THE GSD League of GB this week revealed its future plans, which will include a complete review of its strategy, aims and objectives, primarily based on the future health and welfare of the breed, plans which, it says, are already taking place.

In a lengthy letter to the canine press and other interested parties, the League of GB said of its plans: ‘This follows our stimulating Annual General Meeting, where a widerange of views were expressed concerning the way forward. The general consensus was that the futile discussions with the Kennel Club, over the previous year or so, had brought into sharper focus those views of the members that had only been voiced previously at club level. It was precisely these views which had contributed to the formulation of the Planned Improvement Programme (PIP), which had been presented to the Kennel Club during the unproductive GSD Partnership meetings.

‘The GSD League had genuinely hoped that significant progress towards incremental mandatory health tests could have been developed with the Kennel Club, and had focused all its efforts in this direction over the years. The most significant progress was made when the British Sieger Event, based on WUSV rules and regulations, was introduced five years ago and held annually since then. The British Sieger Event included identification and health screening requirements, as well as appropriate working qualifications for entry into the Working classes. The British Sieger Event provided a major boost of interest and participation in our GSD Breed Survey Scheme, which is part of the entry requirements.

‘When discussions with the KC failed to achieve any meaningful progress, our attention, quite logically, turned to GSD Events based on WUSV rules and regulations, as a proven template for progressing improvements to the health and welfare of our breed.’

Main topic

The introduction of “GSDL/WUSV Regional GSD Events” was one of the main topics raised at the AGM, where exhibitors questioned the Council on how they saw the future. There were slight differences of opinion when different Council members answered such questions as to where the future lay, but the fundamentals were reported to be the same.

The GSD League said that its philosophy of continual mandatory health checks could ‘only be seen as a major advantage over any other organising body.’

However, it made clear its intention to adhere to KC Rules and Regulations during events under KC License, as well as making sure that judges would be expected to judge under the Kennel Club GSD breed standard.

In a reference to conformation in the breed, the League said that it recognised the need to identify all aspects of conformation in the breed, some of which had ‘strayed to an unacceptable degree away from the WUSV/SV Breed standard here in Great Britain.’ It also said that it would ‘prioritise’ unsoundness of hindquarters and looseness in hocks and oversized dogs. judges, it said, would be asked to penalise any of these faults accordingly. a Judges Seminar will be planned in the near future by the GSDL.

Meeting

This week has also seen a meeting planned between the KC and the 21 GSD Clubs who signed the Undertaking before the March 31st deadline, with two representatives from each Club along with representatives from the GSD Breed Council and Mr Brian Wootton, the KC Breed Liaison representative, invited to attend the Clarges Street get-together.

Mr Wootton said: ‘The meeting will doubtless be widely representative of the GSD fraternity and one looks forward to a co-operative consensus emerging on shared issues of concern.’

It will be a full day meeting covering canine conformation and movement as it relates to the German Shepherd Dog and a presentation on the education of judges.

There will also be plenty of opportunity for discussion between the delegates and speakers. The speakers will be; Mike Herrtage, Professor of Small Animal Medicine at Cambridge University and Dean of Cambridge Veterinary School; Bill Hardaway, Vice Chairman of the Kennel Club; Gerald King, Chairman of the Kennel Club Training Board and Gary Gray, Breeder, Judge & breed enthusiast.

It is intended that this will be the first of a number of meetings/seminars with the aim of putting in place sensible, effective and cohesive actions to address and improve soundness in the GSD.
John Cullen, Chairman of the GSD Breed Council, told OUR DOGS: ‘Davey Hall and myself will be representing the Breed Council at this meeting. It is pleasing that the Kennel Club have at last acknowledged the Breed Council. We will try to put the views of the clubs that have not signed and their reasons why and, as usual, we will continue to represent all clubs. The meeting has a detailed agenda, the speakers have none, so it would have been nice to know their topic and if it is relevant to the agenda. We hope this meeting will be a two way discussion. We will try to keep all channels open as we have done in the past, as we will achieve nothing without negotiation.’

OUR DOGS breed note writer, Sheila Rankin, told us: I am looking forward to the KC meeting with the Clubs that have signed the Undertaking. The Agenda is nothing like I anticipated, I was hoping that the meeting would be to deal with the concerns that the signing Clubs may have about the future of their Ch. Shows. But it is always a good thing to have fresh perspectives.

‘The meeting also gives me a problem about the advisability of going ahead with the Judges' Seminar/Conference in June. The 'Partnership' agreed last year to run this but nothing was done about it, so I suppose the KC got tired of waiting and decided to run its own. At the last Breed Council meeting in February the Clubs intimated that they wished the Breed Council to go ahead with the seminar and I have booked Stoneleigh for this, but it may not now be worth pursuing.

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