The Sportsman Show

Since this show seems to get thousands of visitors, I felt that it was my responsibility to attend in order to be available to answer some questions and hand out our trifolds to the hundreds of info seeker that would be milling around Chain's booth! After all, his owner had her 2 small children in tow, and needed to focus on the shows themselves!

NS jbCH Vision's Chain of Command is an ISSR NB1 (Artus son) that was bred at Vision Kennels, and has had quite an interesting show career. He was not only the first to achieve the ISSR's Junior Champion title and top puppy of the year, he was also the #1 National Select.

Since he is a good representative of our breed, I had been encouraging his owner to show him. However, I am slightly disappointed over the fact that the "dissidents" are still attempting to display their "pet quality" (to put it kindly) specimens to the general public! Nevertheless, it does provide me with a great opportunity to expose their faults via my observations and the pictures I have taken at this show.

After attending a very disappointing show in Heightstown, NJ in April 1998, I felt that I had to share my warnings, in hopes that some conscientious "breeders" would take the time to read my report and try to breed closer to the Original Breed Standard.

Unfortunately this did not happen, so I proceeded to write a few more articles about the decline of quality I was seeing at "their" specialties. Please take some time to visit the following pages (full of pictures that I took at these shows!)

Cherry Blossom 1999 | Brookville 2000 | Frederick 2001

As you can see above, one of the things that I did make a big "fuss" over were the tails ... not because it isn't "pretty" but because OUR Breed Standard calls for a tail such that <<When the dog is excited or in motion, the curve is accentuated and the tail is raised, but it should never curl forward beyond the vertical line nor above the level of the back. The tail should never be carried straight out or rolled up over the back. A tail that is raised above the vertical line and/or past the horizontal line of the croup is a DISQUALIFYING FAULT. Tails that are too short, thin, or ratty should be severely penalized.>> and as I have clearly stated before <<"Even as the dog begins with his head, he ends with his tail, and by it many a story is told for it expresses health, mental attitude and what may be expected in the rest of the spinal column. Beware of any type tail that is not normally characteristic of the specific breed.">>

I also noted that it seemed like one of the dogs did not move her tail all weekend. No wagging, etc. If a dog is severely stressed they may carry it like that, but will also tuck it frequently, especially when approached by a stranger, or wag it for a few moments when given a treat, or recognizing a friendly face. One particular dog seemed as if she was tranquilized, but I never noticed any additional symptoms, like the "glazed" eyes, or "blank" stare that would be expected. Since I am confident that her handler would never consider stooping to something that devious, just to win a show! Therefore, I have been considering other potential causes for this apparent "dead tail" symptom!! Upon checking this dog's RC and discovering the extremely high Inbreeding Coefficient, it leads me to conclude that various problems might be brewing, possibly Cauda Equina Syndrome.

<<Breed incidence varies, but the GSD, at least in America, apparently does have a higher incidence of spinal column disorders in the lumbo-sacral area than do other breeds. Dr. Joe Morgan at Davis told me that his study showed that dogs with cauda equina syndrome more often than expected also have lumbo-sacral transitional vertebral segments (TVS or APA), and that this combination was seen in the GSD more than in dogs in general...>>
TVS, Cauda Equina Syndrome and Spondylosis by Fred Lanting.

<<Some may show relatively early signs with a “dead” tail carriage. From SV judge and then-chief-Körmeister Leonhard Schweikert regarding the bitches at the huge GSD Sieger Show in Bremen, 2000 we have this comment: “With respect to the evaluation of the rear, I noticed in more than one case a lifeless or nearly lifeless tail. This is a very worrisome fact, as this is one of the first indications of a cauda equina syndrome (CES). We must look into this topic in the near future in more depth.”>>