# Why...



## Leilanichurch (Mar 30, 2021)

I’m sorry but I’m my opinion this is the most ugliest look in a German Shepard I have 6 German shepherds and none of them have gotten slope back and they all are 9 to 10 years old


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## selzer (May 7, 2005)

Look at the back legs. Ok, that first picture looks awful. She is square, her back is roached up above the withers and it should never be. She almost looks like she is haunched up with a bad UTI. But the other pictures that you showed, the backs are straighter if they are not stacked in the back. Look at the back legs, It is almost a 90 degree angle how the top part of the leg curves/bends into the bottom portion. The dog for which you have a check mark has the top portion of the rear leg bent almost not at all, maybe 45 degrees or less. So the rear end stands much higher. If you stack that dog, it would have some slope as well. That dog is not correct either. It's height is such that it's length is almost equal to its height. It should be about 10:8, length to height. They should not appear square, they should appear longer then they are tall. With showing, some stuff has gotten more extreme but function is supposed to drive the form, so the GSD is supposed to have a gait that allows them to trot for 10 to 14 hours, constantly moving or surrounding sheep and keeping them from straying into roads or crops. If the conformation of the legs, the angles and the length and height is too much one way, the stride will be short and take too much energy for the dog to cover the ground; if it is too much the other way, the stride will be too long and take up too much energy for the dog to cover the ground. The stride has to be proper to allow the gait to function as herding dog. The German lady that I used to show with and bred my dogs with hers, she once said that when properly stacked you should be able to conceive a drop of water going from the tip of the ear down the neck and back and tail. On the check marked dog, that drop would stop in the middle of the back or around the hip. The x-marked dog will let that drop fall all the way. The last dog, the drop would probably stop above the withers. The last two dogs look better, conformation-wise than the check marked dog who looks like a male who was neutered way too young -- leggy with no breadth to his neck area (secondary sex characteristic).


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