreed to show him.

We didn't purchase the pup for show and so we declined the lovely offer and neutered Tyr as he is a lot of dog to handle. But, I read Mr. VanCamps comment re: no long hair. So, this seems to be a contradiction. I did look under some other show sites and I found two other comments indicating that long hair shows up quite frequently and isn't a problem unless undercoat is missing, in which case the dog can't be shown. Can someone clarify this rule?

Just curious.

Can't get much more clear than this.


German Shepherd Dog Breed Standard


Read the bottom of the standard. . .

The pathetic bastardized AKC standard, of course not the same as the FCI/SV standard that the founding breed organization and most of the rest of the world follows, still states that any long hair at all regardless of undercoat is a fault.

Hi again, Mr. VanCamp. Thanks for the information. I looked up the AKC standard for GSD's and it reads: "Ideal: Double Coat of Medium length. Outer coat must be dense. Slightly wavy outer coat is o.k., wiry texture is permissale. Disqualifying: soft, silky, too long outer coat, no undercoat, wooly." Tyr's coat must have met the AKC standard and I'm quite sure he would meet the standard you indicated as well (I just read it). Ty's coat is heaviest on his rear end but the rest is tight to his body with a thick undercoat. Wish I could post a pic of him to get some comments, but I don't know how to do so.

I did see a dog in Tyr's class that I was told was a german shepherd. He was much larger than Tyr and looked almost like he had Collie in his background, except that we were told he was a registered GSD. His head was much narrower than Tyr's and his chest not so deep. Tyr's head is huge and his chest amazes my husband. The other dog also had severely angulated hips and Tyr has the unangulated appearance. He was, quite frankly, much easier to work with than Tyr is. Not as aggressive as Tyr and had the "happy dog" thing going with everyone. Tyr is suspicious by nature. The other GS was a very 'cute' dog without a naughty bone in his body. But, I can see why some dogs with long coats would be disqualified as he didn't really look like a shepherd and was silky smooth. I looked on the internet to see if I could find a dog that looked like him and my best guess as to his breeding was a shepherd called a Shiloh Shepherd. Looked identical.

I see that Tyr is way out of standard on his size. He is 9 mos. 1 week and is 28" at the shoulder and weighs 93 lbs. Our breeder is astounded at his size. Some kind of throwback or something. Genetics--go figure!

Thanks for the information.

If the dog has feather's behind the ears or legs at all it would be disqualified by the FCI standard. Any long hair show's the gene's presence I think.


Size would certainly disqualify him from FCI, but AKC it might not.

The coated gsd was an accepted coat at one point with the SV. In fact many of the old herding lines were coated. AKC and CKC just did not follow suit? It is not a disqualifying fault with CKC/AKC and I know some long coated gsd's that do have their Championship (if that means anything.)

On a practical side. I do herding with my dogs and would not own a true long coat that lacked the outer coat. A true long coat (with only the undercoat) is a pain to keep clean, stay clean and it gets caught on everything.

That is wrong. At no time did the SV "accept" coated dogs.


And I would challenge you to find documentation that proves they did. Prior to 1937 coated dogs were not allowed entry to the stud book, after the stud book was closed coated dogs were disqualified specifically in the updated standard. How do you call that acceptance? Yes there were dogs bred who were coated, there were dogs from normal parents that were registered. . .but the coated dogs were never accepted. I also don't believe they were allowed to show prior to the updated standard anyway, and were only to participate in performance trials.