How can I tell if a German Shepherd is purebred? The German Shepherd is medium sized, with a slight ductility; strong, with strong and well developed muscles, and strong bones; overall compact and harmonious. The German Shepherd’s body height is in proper proportion to its limbs, so that the German Shepherd can appear to be at ease when making large leaps. The German Shepherd’s head is forward and the tail is slightly upturned in a spacious and balanced movement, forming an arc from the tip of the ears through the back to the tip of the tail.
1) Appearance
The German Shepherd is medium sized, with a slight ductility; strong, with strong and well developed muscles and strong bones; overall compact and harmonious. The height of the male dog is between 60 – 65 cm and the height of the female dog is between 55 – 60 cm. The length of the body exceeds the height of the shoulder by a margin of 10% – 17%.
2) Gait
The German Shepherd is an eager dog, and its gait presents a diagonal movement, which means that its hind feet move simultaneously with its front feet on opposite sides. Because the entire limb constantly completes a similar diagonal movement, the corresponding front leg must extend farther as it moves from the rear to the middle of the body without a significant change in the back line of the body. The German Shepherd’s body height is in proper proportion to its limbs so that the dog can appear to be at ease when making large leaps. The dog’s head is forward and the tail is slightly upturned in a spacious and balanced movement, forming an arc from the tip of the ears through the back to the tip of the tail.
3) Characteristics
The German Shepherd requires, in terms of character, steadiness, calmness, confidence, unrestrainedness and complete obedience to commands (except in the case of stimulation), as well as a full mental state, lightness and agility of movement. It must also have courage, a desire to fight, and a strong personality so that it can take on the job of guarding, guarding, and herding. The German Shepherd has a rich sense of smell, which allows him to run fast and track without straining his whole body and keeping his nose close to the ground to pick up traces, thus allowing him to complete his task with ease and precision. Therefore, it is also a multi-purpose tracking and searching dog.
4) Head
The head should be wedge shaped and of medium length (about 40% of shoulder height), not awkward or too long. The overall appearance must be strong, with a moderate width between the ears. The forehead is slightly elevated in frontal and lateral views, with no or an inconspicuous median groove in the middle of the forehead. The ratio between the forehead and the end of the mouth and nose should be 50/50, and the width of the forehead must be the same as its length. The skull must have a smooth curve from the ears to the tip of the nose, and there must be a clear division between the skull and the mouth and nose. The lips must be tight and elastic, with good folds and black in color.
5) Nose
Must be black in color.
6) Mouth
The teeth must be healthy and appear strong, with a total of 42 teeth. The teeth of the German Shepherd bite in a shear-like interlocking pattern, meaning that the incisors are interlocked like scissors, with the incisors of the upper jaw over the incisors of the lower jaw during the bite. The jaws must be strong and powerful.
7) Eyes
The eyes should be medium sized, almond shaped, with a downward sloping angle and no bulging eyeballs. The color of the eyes should be as dark as possible. A lighter color with bulging eyes is not desirable and will detract from the dog’s image.
8) Ears
The ears of the German Shepherd are erect, medium in size, and when they are erect, they are almost parallel in direction (not pointing to the sides). The ear sockets must be forward. Folded, drooping ears are defective. In movement and quiet times, ears that are backward are normal.
9) Neck
The neck should be strong and muscular, with no sagging flesh. The neck should be inclined to the torso at an angle of approximately 45 degrees.
10) Torso
The upper part of the body should be straight from the neck, through the shoulders, through the back and down to the hips, without any interruptions. The back is moderately long, firm, strong, and muscular. The waist is wide, short, strong and muscular. The hips should be long and sloping downward (sloping at an angle of about 23 degrees and with a continuous line from the back to the tail with no interruptions.)
11) Chest
The German Shepherd’s chest must be appropriately wide and rounded, and long and pronounced. The longitudinal length of the chest should be 45%-48% of the total height of the dog.
12) Ribs
The German Shepherd’s ribs must have the proper curvature and be excessively rounded and flat will be considered a defect.
13) Tail
The lower part of the German Shepherd’s tail should be densely hairy and at least as long as the paw joint, ideally to the middle of the paw bone. When the tail is at rest, it should have a slight bend, as if it were a saber. When the tail is raised and swung, its curvature increases. Surgical alteration of the shape of the Shepherd’s tail is prohibited.
14) Forelegs
The forelegs should be straight from all angles and the two legs should be absolutely parallel when viewed from the front. The shoulder splints and upper arms are equal in length, and the muscles are strong and sturdy. The angle between the shoulder splints and the upper arm is 90 degrees, with a maximum of 110 degrees. The elbow joint should neither be dislocated nor squeezed during standing and movement. The lower arm should be straight and parallel to each other from all angles, with strong and sturdy muscles. The length of the front mid-foot should be one-third of the lower arm, and the angle between the front mid-foot and the lower arm should be 20-22 degrees. Otherwise, it will affect the ability to work as a working dog, especially in terms of stamina.
15) Paws
The paws of the German Shepherd are rounded and should be tight between the toes with a semi-circular arch. The bottom of the paws should be richly padded, capable of wear and tear, and should not have a brittle skin. The nails of the dog should be short, thick, strong and black in color.
16) Hind Legs
The position of the hind leg bones extends to the back of the Shepherd. From the back, the hind leg bones on both sides should be balanced, with the upper and lower thigh bones being almost the same length and the angle between the two bones at approximately 120 degrees. The thighs must be strong and powerful with good musculature. The claw joints must be strong, sturdy and located on the vertical line of the hind claws.
17) Skin
Tight and without any wrinkles.
18) Body Coat
The standard coat type for the German Shepherd is superficial and undercoat. The superficial coat must be dense, straight and stiff, and densely covered. The hair on the head, ears, paws and legs must be long and dense. The hair on the hind legs may form a “pants” like hair-rich area.
19) Color
The basic color of the German Shepherd’s coat should be black with some brown, reddish brown, golden brown and light gray. In addition, there is a German Shepherd whose basic coat color is gray with clouds of black hair, and whose back and face are both black. Then again, the chest and ribs of the Shepherd can be white, and the inner side and lower side of the dog are allowed to be light white, but this color is not very desirable. The nasal hair of the dog must be completely black, too little black hair on the face, too little black hair around the eyes, and light or white nails and tail tips should be considered as lacking pigmentation. The lower body coat of the Shepherd should be light gray. White is not allowed.
20) Height and Weight
Males: Height 60~65 cm Females: Height 55~60 cm
Weight 30~40 kg Weight 22~32 kg
21) Testicles
Males must have a pair of testicles and they must be well developed in the scrotum.
22) Defects
Any deviation from the above criteria will be considered as a defect in the German Shepherd, and the severity of the defect can be accurately identified as a grade.
23) Severe Defects
Any deviation from the above breeding standard for Shepherds, which affects the utility and ornamental qualities of the Shepherd, is considered a serious defect in the Shepherd. In addition, a Shepherd’s lack of pigmentation, overweight, laxity and laziness, loss of or deficiencies in orientation, and poorly developed paws will also be considered as having a serious defect.
24) Defects in the ears
Both ears grow too low on the sides of the skull. The ears are soft and the tips of the ears are rolled over.
25) Defects that should never be used for breeding
1, Fragile personality and excessive neuroticism, as well as nervous hissing.
2, Proven severe hip disorder.
3, Mono-vocal howling, crying and testicular deformities.
4, Deformity of the tail and ears.
5, The dog has mutilation.
6, Canine teeth are incomplete.
7, The dog has mutilated paws.
8, More than or less than 1 cm above the normal height standard of German Shepherd.
9, Albinism.
10, If the dog’s head hair is white. (Of course, if the dog’s nose and eye hair is still black, it is recognized.)
11, Medium-length hair dog (soft, long, loose hair on the head, especially the hair on the inside and outside of the ears is too long; the hair on the back of the front and back legs is too long; the hair on the lower part of the tail is too long).
12, Long-haired dog (completely without epidermal fleece, and the dog’s hair drops from the middle of the back to the sides of the body).
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