Blondi - Page 1

Looking for any info on Blondi. She was a present to AH. She was ultimately killed but the litter she came from must have gone on. Was wondering if anyone has knowledge of this.

Hitler apparently had several GSDs. I have always gathered that not much was known about which one came from which litter, or which breeder, and any paper record there may have been did not survive damage following the Allied victory.

"Baden dogs are basically American bred dogs. Here is what I know.
Since the person who told me this deceased I can say this now but will still omit the names. I trained the dogs in a certain outfit in NE of USA and learn a lot there. The owner was a daughter of SS officer who was a keeper and trainer of the dogs for Adolph Hitler. After war he defected into US and then into Canada. Mike claims some kind of relation with such person thus it may be the same guy and if it was I do not know in what extend he was involved with him or maybe it is just bunch of BS. I do not know. The person I have dealt with had hard and colorful early life and thus in order to straighten her out, her father send her I believe 2 dogs and set her on the lifelong path of a dog woman. I have seen descendants of these dogs.
There were excellent specimen but after 30+/- years they got diluted and eventually this breeder could not recreate what she originally had. She tried to bring new dogs into program from Germany GSD and Altdeutscher Schäferhund ( Old German shepherd dog). Eventually she abandoned the breed and started new breed.
Mike of Baden claims that he preserved these dogs. I seriously doubt it, that they are genetically pure or even similar but they may be similar in spirit. I have never seen any pedigrees and do not even know if he registers his dogs at all. He sells now German Shepherds, Malinois and Dutch Shepherds and Airedales.
I know people who attended his classes/school and they claimed it was a waste of time. I am sure that others have different experience. I have read his book and I would say that his ideas are "interesting". Mike is an original man and I respect that. I believe that his effort is now continued by his son, but my info is old.
I would say that there are no SS dogs . The closes to it would be the original but now dead DDR lines and Old style Czech lines which are derived from these lines.
I would also say that these so dogs are what I call type one dogs thus be careful what you wish for!" Hans Prager

Info on Blondi can be found here: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Blondi

No one seems to actually know her pedigree though. Blondi herself had puppies, but all are said to have been killed just like her, rather than fall into Russian hands. It's pretty cruel that Hitler had her and her pups killed rather than let someone else have them. I don't see how you can say you love an animal and then turn around and have them killed just so someone else would not have them.

Also if look at actual photos of Blondi, you see she was unusually thin boned even for a female GSD. I would say from her looks she was more than likely a very high content wolf GSD hybrid. In the first GSD pedigrees you can see that wolves were used to actually create the breed along with German herding dogs. Most of the wolf blood has been bred out in modern show GSD lines, but working GSD lines still have it. Sable GSDs are actually not true genetic sable, but agouti also called wolf grey with comes from wolves. This is quite strong in working GSDs from the original wolf cross breeding. So if you want a GSD close to Blondi, you need to look at the sable working bloodlines. I have actually seen a few close to over the years, so can find one. But most likely none are closely related to Blondi, but just in some distant way that all GSDs are related to each other.

Also anyone looking for a dog that looks like Rin Tin Tin would do the same and look for working sable bloodline dogs. You want find a dog that looks more wolf like than dog really. I would stay away from actual wolf dogs as they are very hard to handle. Which would include any American Indian Dogs, which do look like wolves, as despite what the breeders are saying DNA tests are showing wolf blood in them. German Shepherds are a apart of the Native American Indian dogs, which is why I mentioned them. They are a recreation of the old breed that has mostly died off. Some are very short coated and look very close to the old wolf type GSD, while others have thick long coats from the Malamute dogs also in the newer NAIDs.

Not sure if this will work here is a video of Blondi.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=KuD1ATAXb60

Also if look at actual photos of Blondi, you see she was unusually thin boned even for a female GSD. I would say from her looks she was more than likely a very high content wolf GSD hybrid.

The LAST thing a wolf/GSD hybrid would be is 'thin boned'! Nope, not buying that, though I do not doubt there was wolf blood incorporated at the start of the GSD breed.

 

Edit: the link above shows only still pictures of the dogs. This one has a very short live clip of what looks to be Blondie at the very end.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=hk3xuqCIRns

http://www.pedigreedatabase.com/german_shepherd_dog/community.read?post=825071-my-rescue#825091

Found it! One of Hitler's dogs had a reverse mask, and looked almost exactly like one of the Littlest Hobo dogs!

There's one thing I can't find: an old, old video of the mililtary DDR dogs being trained by soldiers. A very large number of these dogs had reverse masks, so it was a popular trait back then.

I once spoke to Chuck Eisenmann on the phone, who bred and "taught" his dogs that were on "The Littlest Hobo." I still don't know what to make of the documented accounts of things his dog could do. For example, he would have his dogs on stage telling them to do pretty remarkable things and one thing he did was he would tell one of his dogs he was putting a chalk board eraser on a table and told the dog he wanted him to retrieve the eraser in about 15 minutes. Then, in about 15 minutes he would ask the dog to get the item, without naming it that he earlier told the dog he wanted him to retrieve. He believed you could educate a dog and that they were like handicapped children with the mental age of about a six year old child. By handicapped, he didn't mean mentally, but handicapped because they were limited to certain behavior because, for example, they didn't have hands. He did have the luxury of spending all day with his dogs and would talk to them in sentences and different languages. He believed you could educate any dog, not just his line of GSDs. I am still skeptical. I remember watching him on the Merv Griffin show with his dogs when I was a kid. He kindly mailed me several autographed photographs of his dogs and several autographed books he wrote.

Hans Prager also referenced anecdotes claiming females were the preferred sex of the SS K9 branch. As stated already, records likely weren’t preserved to clarify the Third Reich’s MWD program, pedigrees etc. In the Holocaust Museum in the DC area there is a detailed diorama depicting a death center at full working capacity - victims of all ages lined up, gassed, cremated. Throughout are more than a few miniatures of K9 handlers seemingly employed as crowd control, intimidation etc. I remember every dog appeared to be a GS in structure.

 

Sunsilver
an old, old video of the mililtary DDR dogs being trained by soldiers. A very large number of these dogs had reverse masks, so it was a popular trait back then.

last thing military was concerned about was a color of dogs.
in border breeding i have seen very wide variety of colors and mask except white/blue/liver. also never seen dogs with fluffy, long coat.

as for injection of wolve's blood in GSDs, i doubt it. even before official establishment of breed, such move couldn't be rational due to main purpose of the future GSDogs to be watcher and guarding of livestock.
few decades zPS did have program of such hybrids, which eventually been abandoned with conclusion of total failure of that experiment.