The German Shepherd, also known in Britain as an Alsatian, is a German breed of working dog of medium to large size. Its historical role was as a herding dog, for herding sheep. It has since been used in many other types of work, including disability assistance, search-and-rescue, police work, and warfare.
The breed gained international recognition after the end of World War I. The breed was developed by Max von Stephanitz using various traditional German herding dogs from 1899. During the 1890s, attempts were being made to standardise dog breeds. Dogs were being bred to preserve traits that assisted in their job of herding sheep and protecting their flocks from predators.
In Germany this was practised within local communities, where shepherds selected and bred dogs. In 1899, von Stephanitz was attending a dog show when he was shown a dog named Hektor Linksrhein. Hektor was the product of a few generations of selective breeding and completely fulfilled what von Stephanitz believed a working dog should be. He was pleased with the strength of the dog and was so taken by the animal's intelligence, loyalty, and beauty, that he purchased him immediately.
After purchasing the dog he changed his name to Horand von Grafrath and von Stephanitz founded the Verein für Deutsche Schäferhunde (Society for German Shepherd Dogs). Horand was declared to be the first German Shepherd Dog, and was the first dog added to the society's breed register. In just a few decades of the Verein für Deutsche Schäferhunde's establishment, the breed became one of the world's most popular and numerous, a position it has maintained to this day.
Early Breeding and Development
Horand became the center-point of the breeding programs and was bred with dogs belonging to other society members that displayed desirable traits and with dogs from Thuringia, Franconia, and Württemberg. Fathering many pups, Horand's most prolific was Hektor von Schwaben. Hektor was inbred with another of Horand's offspring and produced Heinz von Starkenburg, Beowulf, and Pilot, who later sired a total of 84 pups, mostly through being inbred with Hektor's other offspring.
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This inbreeding was deemed necessary in order to fix the traits being sought in the breed. Beowulf's progeny also were inbred and it is from these pups that all German Shepherds draw a genetic link.
German Shepherd - Full History
Association with Nazi Germany
During the first half of the twentieth century, the breed came to be strongly identified with Imperial and Nazi Germany, because of its association with purity and militarism. German Shepherds were coveted as "germanische Urhunde," being close to the wolf, and became very fashionable during the Nazi era. Adolf Hitler acquired a German Shepherd named "Prinz" in 1921, during his years of poverty, but he had been forced to lodge the dog elsewhere.
However, she managed to escape and return to him. Hitler, who adored the loyalty and obedience of the dog, thereafter developed a great liking for the breed. Hitler kept several more of the breed, including Blondi, who was among several dogs in the 'Führerbunker' during the Battle of Berlin at the end of the Second World War.
When the UK Kennel accepted registrations in 1919, 54 German Shepherds were registered. By 1926 this number had grown to over 8000. Returning soldiers spoke highly of the breed and animal actors Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart popularised the breed further. The first German Shepherd Dog registered in the United States was Queen of Switzerland.
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Popularity increased again after Sieger Pfeffer von Bern became the 1937 and 1938 Grand Victor in American Kennel Club dog shows, only to have another decline at the conclusion of World War II, due to anti-German sentiment. Popularity increased gradually until 1993, when they became the third most popular breed in the United States.
A classic tan and black German Shepherd standing alert.
Physical Characteristics
German Shepherds are longer than they are tall, with an ideal proportion of 10 to 8+1⁄2. The AKC official breed standard does not set a standard weight range. They have a domed forehead, a long square-cut muzzle with strong jaws and a black nose. The eyes are medium-sized and brown. The ears are large and stand erect, open at the front and parallel, but they often are pulled back during movement.
A German Shepherd has a long neck, which is raised when excited and lowered when moving at a fast pace as well as stalking. German Shepherds have a double coat which is close and dense with a thick undercoat. The coat is accepted in two variants: medium and long. The gene for long hair is recessive, and therefore the long-haired variety is rarer. Most commonly, German Shepherds are either tan/black or red/black.
Most colour varieties have black masks and black body markings which can range from a classic "saddle" to an overall "blanket." Rarer colour variations include sable, pure-black, pure-white, liver, silver, blue, and panda varieties.
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Varieties of German Shepherds
- The Shiloh Shepherd is a variety of the German Shepherd bred in the United States.
- The White Shepherd is a variety of the German Shepherd bred in the United States. White-coated German Shepherds were once banned from registration in their native Germany, but in the United States and Canada the coloration gained a following and a breed club was formed specifically for white German Shepherds, calling their variety the White Shepherd.
- The White Swiss Shepherd Dog (French: Berger Blanc Suisse, German: Weisser Schweizer Schäferhund, Italian: Pastore Svizzero Bianco) is a variety of the German Shepherd bred in Switzerland. It descends from the American White Shepherds; the first stud dog of what was to become the breed was an American dog born in 1966 and imported to Switzerland.
A White Swiss Shepherd, a variation of the German Shepherd.
Temperament and Behavior
German Shepherds are moderately active dogs and are described in breed standards as self assured. The breed is marked by a willingness to learn and an eagerness to have a purpose. The breed standard describes them as curious, a trait desirable in roles like guard dogs and search missions.
Health Issues
German Shepherds have a higher-than-normal incidence of Von Willebrand disease, a common inherited bleeding disorder, and exocrine pancreatic insufficiency (EPI), a degenerative disease of the pancreas. Canine hip dysplasia (CHD) is the abnormal formation of the hip joint and surrounding tissue causing instability and partial dislocation of the hip joint, resulting in pain, inflammation, lameness, and potentially osteoarthritis of the joint.
A North American study analysing more than 1,000,000 hip and 250,000 elbow scans in dogs over the age of two found the German Shepherd Dog to have a rate of hip and elbow dysplasia to be 18.9% and 17.8% respectively. Congenital hyposomatotropism, also known as pituitary dwarfism has been known to be an autosomal recessive disorder in the German Shepherd dog for a long time. The condition causes growth retardation.
The puppy coat is retained into adulthood and guard hairs fail to fully develop outside of the distal extremities. Eventually, full alopecia occurs. Investigations into the genealogy in 1978 found the mutation evolved in 1940 or earlier. Multiple champions have been shown to be carriers of the mutation, explaining the spread and prevalence of the disorder. This condition has been observed in breeds that were crossed with German Shepherd dogs such as the Karelian Bear dog, Saarloos Wolfhound, and the Czechoslovakian Wolfdog. Untreated dogs usually live between 3-5 years.
Working Roles
German Shepherds are a popular selection for use as working dogs. They are known for being easy to train and good for performing tasks and following instructions. They are especially well known for their police work, being used for tracking criminals, patrolling troubled areas and detecting and holding suspects. Additionally, thousands of German Shepherds have been used by the military.
These military working dogs (MWD) are usually trained for scout duty, and they are used to warn soldiers of the presence of enemies or of booby traps or other hazards. German Shepherds have also been trained by military groups to parachute from aircraft or as anti-tank weapons. The German Shepherd is one of the most widely used breeds in a wide variety of scent-work roles. These include search and rescue, cadaver searching, narcotics detection, explosives detection, accelerant detection and mine detection, among others.
A Military Working Dog demonstrating a bite sleeve take-down.
Guide Dogs and Herding
At one time the German Shepherd was the breed chosen almost exclusively to be used as a guide dog for the visually impaired. When formal guide dog training began in Switzerland in the 1920s under the leadership of Dorothy Eustis, all of the dogs trained were German Shepherd females. An experiment in temperament testing of a group of Labrador Retrievers and German Shepherds showed that the Retrievers scored higher on average in emotional stability, ability to recover promptly from frightening situations, cooperative behaviour and friendliness; while the German Shepherds were superior in aggression and defensive behaviour.
Currently, Labradors and Golden Retrievers are more widely used for this work, although there are still German Shepherds being trained. German Shepherds are still used for herding and tending sheep grazing in meadows next to gardens and crop fields. They are expected to patrol the boundaries to keep sheep from trespassing and damaging the crops.
Notable German Shepherds
One Mexican German Shepherd, Zuyaqui, was dissected and his body put on display at the Sedena's "Narco Museum" in Mexico. In 1921 Strongheart became one of the earliest canine film stars, and was followed in 1922 by Rin Tin Tin.
Kántor [hu] was a famous and very successful police dog in Hungary in the 1950s and early 1960s. After his death his story was fictionalised by two crime novels by Rudolf Szamos [hu], titled Kántor Investigates [hu] and Kántor in the Big City. A five-part thriller series for television titled Kántor was produced in 1975, which was loosely based on the actual dog's story, setting the events more than a decade after the real Kántor died. It became one of the staple productions of Hungarian television history, making German Shepherds the most popular dog breed in the country ever since.
Muhtar, protagonist of the Soviet detective film Come Here, Mukhtar! Major, police dog later kept as a pet of United States president Franklin D.
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| Dysplasia Type | Percentage |
|---|---|
| Hip Dysplasia | 18.9% |
| Elbow Dysplasia | 17.8% |
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