The German Shepherd is, and
Must Be, a Police Dog
Those of us born prior to or during the Second World War—I can clearly recall my father in his Marine Corps officer's uniform—find the concept of the German Shepherd as a police patrol dog as natural as the sun coming up in the east early tomorrow morning. Yet today many, particularly the SV commercial breeders, tout the German Shepherd as the dog for all reasons, the jack of all trades, the proverbial Swiss Army knife of the canine world.
But the legacy of Max von Stephanitz was the police dog, and under his guidance the German Shepherd pioneered the police persona which became the prototype throughout the world, indeed emerged as the pride of the German people. What would von Stephanitz make of agility trials and dancing with dogs in place of the Schutzhund trial? What has become of the pride of the German people? Did you ever try to actually do anything with a Swiss Army knife?
Throughout history those striving for greatness in any endeavor—scientist, artist, mathematician, blacksmith, chess player—tend to obsession, focus on their profession, trade or craft to the exclusion of the mundane preoccupations of ordinary men. World class excellence demands enduring, obsessive, compulsive focus on a calling. Such men may well become or be perceived as socially maladapted, eccentric, hard to live with, lacking in balance and social grace. Indeed, the personal lives of many, such as Einstein, have been troubled, at times perceived as problematic according to conventional standards. But we tolerate eccentricities because such men are few and vital; drive the evolution of the human race. Many are called but few are chosen, of those who make the sacrifice most fail and vanish, are lost to history.
In short, jack of all trades, master of none. Why should the breeding of working dogs be different? The foundation of any serious breed is and must be relentless, uncompromising excellence in the defining service role. Police and military patrol dogs are by the nature of their work inherently aggressive and eccentricities are tolerated, indeed exploited, by trainers and handlers in encounters with adversaries. While a great many civilians can deal with such things with no problem, and choose to do so, it is inherently wrong to breed lesser dogs for those deficient in the ability or willingness to cope. These protective heritage breeds cannot and should not be for everyone.
It is also true that a few police handler candidates will experience difficulty in dealing with the more extreme dogs, which must be present in the breeding pool, making a good match between handler and dog a primary requisite for successful program management. One of the problems in America has been that few police administrators have personal canine experience and the ability to deal adequately with such considerations, and thus tend to become overly dependent on vendor guidance.
It is essential in the placement of strong, inherently aggressive dogs that the prospective owner or handler understands the obligations and is capable of effective control. To this end the process should be one of careful matching man and dog according to the attributes, propensities and requirements of each. When mismatches emerge, as they will, the breeder or administrator must stand ready to take remedial action by working with the handler to understand and deal with his dog, the preferred solution, or place the dog in a new situation where he can prosper.
In the natural order of things some pups do not make the cut—just as many almost good enough football players do not make the team—but can go on to serve other, less demanding roles such as the various play sports or as companion dogs. But we must not allow these secondary roles to be considerations in selection, have an independent place in breeding. In order to maintain the integrity of the breed, the legacy, we must relentlessly and exclusively select for police potential. To shirk this obligation, to select softer dogs for a softer market—for vainglory or the love of money—prostitutes the heritage and brings shame upon the breeder, even when it prospers in a Sieger show ring.
An ongoing program of police level breeding can and has historically produced a diverse enough pool of candidates to serve many roles such as search and rescue, guide dogs and home companions. The key to success is breeders capable of and willing to match the right dog to the right situation and stand ready to make adjustments in the inevitable instances of a mismatch. In order for this to function properly every breeder must have personal commitment to and hands on familiarity with the protective role, be committed to and in support of the inherent aggression necessary in a police breed.
Who is to define the working role of the German Shepherd? Today many assert that societal circumstances have evolved, that we must pander, that the rugged police dog of the founders must give way to this new, versatile shepherd, a placid, adaptable, compliant dog suited to diverse roles, a dog for all seasons, mankind's universal friend, companion and compliant servant. That this pandering precludes excellence in the foundation role tends to fade into the background under the warm glow of thirty pieces of silver.
Today the Golden and Labrador Retrievers provide proven lines of such placid dogs, and if trends continue they will in time become predominant even in Germany. And this is entirely appropriate, for in reality it is what most of the population wants and needs. But watering down the German Shepherd to pursue transient vicissitudes of popularity and fashion is a fool's errand, and has seen yearly homeland registrations plunge from 30,000 to 8,000 in a generation in a race to the bottom. This pursuit of transient popularity is the road to perdition.
Max von Stephanitz had a higher vision:
"The ideal of the Society was to develop Police trial Champions out of Exhibition Champions, our shepherd dog therefore, was further developed by dog lovers as a working dog. The Standard by which he would be judged and approved was this, namely:–utility is the true criterion of Beauty. Therefore our dogs exhibit everywhere to-day (in a fittingly developed frame, and never as the caricatures of Nature, the greatest of all teachers) a build of body, compacted and designed for the highest possible efficiency, spare and powerful, with wonderfully well-proportioned lines which immediately attract the connoisseur, who soon recognizes that it imparts to its owner a swift, easy gait, a capacity for quick turning and powers of endurance."
(English Translation). Anton Kämpfe, Jena. Page 163
Not just police dogs, police dog champions as the standard of excellence. This founding vision was of a unified breed, not of "diversified" lines, various lines of ornamental dogs to bait and gait ln the show ring, to excel in play sport such as agility, dock diving, IGP and even a diminishing few still capable of accompanying the police officer on his appointed rounds.
"…develop Police trial Champions out of Exhibition Champions…"
Who will question that the captain meant exactly what he said? Police dog potential must be the breeding standard and anything less, such as toleration of selection on the basis of agility, obedience, therapy dogs, leader dogs, rally, search, rescue or the rest of the litany is patently absurd, an abomination. All of these things are well and good, but none are a valid substitute for the demonstration of a strong protection predilection as a breeding prerequisite.
In any line of work—hunting, police or herding—one or perhaps two breeds tend to predominance over time because their aggregate diligence in breeding selection year in and year out provides a reliable pool of police dog candidates superior in trainability and potential for excellence. Police administrators naturally continue patronization of suppliers of successful candidates because wash outs are very expensive in terms of time and money for each dog which must be discarded after extensive investment in training. This reliance on proven sources translates into much more bang for the buck, less time and effort in training, cost effectiveness, with a higher yield and longer service life because of inherent durability. Ultimately the tax payers will not and should not tolerate less.
From the very beginning and throughout the twentieth century the go to police breed was the German Shepherd. This predominance was a consequence of the von Stephanitz leadership, particularly the institution of the Schutzhund trial as the breeding prerequisite which was unique to this breed in that era. Just as it was proverbial in the 1970s and 80s that nobody was ever fired for selecting an IBM computer the breed became so ubiquitous, so much the default choice, that in the 1980s even Americans making the pilgrimage to Ghent in Belgium came home with photos of German Shepherds in police service.
Today as the German Shepherd falters and declines the Malinois stands in the wings, ready and able to step to and possess center stage. As the poet so eloquently noted, to be or not to be is the question; is this German Shepherd, this legacy of the founders, to be the noble police dog of von Stephanitz or is he not to be? This is the question at hand: the integrity and vitality of the breed hang in the balance.
The concept of the canine breed was in the beginning—and must remain— that of an ongoing gene pool bred for and serving a specific purpose such as hunting, draft work or police and military service. In the case of the German Shepherd that purpose is police dog; indeed in popular usage over many decades "police dog" and "German Shepherd" have been virtually synonymous. Concepts such as universal breed or diverse equally valid roles are contradictions, absurd canards, utter and malicious nonsense.
When the German Shepherd comes to be anything other than a police dog then the breed, the legacy of Max von Stephanitz, will have been repudiated and betrayed; honor and integrity would mean only one thing, that the SV registry, his registry, should be closed forever.
We stand at the brink.
Who Owns the House of von Stephanitz?
Orginizations and Conflicts
GSD Police Dog Heritage Repudiated by SV
SV Abandons Schutzhund as Breeding Prerequisite
World Unions Rising
AWDF, Stillborn American Elite
Supreme Authority of the Canine World?
Legacy Lost, the Other Breeds
The Americans
Style and Opinion Sports
Has Sport Subverted the Trial?
How We Play the Game
Commercialization of Schutzhund
The Mother State
Glossary
The Canine Herding Heritage