The Predicament of the White German Shepherd…or American Shepherd…or…what?
Oh, the history behind this dog.
As a History major in college, I developed a love for the convoluted and complicated series of events behind many decisions, names, people, and places that we know and speak of today. There are very rarely simple stories in history. When I first came into contact with White German Shepherd Dogs, they were the animal companions to one of my classmates. I would dog sit for her when she went out of town, and oftentimes before she left, we would together for instructions for while she was out of town and to chat. Several times, the history behind this breed was discussed. The story behind the white GSD is, as expected, complicated. This breed has survived a lot of love and hate in its lifetime.
Though from the same original lineage, coat color is now separating these two dogs into different breeds. Photo by Vellan on Flickr.
Good Grief
“A white herding dog named Greif was the grandfather of Horand von Grafrath, the dog acknowledged as the foundation of all contemporary German Shepherd Dog bloodlines.” –Wikipedia
From the beginnings of this amazing breed, the recessive white coat gene was present. Still, the color became frowned upon over time. First, the German Shepherd Dog Club of Germany disqualified it as a qualifying color. Other kennel and clubs followed suit, and eventually, being a white GSD meant that you simply weren’t up to show standards. The more common black and tan variety of shepherd became the claim to fame in the breed, leaving the white beauties in the dust.
White Shepherds and their owners are taking great strides to show the world the amazing traits and pride in this emerging breed. Photo by Demelza van der Lans on Flickr.
Brave New World
After becoming an outcast within their own breed, these beautiful white pups and their owners decided to take action. The White GSD started a new step into it’s own brave new world…one as a separate breed. White German Shepherd Dogs today can be found under several new aliases, such as:
- Berger Blanc Swiss
- American-Canadian White Shepherd, and the
- White Shepherd Dog
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life with arie 
Is their white color a genetic mutation or a color variation?
The white coat is just a color variation from a recessive gene, and not a mutation. Still, I did find an interesting look at color mutations that are coming out, like Panda shepherds. There are all different levels of GSD snobbery that include or exclude the various coat colors, many of which still exclude white simply because they prefer the black and sable and it’s more common.
That’s good to know. I know that breeding for genetic mutations can cause serious problems in the animals.
It can indeed, as well as breeding for the wrong goals. There’s been a long standing argument in the GSD community as to whether the dog should be bred for looks, work, or both. In fact, that argument helped to break up the original group who tried to standardize the breed. The looks factor is coming into play more in the ring right now because of the sloping back–Breeders who have focused on this trait are starting to notice issues with the dogs’ feet and health.