The German shepherd dog is known to be one of the most beautiful and devoted dogs around today. With its toughness and nobility, the breed can sometimes, unfortunately, get judged unfairly; though despite that, it still remains one of the most popular breeds of dog around today.
The History of the Breed
The German shepherd has not actually been around for a long period of time. It was developed in the late 1880’s when a man named Captain Max von Stephanitz decided to standardize the breed.
He saw a wolf like dog at a show in Western Germany and he noticed just how energetic, tough, steady and intelligent the dog actually was. It was medium in size and the dog was also a natural sheepherder which knew exactly what to do. So Captain Max von Stephanitz bought the dog and named him “Horand von Grafrath”.
That was the first ever registered German shepherd dog.
So the main purpose of the breed was to herd cattle and sheep. The main priority was to develop a dog which was intelligent and stable. The looks of the dog were not as important; just as long as the breed could herd really well that was all that mattered. If a dog was born that was not intelligent and which would not obey its owner then it was automatically classed as being useless.
At first, mistakes were made with inbreeding. Captain Max von Stephanitz would breed the pups with their half sisters and the daughters of dog’s sons. This created a lot of problems with the breed and eventually dogs were brought in that were not related by blood.
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