GSD enthusiasts...

The sloped back or roached backs depend on the lines, it's mostly American and German Showline dogs that have the funny backs.
Your boy is very handsome!!! He is tall like my guy.

American lines have the more exaggerated angulation. My dogs are German Showline and German Working Line and have relatively little angulation.
 
Not to pick but the pinch collar is for training. When just hanging out he should have a flat buckle collar on. PS: He`s very pretty, looks young. 
 
Here`s 2 of 3

Here's my other one, my 6yr old female. Both of them are rescues so I don't know what they are. Maybe she's German something and the other one a lot of people say Czech or East German mixed with something maybe American because he is so long. A few think he has Great Dane in him too and I can see it a bit.

wow, both of your dogs are very pretty...mucky, i thought that your shep in the last pic looked like a purebred!
hd, he doesn't wear his pinch collar when he's hangin' out...in most of the pics we have been working on training...that's when i usually take my pics outside. I assume the one where he's wearing it in the house, we're getting ready to leave. Thanks for being concerned though, i have seen people that use them for regular collars.

American lines have the more exaggerated angulation. My dogs are German Showline and German Working Line and have relatively little angulation.

 
Two of mine are German Showline and Working Line.
 
The youngest is American Line, he is now over 14 weeks old, and you can tell a difference even in the way he walks.

The sloping back which is preferred in the conformation ring results in a very unstable rear and puppies who actually appear to be walking on their hocks. The very sloping dogs have lost much of their ability to move quickly and efficiently as they reach middle age.  It is actually painful to watch them attempt to herd.  The sheep read the dog's inability to move very quickly and even stop bolting when they realize there is no chance the dog can ever reach them.
Being the owner of a half german half american show line dog with HD, spina bifida and spinal degeneration, I would take a dog built like yours in a minute.
 
As to the standard, GSDs are supposed to be a rectangle with an 8 to 10 ratio of height to length.   This was designed to have the back long enough that effortless trotting movement for a long summer work day was possible.  GSDs were essentially living fences who needed to move the flock to common grazing, keep the flock together with no mixing with the multiple other flocks on the grounds.  They needed to move the sheep along roads keeping them to the "shoulder" so traffic could pass.  This requires calm constant motion that can be very swift.  The slightly longer body allows for extension into an efficient road trot.  The length of the body impacted agility in restricted places.  That was not a primary issue so the breeding selections ended up emphasizing the long flowing movement.

I so much prefer the straighter back look personally........ I've seen some at the dog park that looked so strange from their backs being so sloped and it looked like it put alot more ressure on their back legs.

ORIGINAL: mrv

The sloping back which is preferred in the conformation ring results in a very unstable rear and puppies who actually appear to be walking on their hocks. 

That was exactly my thought the other day when I was watching the dog show on TV.  It was almost painful to watch the GSD in the ring, because its back was so extremely sloped and the way it walked just didn't look comfortable, or practical, IMO.  The guy was talking about their hindquarters and saying that they are built to be powerful and so that the dog can be ready to leap forward, but I remember wondering whether such an *exaggerated* slope wouldn't actually be more of a hindrance than a help.  I don't personally like the look and I don't get why it seems to be "fashionable."
 
(Edited for typos).

I missed this thread?! And I cannot see this pictures at the moment so will check when I get home.
 
I really do not care for the sloped roached backs that the american lines have, it looks so painful for them. And with the serious HD issues the breed is facing you would think they would try and work on fixing it instead of breeding for the slope.
 
Here is Kord, I will try and get a better side pic of the little dickens, getting him to stand still is the challenge!

 
Dawn
 
 
 

I understood from one breeder that the animals with the sloped backs are very popular with the police departments, and for agility and rescue work, because they can balance and climb more easily with this type of conformation.  The backend is supposed to work like a coiled spring to move them vertically.  It does look very awkward in normal walking and running situations.  Both of mine have had what I consider very level squared off stance, and both have suffered from hip issues-(both of mine were adoptees)-I had wondered if the hip issues were related to having the straighter lines in back

This is my pup Haygl, he's about a year old and came from German lines.  I too much prefer the German Gsd look over the American.



We tried to take a couple of "formal" gsd pose pictures but I'm afraid we failed miserably.  This was probably the closest we ever got to capturing him in a stack!

All the GSD are so nice looking, Here`s a pic of our 2, Jake 10.5 months, Jennie 6.5 months old.

here`s a couple a little bit closer