Gsd Universal Siegers - The Reason So Many Winners Of The Title Are Not Good Show Breeds

In 1997 the German S.V, the controlling body for German Shepherds worldwide, introduced a new award to be presented at the Sieger breed show, held every year in Germany.

This award - known as "Universal Sieger" - would be given to the dog, entered in both the breed show and also the competition for working dogs, the "Bundessiergerprufung", with the best performance in both shows.

In principle the idea was a very good one. The S.V. were aware that a situation had developed in Germany where there was a sharp division between working dog breeders and breeders of show dogs. Many of the working dog breeders were not making use of breed dogs in their breeding programs. Neither were breeders of show dogs making use of working dogs.

The purpose of this new "Universal Sieger" award was to draw attention to the dual purpose qualities of the German Shepherd - which seemed to have been overlooked - and to remind everyone that the German Shepherd was essentially a working dog. This was guiding principle laid down by the founder of the breed, von Stephanitz, so many years ago.

The S.V obviously hoped to encourage breeders of show animals to pay more attention to temperament and working ability, and also to try and persuade breeders of working dogs to improve the construction of their working animals by breeding animals that conformed more closely to the breed standard.

The title" Universal Sieger" has led to a great deal of confusion. The reason for this is because the title is often confused with other awards of the same name. There is a show open to dogs from many different countries, known as the "Weltmeisterschaft", at which the title is also awarded.

There are also shows held in the United States, started in 1998, at which this title is also awarded.

Since the purpose of this article is to focus on the extent to which the S.V. were successful in achieving their objective of encouraging greater co-operation between breeders of show dogs and breeders of working dogs, the "Universal Siegers" we will discuss will only be those who won the title at the German Sieger Shows.

As it very relevant to our study, the pedigrees of these "Universal Siegers" will also be discussed in some detail.

Our study unfortunately shows that this very commendable goal of the S.V met with very limited success. In the period from 1997, when the first "Universal Sieger" title was awarded, to the present, there were only limited occasions when the title of "Universal Sieger" was awarded to dogs of that could perform equally well in was well placed in the annual breed show and also the competition for working dogs but this didn't happen very often.

A huge gap exists between breeders of show dogs and breeders of working dogs. To the casual observer they sometimes appear to be dogs of completely different breeds. This is something that serious enthusiasts are very concerned about. The situation was not always like this. Years ago there were many show winning breed specimens that were also first class working dogs and top working dogs so well constructed they could compete in the breed ring