German Shepherd – a Dog with Personality
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The German Shepherd Dog also called the Alsatian comes literally from the German Deutscher Schäferhund. The Alsatian is a relatively new breed of large-sized dog that dates from the late 19th century. They are part of the Herding group that was originally developed as a working dog for herding sheep.
The Alsatians strength, intelligence and obedience they are often employed in police and military roles. The Alsatian is nearly always one of the top three global breeds.
The original dog was named Hektor Linksrhein. He so stunned Von Stephanitz that he bought it and changed the dogs name to Horand von Grafrath and founded the Society for the German Shepherd Dogs.
Horand became the focus of the German Shepherd breeding programs and was mated with many other society member dogs.
The German Shepherds popularity has increased quickly throughout the 20th Century, though it had some problems in popularity in the early days due to genetic health issues from poor inbreeding and after the world wars with anti German feelings. This caused the UK Kennel Club to rename it to “Alsatian Wolf Dog”, a while later the wolf dog appendage was dropped and in the late seventies, the breed officially became the German Shepherd Dog. The Alsatian popularity was helped by animal actors such as Rin Tin Tin and Strongheart. Now days it is in most countries the third most popular dog breed.
They are a large dog of between 55 and 65 centimetres (around 24 in) at the withers and weigh around 30 kilograms (60 lb).
The German Shepherd’s face has a long square cut muzzle, a doomed forehead, a long neck, powerful jaws, big erect ears (that are often pulled back when on the move), black nose and brown, medium-sized eyes. With a bushy tail.
German Shepherds come in many colours, the most common being the tan/black and red/black varieties with black saddles and masks. Less common versions include the sable, all-black, all-white, liver and blue varieties, which may not fit country breed standards. Alsatians have a double coat. A thick close dense outer coat, which is shed all year round and a thick undercoat. There is also the rare long-hair variant.
The Alsatian, like many working dogs is very intelligent, and are considered to be the third most intelligent breed of dog (Border Collies is deemed to be number one by Stanley Coren in his book The Intelligence of Dogs). This attribute combined with the Alsatians power makes the German Shepherd desirable as police, guard, and search and rescue dogs, being able to quickly learn various tasks and interpret instructions better than other large breeds.
German Shepherds have a reputation for aggression and have been banned in areas as a result. Statistically, in the USA, the German Shepherd is responsible for more random bites than any other breed, and have a known tendency to attack smaller dog breeds.
Additionally studies have shown that Alsatians are the breed third most likely to attack someone and in a different study, Alsatians accounted for almost half of the dog bites that needed medical attention, compared to a more typical twenty of bites requiring medical treatment, not surprising with their strong jaws and sharp canine teeth.
The problem is not with the dog, but the owners. As with all clever active dog (or person), if they are not regularly active and kept busy, they can become troublesome. The Alsatian needs to have puppy socialisation and good education from an early stage. Unlike the collie, where a lot of its aggressiveness has been breed out from show strains, the German Shepherd has not lost this streak.
The German Shepherd are great with the family they know, but can be over protective of their home and family – why they are a great guard dog. Due to this they may appear a bit aloof.
Alsatians learn well and are very obedient and not easily diverted, but due to their strong personality, you need to be very forceful with them.
The German Shepherd will need to have two good walks a day. They are not a dog for a busy family without time for attention. For this reason, busy families regularly ask professional dog walkers such as London dog walking to help out by walking them for a few hours a day.
Poor breeding has led to common genetic health issues, hip and elbow joint problems (dysplasia) which is painful for the dog and may cause arthritis. The Alsatian also suffers from monorchidism (one testicle), weakness of temperament, and missing teeth, as well as folded or bent ears which never fully turn up when reaching adulthood. The Alsatian is often has ear problems due to his large and open ears.
Alsatians, like many deep bodied dogs are prone to bloat, this is often fatal, so if in doubt consult a vet. Bloat is a gas build up in the stomach, caused for varying reasons. The symptoms of distress for no apparent reason, a firm distension of the abdomen, general weakness, depression, problems breathing, hypersalivation, and retching without vomiting. A high rate of dogs with bloat have cardiac arrhythmias (around 40 percent), loss of appetite, vomiting and weight loss.
The Alsatian often suffers from Degenerative Myelopathy, or DM is a neurological disease and are predisposed to Von Willebrand Disease, a common generic bleeding disorder, which shows in differing degrees of bleeding tendency, usually in the form of easy bruising, nosebleeds and bleeding gums. .
In spite of these problems, the Alsatian is robust with simple dog care and the average lifespan of a Alsatian is around 9 years, which is normal for a large dog breed.
The Alsatian has great olfactory sensitivity so is one of the often used in a many roles requiring this ability, including cadaver searching, search and rescue, explosives detection, narcotics detection and mine detection.
So the Alsatian is a great intelligent dog that will bond well with you, if you have the time and dedication for him. Not advised for busy working families.
July 3rd, 2011 at 7:56 pm
Never would have thunk I would find this so inidspesnalbe.