Nowhere in the GSD breed standard does it say the topline should slope from front to back. If it does, highlight the bit where it says so.
Becky

You've aleady posted the except from the standard, the difference is in how you interpret it. If you don't believe me (I did my initial judge's training course with the GSD League under breed experts - Percy Elliot, Roy & Clarissa Allen, Brian Wooton), and judge the breed, then check up on GSD forums etc.

Not in my breed, thankfully, or the majority I believe but I do agree some breeds, that I am not knowledgable enough to discuss specifically, do look to have compromised health issues but it seems to me that those issues are best tackled within the Breed club rather than people going it alone as it does not seem to me that "pet" breeders, despite their best intentions at attempting to redress these exaggerations are able to escape the pitfalls of all the other breeding requirements that I have outlined above. I will say again that I don't have any great knowledge of the breeds that I think you are alluding to but it does seem to me that even amongst these breeds there are breeders managing to successful breed and show healthier examples so some scope there for purchasers to seek them out and encourage more of the same don't you think?

Hmm yes, possibly but I don't think anyone who is not inclined to join the spectacle of the show world should have to, just to justify breeding. There are other ways to evaluate breeding stock.

The sentence I printed refers to the withers. You can't take a bit of a sentence and say it refers to something it clearly does not. In gramma you should be able to remove the bits in commas and the sentence will still read.
Hence "Withers long, of good height and well defined, joining back in a smooth line without disrupting flowing topline, slightly sloping from front to back" can have all the bits inside a comma removed (, of good height and well defined, joining back in a smooth line without disrupting flowing topline) and still read Withers long slightly sloping from front to back
You have to take the sentence as a whole, and the sentence I have quoted refers solely to the withers.
Becky

Yes, I think that may be true. I suppose you could ask a few, impartial, experienced breeders to give you an opinion but I think you will still miss out a lot by not networking at shows and seeing other breeders efforts, have first hand knowledge of what your chosen stud dogs antecedents and produce looked like for instance. Was this what you were thinking of or can you see other ways of doing it as effectively?

That's why I said at the very least you should have your dog assessed. I know several breeds hold assessment days so you should be able to get some sort of evaluation on your dog.
Becky

I agree, there are many who have excellent quality dogs which would / are beneficial to the betterment of their breeds, [ certain breed standards not included imo ], but are not in to Showing or working their dogs for one reason or another, and while there are Breed Clubs with ethical expectations, there are no actual governing bodies as such regulating ethical and healthy breeding.

I would like to see something formal and legally enorceable set up for each breed, something with more `ooomph` than a Breed club, perhaps a law / regs so that whether people Show or work dogs or not, no one anywhere, be it a `top` breeder or Mrs Miggins round the corner with her nice little dog, should be allowed to breed for any reason unless their dogs are formally assessed plus health tested which should be, [ imo ], a legal requirement, full stop.

I know a lot of people will disagree on a `personal rights` aspect and will feel society has enough laws as it is, but to me, how people might feel about it is irrelevent.
The current licensing system is totally inadequate, it would be laughable if it were`nt for the fact that dogs suffer daily as a result of it being so lax.
Its dogs being bred so much and so badly which causes me to believe that they should have the right to protection from the unscrupulous or ignorant, human ego or anti-big brother or whatever should not come in to it.

Any breeders already doing everything right, [ whether Showing or not ], would not be phased by such a law / regs if they were implemented, and frankly I would expect them to welcome something like that on behalf of dogs - I`d be suspicious if they didn`t...

Just getting back on thread. I've been told one of our top kennels from the past would keep two out of each litter, a girl to show and a girl to breed from as the show girls didnt neccesarily produce the best stock, and they preffered to breed from something a bit heavy than you see in the ring.
All my puppies have gone to pet homes, are endorsed not to be breed from, however if they health check the puppy i have no objections what so ever to removing the restrictions and letting them breed.
On the subject of show breeders selling substandard stock to pet home, just because in the breeders opinion its not good enough to show it doesnt mean that the animals inferior just that the breeder prefers another form the litter.
What are we supposed to do wiht the ones that dont exactly meet the show standard if we dont sell them to pet home?

Becky, this is hardly a relevant topic for this thread. If you have a problem with the grammar of the GSD standard, I suggest you take it up with the GSD fraternity and the Kennel Club.