Horand Von Grafrath - Page 1

I think that is his name lol He is said to be the first offical GSD. I was trying to read a little bit about him earlier and a few places said he may of been of wolf-dog breeding. Is their any truth o this? Also as the ancestor of all of our dogs, how many of you have compared his stunning looks against youtttrt own goodlooking boys and girls?

Well, I guess you can educate yourself a little better. Rittmeister von Stephanitz wrote a book about the beginning of the breed :"Der Deutsche Schaeferhund in Wort und Bild" - also available in English. Horand was a descendent of selected herding and guard dogs common in different German regions. No close ancestor was a wolf.

They did at one point breed wolves to GSDs. It did not go over well, as the dogs were too wolf like and hard to manage. I believe I remember reading that they took most of the dogs off the registery books but what became of the dogs after I don't remember. They could have very well bred them back to normal dogs. I know that my own GSD Sam is a purebreed of good lines, yet is very wolf like in appearance and mind. He has a straighter back and sable coloring from his European mother. The European working lines could very well have wolf blood as they are very wolf like.

yeah, i'm sure there's lots of wolf blood still influencing the breed.  Especially after a hundred years and generation after generation of dilution.  Coupled with the fact that the bulk of GSD breeders have frowned upon adding wolf blood since the beginning of the breed, I'm guessing the fraction of a percentage of dogs that may have actually had a tiny fraction of wolf blood aren't having much of an affect on the dogs today.  Stephanitz talks a bit about wolf blood and how only those on the fringe and those not breeding working dogs would even consider such a breeding.

..if you read the book you will find that was long before the breed was established....so the wolf as such was never crossed into the German Shepherd Dog after it was a registered breed.

http://www.angelplace.net/doc/GarrettBook.pdf

This is a very detailed link of the beginning.

Regards

Ronin