German shepherds moving away from breed standard?

Liesje

Take a look at some of these dogs.  These are west German show dogs doing their "protection" test, similar to SchH.  See how some of them can't even do a decent heel on leash?  Some of them are munching on grass, or turning away and looking at the crowd when they are supposed to be "holding" the helper.  The handlers are having to correct their dogs, use leashes, grab their collars, etc.  The dogs are all over the place, lacking drive and focus.

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=E09xVRKc6Cg 

That was the Sieger show???    That was...em....sad.  I didn't know how bad they were...lol!  That second dog mouthing the sleeve and not outing really made me wonder.  And that's not even counting the heeling!  Heck, my little muttie does better than they did!

Workingdoglover

That was the Sieger show???    That was...em....sad.  I didn't know how bad they were...lol!  That second dog mouthing the sleeve and not outing really made me wonder.  And that's not even counting the heeling!  Heck, my little muttie does better than they did!

 

Yeah I think it was like the national show?  Not the North Americans.  But still...I am just getting into SchH and even to my novice eyes it was...appalling!  I don't know what disturbs me more, the dogs that cannot even walk 3 steps in a decent heel, or the ones that are sniffing grass or turning to the crowd instead of holding the helper...   

 I'll take sloppy heel work.  That's easily corrected.  The rest? ....sad

I will say however that for a quite a few of the dogs it looked to be more an issue of training than anything else.  The handlers are just LAZY and they aren't being MADE to uphold the Sieger Show standards of excellence.

They're allowed to start over and over and over again, which only encourages them NOT to train their dogs.  Why should they?  They'll get a second, and third, and fourth chance at the sieger show anyway.

Did you see the guy that started over FOUR times with his dog?  The one that ran away each time and went to PEE on a tree?  And the crowd laughed!

Personally, I don't think Teejay should have won Sieger.  Out of all those Males, the only one I saw that went into a bark and hold and KEPT it, and showed me a good courage test was Obi Wan...
 

I don't think ANY of those dogs should have won.  I was under the impression that winning Sieger was a big deal, but after what I've seen there I definitely don't hold it in very high regards anymore.  I seriously think my mutt from the Humane Society would win Sieger over all of those dogs!  If it is a matter of training, then handlers need to take more pride in their dogs.  That's just ridiculous!

Xeph

 I'll take sloppy heel work.  That's easily corrected.  The rest? ....sad

I will say however that for a quite a few of the dogs it looked to be more an issue of training than anything else.  The handlers are just LAZY and they aren't being MADE to uphold the Sieger Show standards of excellence.

They're allowed to start over and over and over again, which only encourages them NOT to train their dogs.  Why should they?  They'll get a second, and third, and fourth chance at the sieger show anyway.

Did you see the guy that started over FOUR times with his dog?  The one that ran away each time and went to PEE on a tree?  And the crowd laughed!

Personally, I don't think Teejay should have won Sieger.  Out of all those Males, the only one I saw that went into a bark and hold and KEPT it, and showed me a good courage test was Obi Wan...
 

I agree with everything.

I have been thinking long and hard about adding a male pup in the future, with the hope of getting into SchH.  Since I am a novice, I do not want/need a very high drive, intense working dog.  My goal is simply to learn to enjoy the sport, not be super-competitive.  I was thinking about going with a German show line dog instead of a working line dog.  After watching those videos...I'm not so sure!  I hope you are right, that it's just a lack of training.  I practice heeling and things I consider to be quite basic (long downs, long and fast recalls, moving down stays and stand stays...) each day with Kenya and I've always thought of it as just dabbling around with these things, kind of learning as I go, but she can at least heel with ten times more intensity, focus, and precision than 75% of the dogs on those videos... and then I am told that pups START at $2500 because these are the "best" studs out there....Sheesh, my rescue mutt gives me better attention and drive!

Now I don't even know where to look for a German dog besides Heidi Theis.  Oh and now I also know why it's important to SEE the dog "work" before being convinced by pictures and titles.