Dangerous descendant of wolves or dedicated war hero? The rise, fall and rise again of the incomparable German shepherd

'Alsatians and caviare have this in common: one either likes them or does not,' Country Life stated in 1928. Before anything Teutonic had become widely unpalatable, the breed had been known as a German shepherd dog, but 'on examination of the case in the critical spirit aroused by the war, British and French alike agreed that the true home of the dog was Alsace' and some went so far as to trace the breed’s roots to Scotland. Consequently, the breed would for a time be renamed the Alsatian wolf dog.

However, the breed had been developed by German cavalry officer Max von Stephanitz as a herding dog in the 1880s. The first German shepherd dogs came to England about 1911, but, as with so many other imported breeds that have ultimately become popular, they aroused very little public interest.

After soldiers returning from the First World War made the breed popular, impressed by the intelligence and sagacity of the dogs used by the Germans as messengers, guard dogs, and carriers of medical supplies (the Germans had been responsible for producing the first 'mercy dogs', trained to seek out the wounded and comfort the dying).

Rin Tin Tin, an Alsatian who had been rescued from the trenches, became the star of 27 Hollywood films, firing the imagination of millions of people by giving visual evidence of what a dog could be trained to do. Displaying 'intelligence and beauty, trainability and intense devotion,' the dogs were suddenly in great demand.

In 1921, Major C. E. W. Beddoes (who was stationed in Munich at the time) wrote two articles for Country Life championing the 'Alsatian wolf-dog, or, as he is called in Germany, the Schäferhund.' As well as detailing the breed’s 'remarkable'powers of scent, Beddoes would also recall an incident in which his wife was 'spoken to in a very unpleasant manner' and one of his dogs came vigorously to the rescue, “tearing the man’s coat” so his wife could tell him 'exactly what she thought of him in her very best German.'

Back on British soil, Country Life would reflect later that the breed’s sudden rise in popularity was probably 'England’s first experience of a boom in any breed, the dangers of which were not perceived until it was too late.' Poor breeding practices exacerbated undesirable temperament traits and by the end of the 1920s, the breed’s popularity was in sharp decline.

The magazine would reflect in 1928 that 'perhaps the Germans have taught us one thing, or they have talked more about it than we have — that is, the importance of temperament and the desirability of cultivating the intelligence by means of training.'

During the 1940s the breed managed to claw itself back into public esteem, despite being used in Nazi propaganda (Hitler’s own bitch, Blondi, was touted as proof that he was an 'animal lover'). The main factors that salvaged and restored the public image of the German shepherd were twofold: its use as a guide dog for the blind (the world’s and the UK’s first formally trained guide dogs were German shepherds), and secondly, the work the dogs did during the Second World War for the army, the RAF, and the police.

No longer considered 'a descendant of wolves, a dog ready and willing to attack man or beast with or without command, the Alsatian has steadily climbed back by virtue of his beauty, brains, intelligence and integrity,' and in 1977, campaigners succeeded in having their dogs registered under the original breed name as German shepherds once again.

This is an extract from 'The Country Life Book of Dogs' (Rizzoli, £50) by Agnes Stamp.