Crufts

The Griffon Basset got second - I thought Elmo would have got that, I am surprised. Not that she isn't a lovely dog, but I really liked Elmo.
 
Next year :p he did brilliantly to get that far, especially with all that palaver and misinformation in previous years, he has done wonders for the reputation for the breed and reversed a lot of (often unjustified) bad press :)
 
I thought it was going to be between Jet and Elmo, I was really surprised not to see them both up there. No accounting for taste!
 
Another one here that thought it would be a Jet/Elmo combo (truly have been brainwashed) but I'd have happily stolen any of them :)

Jet lives not that far from me actually..... *digs out camo gear* :D
 
Heeheee...I can just imagine the thread that would ensue:

Dear AAD,

As you know, I've "procured" the Lovely Jet who is my bestest boy ever. However, since a visit from Kirstyhen yesterday, he just doesn't seem like himself...in fact I think he's turning white around the edges and he's now answering to "Snotbag" instead of Jet...he's also lost a few inches and is behaving rather...well, spanglefied.

What could possibly be wrong? :confused: Answers on a S.A.E please,

love NN :D
 
Ahahahahahaha - some bloke on my Mum's (former breeder, judge, interpreter, edited a breed magazine) Facebook has just posted about how all modern GSDs are deformed cripples and posted a pic of some wolfy/husky shaggy long haired thing as what he thinks a Shepherd should look like....let battle commence :p
 
Dead chuffed to see a gundog do it again :D Hes far nicer than any flatcoats I have encountered..and Flora was cheering for him as the flatcoats out on the shoot are her best hunting buddies, shes totally besotted with them...and them her actually which is amazing as they try to eat everything else out :rolleyes: :p :D
I really liked the rBIS she was a total poppet and a real show girl. Was pleased with that result too.
I have to say though that Elmo is one of the loveliest GSD's I have ever seen, I really liked him and he is clearly very fit for function, lovely to see a proper sloppy backed cripple in the line up :p :D I cant remember the name of the last GSD to make it into the line up but I really really didnt like that dog, Elmo just put the standard back up for UK show GSD's I reckon and showed them in the light they deserve.
 
numptynoelle said:
Heeheee...I can just imagine the thread that would ensue:

Dear AAD,

As you know, I've "procured" the Lovely Jet who is my bestest boy ever. However, since a visit from Kirstyhen yesterday, he just doesn't seem like himself...in fact I think he's turning white around the edges and he's now answering to "Snotbag" instead of Jet...he's also lost a few inches and is behaving rather...well, spanglefied.

What could possibly be wrong? :confused: Answers on a S.A.E please,

love NN :D
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Nah, you wouldn't notice, Otto's as likely to answer to Jet as he is Otto/Snotbag :D
 
It's the only dog Zak hasn't howled at all week! He particularly liked flyball and agility. I hope he knows how to do both by now. He did an impressive weave through a row of saplings last week. :p
 
Slight change of subject but connected, but what was good about the alsation that you're raving about, it looked horrible to me with that sloping backend; do they not get back/hip problems looking like that?

Sorry, once an alsation always an alsation to me.
 
Well we're no longer at war with Germany and even the Kennel Club is dropping the name so there is no need to call them an Alsatian :)

Elmo, the German Shepherd Dog, has A-normal hips and elbows(so free of hip and elbow dysplasia)

KK1 - highest breed survey (conformation, character, working test) result

SchIII - so he has passed the highest level in obedience (including 1m hurdle and A-frame), tracking (500 pace track, three articles) and protection work (six hide blind search, full protection routine). I train with people whose dogs compete at this level and the work the handlers and dogs put in is immense. It can take up to four years to get a dog from pup to SchIII.

He has his AD, which is a 12km run off a bike.

He has also won three championship level best in show titles, all breeds.

So by calling him horrible, you're not just disrespecting the breeders, trainers and handlers who have put so much work into this dog, you are also disrespecting every working and show judge who has handed him a title, not just GSD judges, but all-breed judges too.

He is EVERYTHING a GSD should be and as someone who is out on a training field or at the ringside every weekend and see how hard people work with their GSDs to get them to the level Elmo is at, your comment has made me really sad :(
 
Elmo was a lovely, free-moving dog who looked totally fit for function to me, and I am not a great GSD aficionado - I just like a nice dog when I see one. He was unfazed by the big event and didn't look exaggerated to me.

And Alsation? Really?? That's like calling a yellow lab a 'golden' or a liver cocker spaniel a 'chocolate':rolleyes:
 
He sounds a mega dog but I can't help it if he's not my cup of tea can I?
I appreciate he's got great credentials in his breed so must be something special to afficinados (spl) but I was brought up when they were alsations, it's stuck solid in my mind, nothing to do with the war at all, sorry if you don't approve and I did like the breed until they brought in that horrible slope which spoils it completely for me, it just doesn't look at all natural and unspoiled.
It's a good job we all like different breeds I think, I don't expect you to like my choices either but I appreciate your time for explaining his record to me.

BTW, he wasn't the only one I didn't like either, I'm not just taking it out on him but I know how hard they all worked to get there and appreciate their commitment and achievement to get in the last line up.
 
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No worries M.
Rough Collies, aren't my cup of tea, in fact I violently dislike them, but other people like them so don't feel the need to call them horrible on an internet forum :p

They were never Alsatian, their name in the country of origin is deutscher schaeferhund and Alsatian is just a silly name the Brits used during the war and it stuck.

It's not for me to approve or disprove your opinion, it just stung a bit, my dog is probably one you would call horrible, with a slope from his back to his croup sometimes when he stands, I and my friends, who have similar looking dogs had been out all day in the wind and the rain and the cold training and it is bloody hard work to get a dog to half the stage that Elmo is at.

Yes, the breed has changed, yes, there have been mistakes made and I appreciate my own dog is not an oil painting - but some of us are fighting and campaigning and banging our heads off the wall to bring back uniformity and to re-align the working and show sides of the breed (and sorry, the old English type 'Alsatian', heavy, tall, long, big boned, sway-backed, is far from correct either, far, far from it) and I and a lot of other people see Elmo as part of that process.

Right, bed!!!!
 
CaveCanem said:
Well we're no longer at war with Germany and even the Kennel Club is dropping the name so there is no need to call them an Alsatian :)

Elmo, the German Shepherd Dog, has A-normal hips and elbows(so free of hip and elbow dysplasia)

KK1 - highest breed survey (conformation, character, working test) result

SchIII - so he has passed the highest level in obedience (including 1m hurdle and A-frame), tracking (500 pace track, three articles) and protection work (six hide blind search, full protection routine). I train with people whose dogs compete at this level and the work the handlers and dogs put in is immense. It can take up to four years to get a dog from pup to SchIII.

He has his AD, which is a 12km run off a bike.

He has also won three championship level best in show titles, all breeds.

So by calling him horrible, you're not just disrespecting the breeders, trainers and handlers who have put so much work into this dog, you are also disrespecting every working and show judge who has handed him a title, not just GSD judges, but all-breed judges too.

He is EVERYTHING a GSD should be and as someone who is out on a training field or at the ringside every weekend and see how hard people work with their GSDs to get them to the level Elmo is at, your comment has made me really sad :(
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Nice to see that a "show" dog is also well titled with credentials in othert aspects as well. I know absolutely sod all about GSDs so couldn't say I would have necessarily picked him out of the line up. To me the F/C had real WOW factor (even over the poodle which says a lot coming from me) so was really chuffed to see that dog take BIS. I'm not even a gun dog "fan" as such. I reckoned when I watched the line up it'd be the F/C then the Bichon.

However, I am incredibly impressed with the GSD's list of achievements, which makes him a rather special boy, doesn't it!
 
how many of the working sheepogs have ever moved sheep and the show border collies would be useless to keep clean on a working stock farm. Us farmers have border collies and agility folk have working sheepdogs!
 
mon said:
how many of the working sheepogs have ever moved sheep and the show border collies would be useless to keep clean on a working stock farm. Us farmers have border collies and agility folk have working sheepdogs!
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Well, that's kind of my point. :) You don't often see something that is that successful in the show ring that can actually WORK, too!

You maybe see that in some terriers I would guess (I don't think there's a distinct type difference in border terriers, for example). I wouldn't like to try to work a show westie though! LOL

There's a woman that I know that keeps her standard poodles in show trim (she dabbles in showing still I think) but attends a weekly agility club. I really like to see this. If she was serious about either she'd probably have to make a choice, clip the coat short for less wind resistence ;) or not be hooning thru a sandy arena in show coat. But she does enjoy her dogs and I reckon that her dogs really enjoy the time she spends with them. win win if you ask me, regardless of whether she "wins" or not.
 
the international sheepdog society motto is 'brains before beauty' my collies may be beautiful in my eyes but earn thier keep working sheep, but i suppose same can be said for most show animals inc horses, how many hunters hunt?
 
couldn't answer the bit about how many hunters hunt? Though I do know of a pricey show welsh cob gelding that was pictured in HH hunting not long before a girl on my yard bought it. So it does happen, yes.

I had read somewhere that BTs, if injured in the line of duty (eg, an ear damaged by a fox perhaps) that while being judged that injured area shall be judged as perfect? I may have misinterpreted, but I think the point was to encourage the breeders of these dogs to NOT just show tehm, but that they should do the job in which they were bred to do.
 
Maesfen said:
Slight change of subject but connected, but what was good about the alsation that you're raving about, it looked horrible to me with that sloping backend; do they not get back/hip problems looking like that?
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I have to say I agree - I thought he looked awful actually. Terrible 'hunch' in his spine, and hocks far too close to the ground.

Loved the Bichon (suprise, suprise) and thought the boxer was just stunning.

An interesting result.
 
CaveCanem said:
So by calling him horrible, you're not just disrespecting the breeders, trainers and handlers who have put so much work into this dog, you are also disrespecting every working and show judge who has handed him a title, not just GSD judges, but all-breed judges too.
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Not really, though, CC. That's like saying we have to respect the type of breeding that has produced spaniels with skulls to small for their brains. Dalmations with faulty (in fact missing) gene's for liver function. Breathing problems in pugs - well the list goes on.

The breed 'standard' in some dogs has been so damaging to many of them.

The emphasis has to be on health - and whilst Elmo was a staggeringly handsome dog, I did think that there was something very 'manufactured' about him. His hind leg action was odd to say the least - and whilst he may be held up to be the epitome of great breeding in the GSD - it's not a standard I would ever look to purchase. And as you know I simply adore the breed.
 
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