What iis the differents in a straight back and slope back german shepards?

Question

I've seen german shepard with slope backs(high at the front sholder) and straight backs. What is the differents and why?

Answer 1

General Appearance
The first impression of a good German Shepherd Dog is that of a strong, agile, well muscled animal, alert and full of life. It is well balanced, with harmonious development of the forequarter and hindquarter. The dog is longer than tall, deep-bodied, and presents an outline of smooth curves rather than angles. It looks substantial and not spindly, giving the impression, both at rest and in motion, of muscular fitness and nimbleness without any look of clumsiness or soft living.

Answer 2

German Shepherds with the very slope-y (aka angulated) rear ends are most typically from American Show lines. American working lines and German show and working lines tend to have the straighter backs. Some amount of angulation is valuable in a working shepherd, but the unfortunately, the show lines in the U.S. developed extreme angles because that look was rewarded in the show ring so breeders began to breed for that conformation.

It is part of conventional wisdom that the straight backs have less incidence of hip displasia, though I'm not sure that there is any real evidence of that -- straight backed shepherds are still highly prone to HD if breeders are not careful. I still prefer the straight backs myself -- some of those highly angulated dogs have terrible movement and look downright crippled. Whether or not they're at higher risk for hip displasia, I don't like the fact that they've been altered away from "proper" movement for working just because that appearance gained popularity. I can't see how that's any good for them.

Answer 3

Straight backed German Shepherds are usually from an older European breeding program. They tend to have less hip displaysia problems than slope-backed dogs. More often than not, what we see in North American are the slope-backed dogs which are considered to be the "standard" in the breed.
Good for you for even knowing that there is a straight backed variant which most people are unaware of!