Unfortunately, it wasn't this year - it was in 1982, 34 years ago, that this dog won Reserve Best in Show at Crufts.
A dog like this is no longer considered correct today by most in the GSD show-world - as we have seen in recent days.
I hope by now that most people have realised that the Best of Breed bitch at Crufts is not a one-off.
Cruaghaire Catoria is typical of what's being bred and shown in the UK and much of Europe - following the lead of Germany, the home of the GSD.
This was the top show bitch in Germany in 2015. This is what they're aiming for. Look at her and weep.
None of this has happened overnight.
And neither is it the first time that people have been horrified and demanded that something is done about it. We shot this at Crufts in 2008 for Pedigree Dogs Exposed.
And there was a fuss again in 2010 when viewers reacted badly to the sight of Best of Breed, Ch Veneze Ellie in the main ring (deja vu performance from both Clare Balding and Caroline Kisko, the KC's head of communications, isn't it?).
The upshot, I think we can agree, is that the Kennel Club has been completely ineffectual in sorting out "the GSD problem".
The reason?
The breeders don't think there is a problem.
Oh, they might admit to a little overangulation here... a bit of a wobbly hock there.. but as anyone who has tried to discuss it with them knows, the bottom line is that they really think the dog is fundamentally correct. And when a bit of slo-mo footage breaks through the cognitive dissonance, there is always an excuse. It was the slippy surface..poor handling...the size of the ring.. a non-representative unlucky moment... the dog was coming into/out of season... the noise (this from a dog that's temperamentally supposed to be as steady as a rock!).
There is nothing you can do to persuade them otherwise.
There is nothing you can do to persuade them otherwise.
• You can tell them there is no precedent for this shape in a canid.
• You can tell them that it's no coincidence that the breed suffers spinal/joint issues
• You can tell them that the biggest canine locomotion study in the world found that the shape handicaps the dogs.
• You can tell them that anyone with eyes in their head can see it's wrong.
• You can tell them that anyone with eyes in their head can see it's wrong.
• And you can tell them that the breed's founder, Max von Stephanitz, would turn in his grave if he could see what had been done to his beloved shepherd. Because what he thought was a good dog was this....
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| 1920 |
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| 1924, Donar von Overstolzen |
..and this.
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| 1925 Klodo vom Boxberg |
No, today's show breeders will look you straight in the eye and ask you to believe that this...
..and this...
..and this..
...are better dogs.
Right now, the Kennel Club is trying to work out what it has to do in order to regain some credibility in the eyes of a very disappointed public - without totally pissing off the GSD Clubs.
The KC's Caroline Kisko has already suggested (as she did in 2010) that withdrawing challenge certificates might do the trick. For those that don't know, this simply means that the dogs can still compete and still win, but won't be able to be called a Champion.
But I suspect it will be taken out of the KC's hands. The GSD League of Great Britain is furious. How dare the kennel club throw one its own to the wolves as the Kennel Club did on television on Sunday night in a clunky attempt to save its own neck. (And it really did... this was no mea culpa hand-wringing... it was an attempt by the Kennel Club to absolve itself of any responsibility.)
Not us, guv... it was the judge... the dog... the breeder... the runes... basically anything other than the fact that once the fuss died down after 2010, the Kennel Club has done very little to tackle the issue. (Although there is one bit of good news - a new biomechanics study, funded by the KC, is just beginning at the University of Surrey. Researchers there hope to recruit 260 GSDs over the next two years. I am waiting for more info on this and will blog separately.)
As I reported a couple of days ago, the KC delegated judges training to the GSD League of GB - the very body that thinks it's perfectly OK for the dogs to look like this.
And as for the hope expressed by Caroline Kisko on Sunday night's broadcast that next year's GSD Crufts' judge won't give the top prize to a dog like Cruaghaire Catoria... well, his name is Malcolm Robinson and he gave Cruaghaire Catoria a 1st in a class in 2014.
My guess is that the GSD League will stick two fingers up to the KC and other GSD Clubs could follow. The League is affiliated to the WUSV and already runs shows in the UK under WUSV rules. This way, it can continue to breed and show German Shepherds that look like hyenas without having to run the gauntlet of a prime-time television audience which, in its view, knows nothing.
This would solve the Kennel Club's immediate problem - although be a bit embarrassing. But of course it does nothing for the dogs.
So what's the answer?
Hah! You thought I was going to suggest something?
Nope. I'm right out of ideas. You need psychologists to sort this one - well, and some more conclusive science as there haven't been enough studies comparing the show GSD with the working-bred dogs that - thank God - you can still find outside the ring. Dogs like this one.
Or how about this Finnish dog - who actually has competed in the Finnish show-ring?
And then there's this dog, Super Trouper at Brightmeadow, who won well at Paignton Championship Show in Devon last year under top (but non-specialist) judge Jean Lanning. Lanning has been around long enough to not be afraid of going against the flow.
The problem is that dogs like this rarely get a chance in the UK show-ring because the "Germanic" type rules. Super Trouper is what they would call an Alsatian - what the breed was called during/post WW2 here in the UK (a time when anything German would be given a hard time). Anyone who likes them is called an "Alsatianist". It's not intended as a compliment.
So... how do we solve the "GSD problem"? Let me know your thoughts below.
