Is this true? :) - Page 1

http://direwolfdogs.com/

Oh FFS. Another little money-making project, just like Kings and Shilohs. Why can't they leave this breed alone ? LOVE the way they list themselves as the "only certified breeder" of these - 'certified' as what, exactly ?

Who or what certified them?

Quite, WR !

ice age apex predator; grim reaper of the tar pits; arch-rival of the saber tooth cat.

…and by all accounts, shaggy and sweet.

Alsations have been around since I was young (and I'm old). Someone a couple of streets over (on my way to school) had one. It was always at the window, as we passed.

It is my understanding that the Alsation is the German Shepherd by another name, in the UK, as they did not want to use the name German Shepherd after the war due to anti-German sentiment. But one could argue that the Alsation is a bit different than the AKC GSD, or German GSD due to the breeding efforts in the UK. Hund can correct me if I'm wrong.

Just another 'designer dog' like the labradoodle, or whatever mutt.

I'm guessing that 'enormous, scary, shaggy & sweet' is about the dog, but it sounds like a dish at the Rickshaw restaurant, lol.

Yes the alsatiAn is just another name for German Shepherd Dog, despite some peoples' efforts to confuse the picture, with nonsense about long coats being Alsatians and standard coats being GSDs - AND VICE VERSA. If I had a pound for every time I've been asked about THAT in my lifetime, I'd be a rich woman by now !
Koots is correct, the Brits had a war years' aversion to calling anything by its german name (that's when Dachshunds turned into sausage dogs) and so given that the UK public took to the breed and there was talk of SOME specimens coming out of Alsace-Lorraine, 'Alsatian Wolf Dog' and latterly just Alsatian became (and stayed) popular.
The difference we (sort of) recognise these days is that some of the older GSD Clubs called themselves Alsatian Societies, and some of the more conservative types of breeder among these preferred to keep the word in their title even after our Kennel Club and everyone else dropped the word Alsatian. Because they were so conservatively inclined, that sort of went hand-in-hand with the people who wanted to stick with the 'English' type of longer backed, deeper bodied, highly angulated dogs forming the British Show type of the 60s' onwards, and so nowadays we (the majority favouring Germanic / International type) tend, mostly in a slightly derogatory way, to refer to that part of the breed here as Alsatians.

My beef with this kennel is that if it is nothing to do with riding on bandwagons for money, why is their 'new' breed described in a way that ensures attention from the two lucrative markets of GSD and Game of Thrones fans ?

Because you need an apex predator at home that sees you as a snack...