GSD PARTNERSHIP - PLANNED IMPROVEMENT PROGRAMME (PIP)

The GSD Partnership is made up of the following National GSD organisations: These being the German Shepherd Dog Breed Council (GSD-BC), the British Association of German Shepherd Dogs (BAGSD) and the German Shepherd Dog League of Great Britain (GSDL).

THE GERMAN SHEPHERD DOG - THE KENNEL CLUB - THE REALITY

Would the Kennel Club register a blind and deaf pure bred litter of puppies from parents with severe dysplasia, severe elbow dysplasia, epilepsy and haemophilia?

OUR BREEDS FUTURE IN OUR HANDS

Here in the United Kingdom, the Kennel Club (KC) and our newly formed GSD Partnership (made up of the GSD Breed Council, BAGSD & GSD League) have considered our breeds future development and progress may be best served within the Kennel Clubs “accredited breeders scheme”. Even by any cursory examination of this KC scheme, all it offers is an opportunity to condemn our breed to apathy and stagnation for the foreseeable future.

THE KENNEL CLUB & THE GSD COMMUNITY ARE AT THE CROSSROADS

The GSD Partnership was formed in October 2008 for the first time ever to represent all the GSD Breed Clubs and present “one voice, one aim” to the KC on Health and Welfare issues of the GSD and present the GSD Planned Improvement Programme (PIP) for discussion. The GSD Partnership further received an overwhelming mandate from the Breed Council and the two largest Breed Clubs to work together to work with the KC and encourage the KC to gradually implement Mandatory Health requirements for all KC registered GSDs

RISING TO THE CHALLENGE - 2009

Here in the UK we are fully capable of developing a  new system for our breed, which includes using the Kennel Club for all of our REGISTRATIONS, This is the core function of the Kennel Club, as they have stated, “the KC is the ‘Somerset House’ for pedigree dog registrations”. This will include all matters relating to our dogs registrations, including export pedigrees, transfers of ownership, registration of litters, etc. This also provides the opportunity for those who wish to
 participate in Kennel Club licensed shows and events, to do so. When it comes to the knowledge, expertise and dedication required to make the necessary progress
with an individual breed, especially the GSD breed, the Kennel Club is very clearly more of a hindrance than a help.

THE KENNEL CLUB - GSD BREED CLUB "UNDERTAKING"

The Kennel Club has been waiting since July 2009 for the GSD community as a whole to suggest a meaningful and practical way forward which addresses those health and welfare issues in the breed which have been legitimately raised by the Kennel Club. This has not happened and the Kennel Club, as it indicated it mi
ght three weeks ago, has now chosen to take some proactive steps with those individual breed clubs which are prepared to help. This is an attempt to safeguard the health and welfare of the breed and to secure its future and has been the Kennel Club’s sole motivation throughout its discussions with the GSD breed community.

THE GSD LEAGUE LETTER TO THE KENNEL CLUB - THE KC GSD UNDERTAKING - 2010

In response to the Kennel Club ‘Undertaking’ issued to the German Shepherd Dog Breed Clubs

allocated Championship status, I write to inform you that the German Shepherd Dog League of

Great Britain recognises that from 2012 it will no longer be allocated Kennel Club Challenge

Certificates for the German Shepherd. The Club put the decision to its full membership and it

was a unanimous decision not to sign the ‘Undertaking’.

THE GSD LEAGUE LETTER TO THE KENNEL CLUB - THE KC GSD UNDERTAKING - 2010 (GERMAN)

als Antwort auf den in der “Zusicherung” des Kennel Clubs erwähnten Championship-Status im

Zusammenhang mit den DSH-Zuchtvereinen möchte ich Sie darüber in Kenntnis setzen, dass

die Deutsche Schäferhund-Liga Großbritanniens zur Kenntnis genommen hat, dass ihr ab 2012

für Deutsche Schäferhunde keine Kennel Club Challenge Certificates mehr zugeteilt werden.

Der Club hat eine Entscheidung aller Mitglieder ver anlasst; es wurde einstimmig entschieden,

dass man die “Zusicherung” nicht unterzeichnen werde.

THE GSD LEAGUE - OUR FUTURE PLANS

A complete review of our strategy, aims and objectives, primarily based on the future health and welfare of our breed, is now taking place. This follows Annual General Meeting, where a wide range of views were expressed concerning the way forward. The general consensus was that the futile

discussions with the Kennel Club over the previous year or so, had brought into sharper focus those views of the members that had only been voiced previously at club level. our stimulating It

was precisely these views which had contributed to the formulation of the Planned

Improvement Programme (PIP), which had been presented to the Kennel Club during the  unproductive GSD Partnership meetings.