4G 
The Shepherd or Police Dog 
too much of a point and with this we usually get 
the incorrect carriage in too much outward slant. 
There is not much to criticize in the eyes and we also 
get fairly good necks. When we take the next point 
in the standard, the body, there is much to be de¬ 
sired. The bodies of the majority of our Shepherds 
could be longer and the chests could be deeper. 
There is considerable misunderstanding about the 
length of the Shepherd body, the erroneous impres¬ 
sion exists with many that length of body is length 
of loin. While the Shepherd has a large, strong 
loin, it must be proportionate to the general body 
length; the loin is very important in the Shepherd, 
since it is the fulcrum of the power as it is distributed 
between the forehand and the hindquarters, and a 
long, thin loin would mean not only a wabbly frame, 
but an absolute lack of the co-ordination that makes 
a perfect Shepherd gait. 
There could be, too, an improvement in the tails 
of our dogs; these seem to lack length and length 
is important, since the tail has a certain influence 
as a rudder in the gait; long-tailed dogs have the 
smooth, gliding gait, while those with short tails 
usually have a choppy, bobbing movement. In fore¬ 
quarters our dogs are not bad, occasionally one sees 
the stilty shoulder that is undesirable, but they 
are rare. Our greatest failing is, without a doubt, 
in our inability to produce perfect hindquarters; 
these as a rule are too straight. The fault here. I 
think, can be attributed to our early sires, many of 
