The German Shepherd Dog
Extension of the Breed Standard
General Appearance
The immediate impression of the appearance of the German Shepherd Dog is of a dog slightly long in comparison to height, with a powerful and well-muscled body. The relation between height and length and position and symmetry of the limbs (angulation) is so inter-related as to enable a far reaching and enduring gait. The coat should be weatherproof. A beautiful appearance is desirable but this is secondary to his usefulness as a working dog. Sexual characteristics must be well defined i.e. masculinity of the males and the femininity of the female must be unmistakable.
A true to type German Shepherd Dog gives the impression of innate strength, intelligence and suppleness, with harmonious proportions and nothing either over-done or lacking. His whole manner should make it perfectly clear that he is sound in mind and body and has the physical and mental attributes to make him always ready for tireless action as a working dog.
With an abundance of vitality he must be tractable enough to adapt himself to each situation and to carry out his work willingly and with enthusiasm. He must posses the courage and determination to defend himself, his master or his masters possessions, should the need arise. He must be observant, obedient and a pleasant member of the household, quiet in his own environment, especially with children and other animals, and at ease with adults. Overall he should present a harmonious picture of innate nobility, alertness and self-confidence.
Comment: The standard gives a far clearer mind's eye picture of the German Shephed Dog, and it is summarised very well in the last sentence
he should present an harmonious picture of innate nobility, alertness and self-confidence".
Characteristics The main characteristics of the German Shepherd Dog are: steadiness of nerves, attentiveness, loyalty, calm self-assurance, alertness and tractability, as well as courage with physical resilience and scenting ability. These characteristics are necessary for a versatile working dog. Nervousness, over-aggressiveness and shyness are very serious faults.
Head
The head should be proportionate in size to the body without being coarse, too fine or overlong. The over all appearance should be clean cut and fairly broad between the ears.
Forehead - should be only very slightly domed with very little or no trace of central furrow.
Cheeks - should form a very softly rounded curve and should not protrude.
Skull - the skull extends from the ears to the bridge of the nose, tapering gradually and evenly, and blending without a too pronounced "stop" into a wedge shaped, powerful muzzle. (The skull is approximately 50% of the whole length of the head). Both top and bottom jaws should be strong and well developed. The width of the skull should correspond approximately to the length (of the skull). In the males the width could be slightly greater, and in females slightly less than length.
Muzzle - should be strong and the lips firm, clean and closing tightly, without flews. The top of the muzzle is straight, almost parallel to the forehead. A muzzle, which is too short, blunt, weak, pointed, overlong or lacking in strength is undesirable.
Eyes - The eyes are medium sized, almond shaped and not protruding. Dark brown eyes are preferred, but eyes of a lighter shade are acceptable provided that the expression is good and the general harmony of the head is not destroyed. The expression should be lively, intelligent and self-assured.
Ears - Of medium size, firm texture, broad at base, set high, they are carried erect (almost parallel and not pulled inwards), they taper to a point and open towards the front. Tipped ears are faulty. Hanging ears are a serious fault. During movement the ears may be folded back.
Comment: During movement, if the ears are held upright, they should remain fairly firm. Ears that cannot remain firm are weak in cartilage and are often penalised.
Mouth - The jaws must be strongly developed and the teeth healthy, strong and complete. There should be 42 teeth; 20 in the upper jaw, 6 incisors, 2 canines, 8 premolars, 4 molars; 22 in the lower jaw, 6 incisors, 2 canines, 8 premolars and 6 molars.
Neck
The neck should be fairly long, strong with well-developed muscles, free from throatiness (excessive folds at skin at the throat) and carried at an angle of 45' to the horizontal; it is raised when excited and lowered at a fast trot.
Forequarters
The shoulder blade should be long, set obliquely (45') and laid flat to the body. Upper arm should be strong, well muscled and joined to the shoulder blade at a near right angle. The forelegs from the pasterns to the elbows should be straight viewed from any angle, and the bones should be oval rather than round. The pasterns should be firm and supple and angulated at approximately 20 to 25' degrees. Elbows neither tucked in nor turned out. Length of forelegs should exceed the depth of chest at a ratio of approximately 55% to 45%.
Comment: Of particular note the height at wither consists of 45% depth of chest to 55% length of foreleg (i.e. the depth of chest should be just under half the total height). In an older dog this depth of chest may reach 48% of overall height at wither, but should never exceed 50%. Too deep a chest restricts forequarter reach and movement and the dog will tire quickly. A correctly laid shoulder blade will have the prosternum visible just in front of the point of the shoulder.
The pasterns are worth a note - these should be flexible, giving the springy gait. If the pasterns are too short and steep, the movement is stiff and stilted; if the pasterns are too long and loose in ligaments, then considerable forward momentum is lost (i.e. paddling).
Body
The length of the body should exceed the height at the wither, the correct proportions being as 10 to 9 or 8.5. The length is measured from the points of the breastbone to the rear edge of the pelvis.
Over or under sized dogs, stunted growth, high legged dogs and overloaded fronts, too short overall appearance, too light or too heavy in build, steep set limbs or any other feature which detracts from the reach or endurance of gait are faulty.
Chest - Should be deep (45-48% of the height at shoulder) but not too broad. The brisket is long and well developed.
Ribs - Should be well formed and long, neither barrel shaped nor too flat; a correct rib cage allows free movement of the elbows when the dog is trotting. A too rounded rib cage will interfere and cause the elbows to be turned out. A too flat rib cage will lead to the drawing in of the elbows. The desired long ribbing gives a proportionately (relatively) short loin. Belly is firm and only slightly drawn up.
Back
The back is the area between the withers and the croup and should be straight, strongly developed and not too long. The overall length is not derived from a long back, but is achieved by the correct angle of a well-laid shoulder, correct length of croup and hindquarters. The withers must be long, of good height and well defined. They should join the back in a smooth line without disrupting the flowing top line, which should be slightly sloping from the front to the back. Weak, soft and roached backs are undesirable.
Comment: Height to length - a German Shepherd D is approximately 10-15% longer than it is high. A German Shepherd Dog should not be square as it is unable to extend its limbs properly to produce the desired far-reaching movement. A German Shepherd Dog should not be too long, particularly in the coupling, as again during movement, much of the forward drive is lost.
Topline - should be a smooth flowing line from the wither to the tail, gently sloping from front to rear. A slight rise is preferable to a soft or dippy back. Many young dogs may display a rise over the back that can level out with age.
Hindquarters
The thighs should be broad and well muscled. The upper thighbone viewed from the side, should slope to the slightly longer lower thighbone. The angulations should correspond approximately with the front angulation without being over angulated. The hock bone is strong and together with the stifle bone should form a firm hock joint. The hindquarters overall must be strong and well muscled to enable the effortless forward propulsion of the whole body. Any tendency towards over angulation reduces firmness and endurance.
Comment: When the lower thigh is a considerably longer than the upper thigh, the hindquarters are over-angulated, bringing with it the problem of loose hocks. The important point is the balance of angulations of both fore and hindquarter.
Feet - Should be rounded, toes well closed and arched, pads should be well cushioned and durable. Nails short, strong and dark in colour.
Tail - Bushy haired, should reach to at least the hock joint, the ideal length being to the middle of the hock bones. The end is sometimes turned sideways with a slight hook; this is allowed but not desired. When at rest the tail should hang in a slight curve, like a sabre. When moving, it may be raised and the curve increased, but ideally it should not be carried higher than the level of the back. A tail that is too short, rolled or curled, or generally carried badly or which is stumpy at birth, is faulty.
Gait/Movement
The German Shepherd Dog is a trotting dog. His sequence of steps therefore follows a diagonal pattern in that he always moves the foreleg and the opposite hind leg forward at the same time. To achieve this, his limbs must be in such balance to one another that he can thrust the hind foot well forward to the mid point of the body without noticeable change in the back line.
The correct proportion of height to length and corresponding length of limbs will produce a ground-covering stride that travels flat over the ground, giving the impression of effortless movement. With his head thrust forward and a slightly raised tail, a balanced and even trotter displays a flowing line running from the tips of his ears over the neck and back down to the tip of his tail. The gait should be supple, smooth and long reaching carrying the body with the minimum of up and down movement, entirely free from stiltedness.
Comment: The gait should be far-reaching, smooth and effortless, covering the maximum amount of ground with the minimum amount of steps. In order to achieve this there should be balanced fore and hindquarter angulation, well developed muscles and firm ligamentation.
Coat
(a) The normal coated German Shepherd Dog should carry a thick undercoat and the outer coat should be as dense as possible, made up of straight hard close lying hairs. The hair on the head and ears, front of legs, paws and toes is short. On the neck it is longer and thicker, on some males forming a slight ruff. The hair grows longer on the backs of the legs as far down as the pasterns and the stifle, and forms fairly thick trousers on the hindquarters. There is no hard and fast rule for the length of hair but short mole type coats are faulty.
(b) In the longhaired German Shepherd Dog the hairs are longer, not always straight, definitely not lying close and flat to the body. They are distinctly longer inside and behind the ears, and on the back of the legs. The trousers are long and thick. The tail is bushy with tight feathering underneath. As this type of coat is not as weatherproof as the normal coat, it is undesirable.
(c) In the long open-coated GSD, the hair is appreciably longer than in the case of type (b), and tends to form a parting along the back, the texture being somewhat silky. If present at all, undercoat is found only at the loins. Dogs with this type of coat are usually narrow chested, with narrow overlong muzzles. As the weather protection of the dog and his working ability are seriously diminished with this type of coat, it is undesirable.
Comment: Obviously only type (a) is correct. In the 'General Appearance' a weatherproof coat is called for. 'The hair on the head and ears, front of legs, paws and toes is short' - this sorts the long coat from the normal coat (apart from the very short mole coats).
Colour
Black or black saddle with tan or gold to light grey markings. All black, all grey with lighter brown markings (these are referred to as sables). Blues, livers, albinos, whites (i.e. almost pure white dogs with black noses and near white noses) are to be rejected. The undercoat is, except in all black dogs, usually grey or fawn in colour. (see here for colours of the German Shepherd Dog)
Colour in itself is of secondary importance having no effect on character or fitness for work. Final colour of a young dog can only be ascertained when the outer coat has developed.
Comments On Colour in the German Shepherd Dog: A well-pigmented German Shepherd Dog has a good "mask", or black around the muzzle. Lack of mask detracts from the characteristic expression of the German Shepherd Dog.
Black dogs have some tan hairs between the toes. Optically they look smaller and finer and it is uncommon to see one in the ring at this time. Undercoat black to dark grey through to lighter grey in the trousers.
Bi-Colour dogs are very dark dogs, having black running down the legs. This is permissible and is a sign of very good (if a somewhat heavy dose) of pigment. Undercoat dark to light grey in black areas.
Black Saddle and Tan (black and gold, black and tan) by far the most common colour seen. The black can be very dark through to "washed out".
Those that are washed out have a very small area of "saddle" and invariably very little mask and whitish nails - this is referred to as lacking pigmentation and would, in a class, be penalised according to the degree of paling.
Black and gold (saddle) dogs can have a "salt and pepper" effect down the back, which is quite permissible. Undercoat on the saddle (black) areas is grey, lighter colours (in the saddle area) often accompany paler pigment.
Sable dogs come in a variety of shades from gun-metal (very dark grey, this can sometimes extend nearly all over the dog), red sable (where the gold is very red) through to a pale sable (where pigment may be lacking in the mask and nails). The undercoat on sables is varying shades of fawn to light gold, most readily seen where the hair parts over the ribs. Sable puppies' final coat colour and pigment can be difficult to estimate, and less than 6 months can look a little moth-eaten while changing coat.
Pigment generally refers to the degree of black on a dog, the mask and the colour of the nails.
Colour generally refers to the tan or gold of the German Shepherd Dog and can range from a darkish tan (brown) through a rich red to gold, then the paler shades of gold - all are acceptable. However whitish to silver shades of the gold areas are undesirable.
Height
The ideal height (measured to the highest point of the withers) is 57.5cm for females, and 62.5cm for males. 2.5 cm either above or below the norm is allowed. Any increase in this deviation detracts from the workability and breeding value of the animal. FCI Standard - greater than 1cm above or below the range allowed in the standard is a disqualifying fault.
Comment: The terms generally used to describe the height of the German Shepherd Dog are (from minimum to maximum height): - small, under medium size, ideal medium size, above medium size, large. All are acceptable. Few German Shepherd Dogs fail to make height - problem dogs are usually oversize.
Faults
Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree. Note: Male animals must have two apparently normal testicles, fully descended into the scrotum.
Reproduced with Permission of the Author Ms Karen Hedberg - BVSC
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