Dog Stories: The German Shepherd

I try to look back at the dogs I have personally known. In my earliest recollections, I believe the German Shepherd is the first dog I ever knew.

I believe I was not too far out of diapers when my aunt Brenda got this dog. I can’t remember his name, but I remember it distinctly because I used to watch the Bionic Woman and she had a German Shepherd named Max. To me, as a child, the German Shepherd became my bench mark, my standard to what all dogs should look like. I wonder if this is something we all do with our first pets; that we make a comparison that affects our judgment of all animals that come after.

Eventually, my aunt’s dog tried to eat my cousin and he was put down. But seeing how my cousin turned out, I think the German Shepherd was trying to do us a favor.

To me, the German Shepherd will always represent what a dog should look like. I have always found them to be beautiful, intelligent, and athletic. It is their bark that I judge other barks against to see if they are too loud or too irritating. It is their temperament that I decide if other dogs are too cruel or too wimpy.

The German Shepherd is ranked as the third most intelligent dog in the world and is the most registered breed annually. It is also one of the newest breeds and it can trace its lineage back to some European inbreeding at the hands of Max von Stephanitz, a cavalry captain who believed that dogs should only be bred for working. So, Maxie here bought a dog he thought would make an excellent choice for his creation and start the inbreeding process. Eventually, a pup named Beowulf spread his loins around to his sisters and mother, maybe his grandmother, too, and when they were in heat practiced on his brothers, and eventually fathered a total of eighty four pups. These dogs begat other dogs who begat other dogs who then begat Blondi, Hitler’s dog, Rin Tin Tin, and Ace, the Bat Hound, Batman’s longtime companion and forgotten about partner once he had the Boy Wonder to play with, and every other German Shepherd out there today.

German Shepherds are the hardest working dog breed in the world. Whether it’s jumping out of airplanes or sniffing through them for my connect’s next shipment, these dogs were bred to work.

Lately though, this breed has found less work in this economy due to the recession and the migrant Chihuahua population, and their 401 K-9 retirement plans have taken a hit, too.