It is, therefore, enlightening to see the attitude of the GSD Breed Council to health in GSDs as represented on their website. In particular they issued a questionnaire asking their 'members' to comment on "Health issues". Amongst these were references to 'double-handling' (2 questions). Double-handling has been an issue with the KC for showing purposes, largely because it is encouraged in Sieger events, but has nothing to do with health. In regard to actual health there were 2 questions: "Do you consider the Breed to have a problem with Unsoundness and Overangulation?" and "Do you consider the Breed to have a problem with exaggerated toplines?". Having asked those questions the following question was "Do you consider any of the following to be a Breed Health problem?" with the possible responses "Unsoundness", "Overangulation" and "Exaggerated toplines".

This questionnaire was obviously aimed at eliciting from the 'members' the responses that would be diametrically opposed to the KC stance on health. The Breed Council further claims: "there is no evidence whatsoever that type affects the health of the GSD". This ignores the fact that the dogs described as 'half dog, half frog' were all German SV types. Interestingly, when the Kennel Club made its own propaganda film, Dogs - A Healthy Future, about health in show dogs they chose to shoot much of it at the 2011 Richmond Show where the judge and exhibitors were known to favour the Alsatian type of dog e.g. with straight back and no notable unsoundness in the hindquarters.

Finally, it is important to address the issue of health checks at UK championship shows. The Kennel Club designated 15 breeds as 'high-profile'. One of these breeds is the GSD. As such a rule has been made that a veterinary check must be carried out on any Best of Breed winner at any championship show before the BOB can be awarded. The rules for the vets undertaking these checks are enshrined in a Kennel Club document Introduction for the HP Vet Books According to this all designated breeds have specific things to be checked for except the GSD.

The GSD entry says:

"There is much controversy about the hindquarter conformation of the GSD. Principally the issue is conformational problems with cow hocks and weakness (instability) in the hind limbs when moving."

This does not give any specific thing to look for and, as such, appears to be a rather half-hearted attempt to address the problem that judges are not judging to the breed standard.

For completeness the illustrations that follow show the skeletal differences between the Alsatian and the German SV (Martin) dog.

The diagram on the left is a replica of the one which was used on the old DDR judging card. That is, it delineates the standard to which the dog would have been judged.

It takes no imagination to see why the shape on the right can give rise to hip problems.

This animation shows how the skeletal outline of the GSD has changed from the 1970s until now.

This is the same animation applied to a horse. You can draw your own conclusions.