The founder of the German Shepherd Dog breed, Captain Max Von Stephanitz, aimed for a breed of Shepherd Dog that was a utility dog with outstanding intelligence. He considered beauty as secondary to intelligence, temperament and structural efficiency. He also stated that there was no bad colour for a good dog. The traditional early Shepherd Dogs' colours varied, and included white, cream, brindle, sable, blue and black. Coat lengths and textures varied from short to wire and long coats.

Roach backs and extreme angulation were considered as highly undesirable.

Unfortunately today, bloodlines are being limited with the breeding mainly for black and tan or sable dogs.

Show breeders often make the mistake of breeding from bloodlines that do well in the Show ring. This restricts the gene pool to dogs which are being bred for fashion, and not for the best temperament, health, structure or intelligence.

The foundation German Shepherds were long-legged and leaner and squarer than the dogs we see today. Although Von Stephanitz bred to produce dogs with shorter legs and some angulation of the hindquarters, he would no doubt be horrified with the current trend to breed extremely angulated dogs which often have wobbly back ends and no stamina. These poor creatures can hardly stand, let alone fulfil the requirements of a working  dog.

Although the majority of the dogs in today's show ring have been ruined by the breeding of roach-backed dogs with extreme angulation, if breeders start to breed the best of their dogs to white or black German Shepherds, which on the whole retain the original German Shepherd Dog shape, we would be sure to see structural improvement in the future.

We would like German Shepherd breeders to find alternatives to the killing (euphemistically referred to as 'culling', but it has the same effect on the puppy!) of pups which don't conform to the latest Show-ring fad. These are probably the dogs that should be bred from. Fads come and go but a soundly structured dog with an excellent temperament should always be the best choice for breeding, regardless of colour or coat length.

The German Shepherd Dog Breed Standard, as regards to colour, should be changed to encourage the breeding of any coloured dogs that are good German Shepherd Dog types and which can perform the tasks for which they are bred. A good breeding dog should fulfil the requirements of temperament, intelligence and structure, and colour or coat length should not be an issue.

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