A question for the GSD specialists out there!

I have friends who own a delightful GSD bitch, with a superb temperament, friendly to both people and dogs. Her only outward fault (she's not yet hipscored etc) is that both her ears flop over to the right - is that called 'soft ear'? How serious a fault is that? Would that rule her out of a breeding programme?
:)

Hello Jeangenie,

I am not a GSD specialist, but I think if you want to breed to improve the type and for showing you should think carefully as I think this is a fairly serious fault (cosmeticly....sorry can't spell :D ).

If you are breeding for obedience/agility or some other kind of work, then as long as the hips and other hereditary tests come back good, and her temperament is excellant, I don't see a problem......personally!

manda
X

Hi
To be honest there are enough dogs with faults out there and as breeders we are struggling to breed the best and eliminate faults so a dog or bitch with soft ears should not be bred from.If a gsd is wanted for working there are plenty of correct ones to choose from, so IMHO no I don't agree with breeding from a gsd with a fault like this...sorry :)
The whole purpose for breeding is to produce better.. in my opinion to enhance the breed so a dog of any breed with a fault as profound as this should be discounted in any part of breeding.
Tracey

I thought that's what the answer would be. It's not my dog, you understand, but I thought I'd read somewhere that soft ears were a major cosmetic fault in GSDs, and when my friend mentioned they were wondering whether to breed from her I decided to 'ask the experts'!

I'll try to tactfully put them off........
Thanks!
:)

Hi
Yes yu will have to be very diplomatic :) they probably love her to bits , she would probabaly make an excellent mum and she probably looks gorgeous with floppy ears :)
Tracey

I'm with Tracey on this one.
We have a large enough breeding population in the breed that we shouldn't need to breed on from obvious faults like that.

Nicky

Thanks Nicky :D
Tracey