At least 2 or 3 times a year, somebody joins this board with the inquiry "Why are American Shepherds crippled?" and thus, I have written this It is short, but has pictures of dogs in motion that I have critiqued.
These pictures were sent to me for the sole purpose of being critiqued, thus I have permission to use them. No names are written on any of them, and I've no idea who's who. I've also had my comments confirmed by somebody who has been in the breed for years, and has been quite successful.
That said, onto the learning.
The American German Shepherd Dog #1, does not have bad hips per se. That is, the dogs are not dysplastic. The majority OFA Good, and quite a few OFA excellent. People are forgetting that OFAs are how the hip joint conforms to the socket, so a dog can walk like a cripple, but 
medically speaking[/b] he is not one.
The reason the Amline GSD walks funny is not because of bad hips, but because of an elongated thigh bone. The length of the thigh bone causes instability in the rear, and thus the dog wobbles. Loose ligamentation does not help things either, and it causes dogs to look very fluid and extreme in side gait when they move, but it will also cause the dog to break down more quickly when in motion.
The angulation of the pastern in many Amlines isn't as bad as it once was. The reason the dogs are landing with their pasterns in a plantar position is due to the angulation of the shoulder. Many dogs have an upper arm that is too short/steep, and are straight through the shoulder, thus it will not open.
Here is a picture of a 6 month old puppy bitch with an absolutely beautiful shoulder
[img]http://www.fluffyrat.net/wildfyre/Dog9.gif[/img]
And here is a dog who moves from the elbow:
[img]http://www.fluffyrat.net/wildfyre/Dog2.gif[/img]
And a dog with a straight shoulder who appears extreme in sidegait, but clearly moves from the elbow and will "Run downhill"
[img]http://www.fluffyrat.net/wildfyre/Dog3.gif[/img]
By the same token, while the West German dogs are moving away from the roachy topline (thank god), they too are now getting quite extreme in the rear, and I can already see where this is headed.
Also, while level toplines are correct and all well and good, having a flat wither and complete lack of angulation front or rear is also incorrect, and I see a great many working line (East German/Czech) dogs that are much too straight on either or both ends. The GSD should not look like a coyote dog, and there does come a point for me where no matter how well it works, if its conformation is lacking, I'm not going to mess with that dog. I'll end up with a dog that breaks down from poor bone structure instead of loose ligamentation.