A-C White Shepherds

There is a discussion raging in North America whether the American White Shepherd is a "German" Shepherd or not. Some breeders of White Shepherds claim that there are thousands of Whites registered in Europe, others claim that the whites once were recognized by the SV (GSD Society of Germany, the founding club and the only world wide authority responsible for the breed standard of the real "German" Shepherd Dog, as recognized by the FCI and even the AKC).

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Here is one example of some of the mail I have received in response to this web site:

Subject: White German Shepherds
Date: Sat, 11 Oct 1997 22:13:31 -0400
From: Harriet Edwards <edwardsh@erols.com>
Organization: CAPER'S ACRES
To: realgsd@sympatico.ca

It is unfortunate that the originator of this site apparently does not know the GERMAN SHEPHERD. Your site might have been nice had it not been the propagator of Lies about the American German Shepherd. By the way are you aware that the white German Shepherd is a product of Hitler(Germany) in his quest for supremacy????. He wanted to breed his own German Shepherds and take the credit away from earlier breedings. The blond hair - blue eye - race of people and the white German Shepherd with dark pigment. Remember, believing he would rule the world....THE WHITE GERMAN SHEPHERD WAS BRED IN GERMANY!!!!!

I put this question to the SV in Germany and received the following answer: "To the best of our knowledge, a few whites were exhibited during the early years, but the white color has always been a disqualifying factor for breeding throughout the entire history of the SV. In addition, all albinos and whites (almost pure whites with black noses) have been specifically disqualified from all SV activities, shows and breed surveys since 1938 without interruption". Myself, I have seen several pictures showing Hitler with one or more GSD. All of them were the usual black and tan, I have NEVER seen a picture of him with a white shepherd.

From this, and many more letters similar to, but not as extreme as the above (which may have been aimed at my German background), I have come under the impression that the people involved in white shepherds tend to be fanatics. Which is a good reason to keep my distance, and, perhaps, has been in the past, and may still be today, the reason for the widespread isolation of the white shepherd in general. I am glad to see that there are a few individuals working very hard to reverse that trend, as can be seen if you follow the links at the bottom of this page.

So, where are all those thousands of White Shepherds registered in Europe? Here is an indication:

As this page of a German dog magazine shows, all white shepherds in Germany are called A-C Whites, or American-Canadian White Shepherds. I have NEVER seen or heard a single reference to a white "German" Shepherd over there. And there are almost as many different registries for White Shepherds in Europe as there are Whites breeders. I have seen: WACSR e.V., DZV, LSTH, BVWS, IRV e.V., and each one is issuing there own "original pink papers", yet not a single one of them is recognized by the VDH or FCI. It appears that some breeders, or groups of breeders of white shepherds simply formed their own registries to give their puppies the appearance of being the real thing, but in reality is nothing more than a puppy selling tool.

Some of the ads say "fresh USA blood", indicating the REAL origin of the White Shepherds of Europe being North America. Another indicator is the fact that White Shepherds have a name on all training fields in Germany for not being able to do any type of Schutzhund training. I don't know if that is the reason for the SV to disqualify whites in the first place, or if it came with the dogs through their American bloodlines. I can well imagine that the reason for disqualification may simply be found in the fact that breeding purely for a single color will sideline and neglect the more important temperament factors and therefore must lead to overall inferior dogs being bred.

The SV in Germany (GSD Society of Germany, the founding club and the only world wide authority responsible for the breed standard of the real "German" Shepherd Dog, as recognized by the FCI and even the AKC) does NOT recognize white as a German Shepherd color, nor do the German Shepherd Dog Clubs of America and Canada. Therefore, and just like the black & tan AKC/CKC style slope-back show shepherds, a white shepherd does not conform to the international (FCI) breed standard of the German Shepherd and can not be called a "German" Shepherd. The name "German Shepherd Dog" ("Deutscher Schäferhund"), is owned by the SV, regardless of language, which is tantamount to a copyright. At it's regular meeting in August 97, the SV gave notice that it will no longer 'go easy' on WUSV members deviating from the breed standard and also insist that only GSDs conforming to the SV (WUSV) breed standard be allowed the name "German Shepherd Dog" in the future.

However, there is hope for "White Shepherd" lovers. To find out more, visit these very informative web pages at: http://www.awsaclub.com and http://www.awsaclub.org

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