My opinion on L/C have been well documented over the years and really to be honest they haven't changed much. As beautiful as they are I can't see how a dog with an excessive amount of coat can ever be a practical working dog .. and at the end of the day a GSD is a working dog. But the KC have moved the goal post and now both coat varieties as considered acceptable, therefore an honest judge who follows the blue print of the breed will put the best dog forward despite their personal opinion on whether a L.C is a genetic fault .. or not!
The breed standard reads ..
Two separate varieties of coat.
Outer coat consisting of straight, hard, close-lying hair as dense as possible; thick undercoat. Hair on head, ears, front of legs, paws and toes short; on neck, longer and thicker; in some males forming slight ruff. Hair longer on back of legs as far down as pasterns and hocks, forming fairly thick trousers on hindquarters. Mole-type coats are undesirable.
In long coats, outer coat longer, not always straight and frequently not lying close and flat to the body. Thick undercoat. Coat distinctly longer inside and behind the ears, forming moderate tufts. Longer hair on the back of the forelegs, through to the loins, and dense feathering on the hindlegs. Tail bushy with light feathering underneath
