Horand V. Grafrath - Page 1

Horand von Grafrath pedigree information----this dog is in ny dogs pedigree alot---an anyone tell me about him? on his page a desription was written about his personality--something i haven't seen on many pages  and the writings are usually in german--this one is in english and signed by--~Captain von Stephanitz
                                 Originator of the breed                     

who is Captain von Stephanitz?            

P.s. I was just wondering if this dog was important to the breed, if it is something i should know about my dogs hertiage.

LUV MY, must say never saw a set of papers that you have displayed? Max Von Stephanitz is the founding father of the breed.

well.....asking questions is good,

Horand Grafrath is considered the Sire of the GSD breed, and Captain Stephanitz is the founder of the German Shepherd Dog.   Just google both of those names and you will find TONS of info.    Capt.  Stephanitz wrote the first GSD book called "The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture"  which is very heavy in animal husbandry, the evolution of dogs and of course, about the GSD itself and everything that Stephanitz (his first name is Max and when you see the name "Max" on any GSD discussion that does not directly indicate that the name belongs to someone else, then the individual they are referring too is the breed founder himself) had envisioned for the breed.  Max was incredibly intelligent and had incredible foresight and wisdom.  The GSD breed is barely over 200 yrs old (which is considered a young breed of dog when compared to all the other purebreeds of the world) and has been from very early on the most popular breed in the world.  So Captain Max v. Stephanitz is surely one of the most praised Dogmen in history. 

Horand Grafrath was one of Stephanitz's most favorite dogs and is found in every single GSD pedigree...he is basically the "Adam" of the GSD (which would make Stephanitz the god of GSDs?)  Stephanitz is very discriptive of Horand in his book.   Stephanitz already had in mind what he wanted in his GSD breed before he found Horand.  Long story short, he saw Horand in a dog show (back then dog shows had very little to do with dog breeds and was more just to show off good looking or good working specimens of dogs, mostly random-bred) and bought Horand and used him extremely heavily in his breeding program, (yes...that means a TON of inbreeding and linebreeding too) 

Please note that the above book is the English translation,  Stephanitz wrote the book in German, and any info that you find on Horand and Stephanitz is translated into English from German.

Hope this helps,  my discription barely skims the surface, there is boatloads of more information that can be found online too.  Some of it quite fascinating.

Courtney

ohh..yea the title "captain"  threw me off, im use to yall saying MAX..so Captain Von Stephanitz and Max Von Stephanitz is the same person...eveyoneplease excuse my dumbness, im still learning, can't believe i missed that...so this is pretty good for my dogs pedigree right?---that Max V.S. personally wrote this about a dog that my dog was breed/came from?---i don't know if i worded that right--

o.k. im starting to get it, now i feel dumb , if this dog is the "adam" of GSD's then of course he is in my dogs pedigree...he prob in everyones.

iluvmyGSD...you're dog is way...way... too OLD. And yes, Horand is the foundation dog of the GSD breed... and he is a Thuringian-type of  herding dog which was bred to all similar types of herding dogs (plus the active working dogs of those days...That is why recessive sprouts of color, coat type and length, and failures in the ear and tail carriages may appear once in a while in a bloodline) The working dogs of that era which Horand was a definite model was bred for their functionality which is of the "Utilitarian purpose" ... He guys... did i say some sort of magic word??? It encompasses the GSD types and will not  distinguish wether the dog is a Sporting dog or just a plain Companion dog... Think out of the box... If  Showline dogs are condemed, because some of them are just bred for extreme beauty...so should Protection dogs that are just bred for Sport... I think this is why the temperament test was instituted to remind GSD owners that EXTREMES will just ruin the breed... Better to call the GSD...the jack of all trades and master of none, than to call the GSD not fit for everyone... If you think about it the GSD as a herding dog which should be capable to protecting the Sheep from wild animals (not eat the sheep), be gentle enough to take charge of small LAMBS which is docile, and to follow what its master bids ( lets say to bring down a RAM which is stuborn) So... in short.. a GSD is destined to be mans ULTIMATE COMPANION...

Have a nice day... marci  :)

MARCI---what the heck do you mean, my dog is to old?-- my dog is only 4 months old..i don't get what you're trying to say, do you mean his age?

iluvmyGSD

Take a minute and think about it.  If Horand is the "Adam of the breed", as you stated,  what generation would Horand have to be in?  It would be way back and irrelevent. 

You said that you see it in your dogs' actual pedigree...and Don's right ...its way too irrelevant... I remember a show handler saying this comment when I was just commenting on bringing the sable dog with good structure to have diversity on the showlines.. He said (and he was German by the way..)  "Why do you want to breed GSDs looking like that??? It took a long time to develop what it looks today-beautiful..and you want it to look ugly like it did in the early days???" ... I was shocked...the guys mind is so one track-minded thats probably why they look like coming out of a COOKIE-CUTTER during S.V. shows...

don---i know thats why i wrote the post above----

"o.k. im starting to get it, now i feel dumb , if this dog is the "adam" of GSD's then of course he is in my dogs pedigree...he prob in everyones".

see at the end i wrote" he is in everyones"---i meant i realized then that it was to far back to matter....i was just looking at the pages wrong and i had noticed that the writing on that page was written in english.and who it was signed by....as i stated --most were written in german and i just wanted to know why this dog was special...and now i know why he is important-im just leaning this stuff ,   but i still don't understand what marci means that my dog is to old...