White Dream

Breed

White Swiss Shepherd History

The White Swiss Shepherd dog has a common history with the German shepherd dog in how much the white color of the coat is due to the presence of the recessive allelis of the gene that codifies for the character "color of the hair." The first important document about the White Swiss Shepherd dog was written in 1882 when, two Alsatian White Shepherds participated to the Hannover Show. Back in 1899 Captain VonStephanitz began to create the modern German Shepherd using and crossing different types of shepherd dogs. He bought "Horand von Grafrath" that can be considered the founder of the actual German Shepherd Dog. With his dark coat, Horand was carrier of the white color coat gene, that he had inherited from his maternal grandfather (with white coat), born in 1879. Because of the joinings among blood-related dogs, this gene was brought ahead in the times and remained in the following generations. in fact in 1921 photo of a dog called “Berno von der Seewiese”, a Horand descendent, appared in the famous text "The German Shepherd Dog in Words and Picture".

Initially the German Shepherd wasn’t discriminated by the different colors of the coat, because the selection focused on the creation of lines with great propensity to the work; nonetheless, after VonStephanitz death, a new politics was adopted that considered the German Shepherd with white coat as "Impure". As a consequence of that numerous breeders eliminated the new born pups that introduced this characteristic. At the beginning of 1900 the German Shepherd with white coat was exported to America, where it became so successful among people that it was frequently used in movies and the television series

Unfortunately, this success didn’t turn into an immediate recognition of the breed (this will happen later, in 1999). In the '70s and '80s the white German Shepherds were brought to Europe. Mrs Agathe Burch moved from the United States to Switzerland, her native Country, brought with herself her male White Shepherd "Lobo" and she mated him with a female, also white, bought in England. This was the first litter to be officially enrolled in the book of the origins. Therefore, the progenitor of this breed in Switzerland and in Europe can be considered the American male "Lobo" born in 1966. In the last 20 years the American and Canadian White Shepherds spread to Europe and became so successful that in 2002 FCI recognized the breed that was officially denominated "White Swiss Shepherd", defined with the standard FCI 347. For more infos about White Swiss Shepherds history and genetics in English in the web, please check the following links:

http://www.pastoresvizzerobianco-clubitalia.it/Le_origini_storiche.htm

http://www.pastoresvizzerobianco-clubitalia.it/Gli_ultimi_30_anni.htm

http://www.awsaclub.com/history.htm

http://www.wgsdca.org/thebreed/gsdvswgsd.asp

http://www.of-kimberlys-pride.com/history.htm