Stephanitz 1901 - Page 2

Do you have a GSD Black Malinois?

I don´t try to judge about anything done during that time, I only try to understand why things happened the way they happened -
and reading the text from 1901 ( not the later, x-times remastered book ) seems to be the most authentic source we have about the beginning of our "young" breed.

I was tired of all the tell tales told about Stephanitz.

Fact is:

• Shows ( exhibitions ) for him have been the most important tool for creating "his" breed.
• He recognized early that a working dog breed needs to work, and that there must be some kind of official "proof" about it.
• He didn´t want to breed police dogs, he wanted to breed dogs able to live as active companions, and as working dogs ( at that time war- and ambulance dogs, later on police dogs ).
• He was inspired by herding dogs only, and he admired their "alertness, loyalty, incorruptibility, and guts" ( page 21 pdf )

@Blitzen

 Yes I have trained and worked with GSD at this moment I train  and work with  malinois and dutch shepherds

 

Let me try to understand this, from these early days in order for a dog to be " suitable for breeding" the absolute minimum requirements were 1) a show title and working title, 2) a show title only, 3) a working title only.....along with hip certs. Susie, please straighten me out on this so I can better understand things.

"He didn´t want to breed police dogs, he wanted to breed dogs able to live as active companions, and as working dogs ( at that time war- and ambulance dogs, later on police dogs )."

Susie, are those your parenthesis, or was that part of the translation?

In 1901 Germany was still pastoral and had farms .. the first GSD were farm dogs, herding dogs, and utility dogs .. not police or ambulance dogs ( no wars ).  On the German driving test there is a question about a dog pulling a cart which has the same rights as any vehicle on the road.  The police use of GSD in 1901 was minor and the GSD was one of several breeds used for police work including Rotties and Dobermans.  The word "shepherd" in German Shepherd Dog was not an accident.  Dobermans were I believe developed primarily as protection and guard dogs as were the Rottweiler but the GSD started as a herding and utility breed.  With the rapid industrialization of "some" parts of Germany the GSD was not as widely used as a herding dog but the herding uses held on prior to WWII.  The use of the GSD as a war dog and police dog was not a major use until the 1930's as Germany began militarization.  If you look at the 1920-1925 Siegers and Siegerins versus the 1935-1940 champion dogs the morphing of the GSD is clear.  Stephanitz died in 1936 but the control of the GSD  breed was ripped from his hands in the mid 1920's.  One of the first mentions of a Sch title as used for competition and determining the Siegerin or Sieger occurs with the 1935-1936 Siegerin Stella von Haus Schutting Sch H I .  The GSDCA site has the best lists of Siegers and Siegerins I have found thus far.  Who knew???

http://gsdca.org/GSDReviewed/GermanSiegers.html

http://gsdca.org/GSDReviewed/GermanSiegerin.htm

1919/20 Sgrn VA Anni von Humboldtpark

.

1925 Siegerien
Seffe v. Blasienberg

1935 & 36 Siegerein
Stella v. Haus Schutting SchH I

 

Gustav: "Let me try to understand this, from these early days in order for a dog to be " suitable for breeding" the absolute minimum requirements were 1) a show title and working title, 2) a show title only, 3) a working title only.....along with hip certs. Susie, please straighten me out on this so I can better understand things."

At this point (1901) suitable for breeding was what Stephanitz said, but he prefered a show title. so it´s 2).
They just had started herding trials, and they just started so called "war- and ambulance trials". SchH was in the beginning.
Hip certs - no way, how should they do that?
VERY IMPORTANT : He says that the "ultimate" winner will be the dog winning both show and trial ( I could search for this sentence, if you want so ).
Never forget that during this time the clubs started to form, but they were not really present yet.

Joanro: ""He didn´t want to breed police dogs, he wanted to breed dogs able to live as active companions, and as working dogs ( at that time war- and ambulance dogs, later on police dogs )."

Page 70: Here he describes 3 goals for the breed :

1. Betterment in body and mind of the working dog ( shepherd = herding )
2. Dogs suitable for interested amateurs
3. War- and ambulance dogs

This is written down in his own book, but he realized soon, that policework will be part of the future of his breed, just the foundation wasn´t set in 1901. Don´t forget, he was a theoretician, no practician, he was a show guy, because there he was able to evaluate "his" breed, but he was intelligent enough to understand, that working breeds need to proof their working abilities .

In case I had more time and access to all the remastered books, we would see for sure a lot of progress in his mind ( thinking about the versions up to the mid 20th - later on he didn´t have that much influence any more). Maybe I´ll do it one day... and that would be the end of a lot of tell tales...

Bubba, you are wrong, SchH titles became present very fast.
Take a look at this pedigree: http://de.working-dog.eu/dogs-details/15817/Roland-von-Starkenburg
Although no rule, a lot of dogs were titled.

A bit of German history that Susie can expand on.  Germany was unified in 1871 and grew very rapidly as an economic power so that by 1900 the economy of Germany and Britain were roughly equivalent.  The German GDP was about half the size of the USA economy I think by the outbreak of WWI.  In 1910 Germany had 64 million people and the USA 100 million.  Germany had social security and social programs long before the USA and went from a farm based economy to an industrialized economy very quickly.  Not all parts of Germany industrialized at the same pace.  Areas once occupied by France between the Rhine and the French border has rules of land ownership that called for equal inheritance of land between siblings.  A lot of small land holding were the result of the Napoleonic laws with small 5 hectare fields being the result.  The living fence use of the GSD to control livestock on these small holding was one aspect of the GSD and the herding style the GSD was developed for.

Susie correct me if I am wrong but all of the early titles were pass/fail and there did not exist a fat man with a clip board giving numeric scores for each exercise and adding up points to determine the winner of the trial or to determine the Sieger and Siegerin.  In the early days there were many dogs with no title at all as well.  Up until the 1930's the Sieger was not the dog that scored 250 points or more??