the german shepherd dog came from northwest europe.
where did the german shepherd dog come from?
northwest europe
a society named the phylax society formed in germany in 1891, with the intention of standardising dog breeds. the society disbanded in 1894, but many of the members continued to exhibit the ideologies promoted by the society. one of these members was captain max von stephanitz, the man now credited with being the father of the german shepherd dog. in 1899 while attending a show, von stephanitz was shown a dog named hektor linksrhein. von stephanitz was so impressed by hektor's intelligence, strength and obedience that he purchased the dog for 200 german gold marks and immediately formed the verein für deutsche schäferhunde (society for the german shepherd dog). von stephanitz admired the dog for its "obedient fidelity to [its] master." von stephanitz changed hektor's name to horand von grafrath and included him as the center-point of the society's breeding programs. the dog was then registered under a new breed registry, thus making horand von grafrath the first german shepherd dog.
horand von grafrath
in september 1995, a small group of fanciers of the white-coated german shepherd dog established the american white shepherd association (awsa), a new club to advance, promote and protect the white shepherd breed in the united states. in cooperation with the white shepherd club of canada, awsa wrote and published a new breed standard, and eventually petitioned the american kennel club for full recognition as a unique pure breed, separate from and independent of the german shepherd dog. as of this writing, akc has not granted recognition or registration for the white shepherd breed, but the breeders, fanciers and members of awsa carry on with independently-held club activities as well as running and maintaining the private club registry. awsa continues to negotiate with the akc for breed recognition as well as with the german shepherd dog club of america (gsdca) for breed separation. until such time as gsdca can be persuaded to grant official release of the white dogs, akc must continue to register all white german shepherd dogs born from two akc-registered german shepherd parents as german shepherd dogs.
white shepherd