We had years ago a neighbor who had a tall big GSP boy named Sonny. His shoulders were around 30 inches at the withers. He had a big liver head too with liver ticked body. Our sons would toss him my soft balls. He picked the big soft balls up like nothing.Sonny is the biggest pure breed GSP I have ever seen. Would love to see some pics of Jay's tall GSP!!

Well I have been doing some research into the line Belle came out of with a little help from Wildrose.  Her parents were from a very good line of field and NSTRA dogs.  The more recent part of her pedigree is registered Field Dog Stud Book.  The older part of the pedigree is AKC registered as well.  I now know, thanks to Wildrose, that Belle comes out of his lines back several generations.  I am telling you guys this to let you know that Gus (Belle's dad) comes from good GSP lines and was a big boy (outside the standard for sure).  So, it can and does happen.  Belle is a big girl (barely in the the standard), but no where near as big as her dad.

I only know the size of Belle's dad because I met him when I got her (I also met her mother who was also a bigger female GSP).  Otherwise, there is no insight into size in the pedigree.  For Belle I had her pedigree 4 generations back from the Field Dog Stud Book.  I also had copies of pedigrees from some of the dogs in her pedigree from several different registries including AKC.  I happened to checkout Wildrose's website and recognized the names of some of his line and went back and checked Belle's pedigree.  Sure enough his line showed up.  So we had an email conversation. I was really happy to find out that she comes from a nice line of dogs.  Although bigger than most female GSPs, she is a wonderful example of the breed IMHO.

Bev, that is just awesome how you could trace Belle's line If you breed her you could have a strong chance of some tall puppies as adults

TessaGA, thanks for the DK info as Rocky would be ok with the DK having 27" withers.  The nicest thing about owning a tall GSP Rocky, is I donot have to bend at all to hang onto his collar. First dog I have ever owned in my married life I can say this about.

Rocky is not the tallest dog I have ever lived with, as my Parents surprised me with a St Bernard puppy when I was just 3  years old.

Marie -  It would truly be amazing if I bred Belle as she is spayed. But is was nice to be able to trace her lines.

I will take a picture of my GSP (Seamus) tonight and post it.

I am not saying bigger is better, I was just trying to add to the discussion that every dog is different.

Great!! you will post a picture of Seamus. For fun, I will tell you if he reminds me of Sonny, the 30" GSP who used to visit my house. Who knows , they could be distant relatives.  Never measured Sonny, but I know he was big as we still had our first GSP, Poge who was 14 years old at the time. Poge was 25 inches at the withers and Sonny towered over him. Sonny was tall as he was long. His owner used him for Wisconsin Goose hunting.

Here are pictures of my GSP, Seamus. One picture by himself, one pic with me and one pic with me and my 2 year-old son, Liam. 

Seamus is 16 months-old, 83lbs, 30 inches at the withers. I measured twice,  and checked to make sure I was measuring correctly. He is an AKC registered full blooded GSP, not a mix.

 I am not saying that because he is bigger that the standard, that he is better. It is just out of the ordinary.

Sorry the pictures are big, I am still learning.

That boy has legs.  He is beautiful.