Irreconcilable Differences
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In the latter 1990s the German Shepherd was at an unprecedented, globe spanning pinnacle in terms of prosperity, popularity and prestige. Yet a quarter century later we find the breed in collapse, on the verge of irrelevance. How can this be?
Although there are several diverse factors driving this decline—including burgeoning disillusion with of the purebred paradigm—the predominant causative factor is the ongoing cleavage of the House of von Stephanitz into the foundation police working lines on the one hand and the increasingly effete conformation show lines on the other. In order to comprehend this on a practical level it is necessary to have a good understanding of the characteristic differences in terms of function, moral attributes and appearance.
To this end the above renderings of contemporary show and working type have been created by Louis Donald, a well-known and respected Australian judge and advocate. These images are not photos of actual dogs but renderings of ideal type as conceived and created by Mr. Donald. (This is an entirely legitimate use of artificial intelligence.)
The image on the left is from a painting created to represent the physical ideal according to the standard. Unfortunately dogs winning in the SV show ring today tend to be much more extreme.
In my view the rendering of working type on the right is spot on, exactly what every German Shepherd should look like. Though primarily involved in conformation affairs Mr. Donald is to be commended for taking the trouble to understand and faithfully render the collective vision of German Shepherd type as seen through the eyes of the working community.
As for the dog on the left, the problem for me is that is not even really a German Shepherd, exemplifies everything that has gone wrong in the show ring over the past half century.
Over the decades the conventional wisdom has been that this crisis must be resolved by the reunification of working and show lines into one truly comprehensive and uniform type. Yet in spite of these noble sentiments the chasm has incessantly widened.
The inherent problem with trying to turn the clock back half a century is the impossibility of resurrecting a common genetic pool that would even begin to work for either side; the fundamental problem not being that we have de facto created two breeds but rather that we have become so divergent that we cannot begin to comprehend the mores and ideals of the other side, that real dialog is impossible when we cannot get beyond talking past each other.
A particularly pertinent example of this is the banning of the IPO stick hits by the FCI. for most of the show folks this is no big deal, something that we should easily compromise on by accepting. But for the hardcore working community this is finally the hill worth dying on, the point of no return.
These are inherently irreconcilable differences.
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SV Power Corrupts
Supreme Authority of the Canine World
Canine Discipline in the Animal Rights Era
Orginizations and Conflicts
German Shepherd History
GSD Police Dog Heritage Repudiated by SV
SV Abandons Schutzhund as Breeding Prerequisite
World Unions Rising
AWDF, Stillborn American Elite
Legacy Lost, the Other Breeds
The Americans
Style and Opinion Sports
Has Sport Subverted the Trial?
How We Play the Game
Commercialization of Schutzhund
The Mother State
Glossary