By permanently changing these characteristics, the animal looses his identity and fails to be recognized as that which has been defined in the standard. These changes are affected not only by the external conditions, but also by genetic base, especially at the time when for creating the Czechoslovakian wolfdog two very different elements were used – German shepherd and European wolf. We cannot be too surprised then, that in their offspring, both characteristics of the dog and the wolf appear: the good ones but also the bad ones. Our goal - as judges, breeders and advisors of the breed – is the attempt to favour the positive characteristics, which make the animal conform to the standard. While at the same time to point at the characteristics, which do not match the standard.

The standard of the Czechoslovakian wolfdog has been developed, as well as the hybrids of the wolf and dog. The first attempt of creating the standard was in 1965 and it corresponded with the historical conditions and shape of the hybrids. Since then, the standard passed many corrections. The final standard was issued by the decision of the chairman of the Breeding club, mjr. Rosík, after the materials came back from FCI, being sent there without approval of the board of the Club.

On the final processing of the standard for FCI cooperated from the Slovak side the chairman of the club mjr. Frantisek Rosik, also Mr. Jozef Sopuch and Mr. Oskár Dóra, from the Czech side the advisor of the breed pplk. Ing. Karel Hartl. Mrs. Spanikova translated the whole standard into German. This took place at a conference in Bratislava and on June 13 1989 at the conference of FCI in Helsinki, the standard of the breed was approved under No. 332. Czechoslovakian wolfdog was then classed amongst the breeds that are joining FCI for a trial period of 10 years. In 1993, at a conference of CMKU (Czech and Moravian Kynological Union) represented by Dr. Filipova, Mrs. Ticha and the Slovak Kynological Union represented by Ing. Stefik, mjr. Rosik and Mr. Dóra, both sides agreed, that the guarantor of the breed would be Slovak Republic through the Slovak Kynological Unity.

The goal of us all is to favour the individuals that are close to being in harmony with the standard. There are many of them, but there are also individuals that deviate from the standard in some of the features of the body. If these bad features would be missed and such animals would be presented as almost perfect, we would risk the danger of damaging the breed, its next generation and the breeders themselves. To favour or point the failures and defects as positive features matching the standard would bring us to ruin. Naturally none of us wants this.

Now, let me please at least shortly to describe some of the basic morphology, highlighting the difference between Czechoslovakian wolfdog and German shepherd.

The head is the most characteristic part of the dog’s body in every breed. Here, the most typical features are centralized. At first sight, even from a few steps away, our gaze stops on the ear, which is by the size and shape typical for Czechoslovakian wolfdog. From closer we can see that the standing ear is slim, covered by fur and its size does not exceed 1/6 of the height of the dog. The ears are symmetrical, they are not pointing to the sides, and they are not soft. Simply put they are wolfish. The basic differences between the ears of GSD and CSW can be seen since the puppy age. While the Czechoslovakian wolfdog has the ears up since his 4-5 weeks of age, the ears are very little (which is a positive trait from the wolf), the ears of German shepherd will stand up between 4 – 6 months of his age. In comparison with CSW, his ears are very big and they exceed 1/6 of the height of the dog. From these reasons, the big ear is manifestation of negative effect of German shepherd to the Czechoslovakian wolfdog.

The next stop of our gaze, like it or not, are the eyes of the dog. They are beautiful and with their almond shape, slant shape and specific brown-yellow amber colour they give the head of CSW a typical wolfish look. The flow line of the outer corners of the eye is at least 1 cm higher than the flow line of the inner corners of the eye. In German shepherds, the flow line of the outer and inner corners of the eye is the same, or almost the same. Also, in the colour of the eyes there are big differences. The manifestation of the dark colour of the eyes is evidence of the negative effect of GSD. Also the untypical shape and placing, or untypical colour of the eye are clearly defects.

Next feature, which affects the typical head shape, is the correct proportion of the length of the muzzle compared to the length of the skull part. According to the standard, it should be 1:1,5. In the GSD, both these parts are the same length (1:1).

The mask marks a very important and very clear difference between the head of GSD and CSW. The mask of CSW is highlighted by the light colour on the head, lips of the upper and lower jaws, lower part of the neck and front part of the chest. Featureless mask or missing mask is another warning of greater amount of the features of German shepherd in Czechoslovakian wolfdog.

Now I will shortly mention the height of the front leg up to the elbow, and also the tail of the dog. The height of the front leg to the elbow should be 55% of the height of the dog. The height is directly affected by the height of the forearm, angle and height of the pastern. It directly affects the performance and endurance of Czechoslovakian wolfdog. It is one of the basic requirements that should not be broken, if we do not want to go several years back.

Next typical difference is the length of tail. A German shepherd’s tail is long sometimes going down to the ground it is carried with “hook” or with “curve” into a side. For a Czechoslovakian wolfdog, the correct length of the tail is to the heel ankle. To make it clear for everybody and to unify judging, a long tail is considered such one that exceeds with its black part the centre of the heel ankle. The hook or curved tail is a clear defect for everyone to see.

It is very unfortunate, when the judge “misses” one of these failures and judges the dog, as if it had no failures at all. In the mentioned cases, we do not speak about a temporary state. It is a very permanent state. The long tail will not shorten, the leg will not grow up, the eye will not turn lighter, nor will the ear shorten up.

The incorrect work and function of the judges while judging and as well as the low qualifications of the advisors of the breed and the breeders themselves are very bad for the development of the breed.

The Club of the breeders of Czechoslovakian wolfdog, as the guarantor of FCI, in the concern of the unifying the evaluation on the dog shows and bonitations, uses the bonitation card to point the failures, with which the dog can be judged as excellent, with which failures it can be judged as good etc. It is used both on dog shows and bonitations. If the other judges, advisors of the breed and breeders use the system as well, then the same dog which is judged as excellent in Budapest will be excellent also in Vienna, Berlin, Prague, Brno, Bratislava, or anywhere else. This way the unity of opinions while explaining the standard and judging the animals would be reached.

By this activity, we would make much easier and better work for all those that are occupying themselves with breeding, it’s planning and controlling.

MVDr Frantisek Rosik (Slovakia)