Altdeutscher Schäferhund / Altdeutscher Hütehund

The Arbeitsgemeinschaft zur Zucht Altdeutscher Hütehunde (AAH) is a registry formed to preserve and promote the Old German Shepherd varieties as dogs for handling sheep, cattle and other livestock. To be registered, the dogs must prove their working ability. Another organization dedicated to these dogs is the lnteressengemeinshcaft Altdeutscher Hütehunde (IAH.) Coats of the Altdeutschers may be short, medium-length, or long; shaggy, wiry, or smooth-textured. Colors include black, black-and-tan, shades of brown or red, merle, grey, or brindle. Ears are semi-erect, erect, or sometimes folded close to the head. Some have natural bobtails. Old German Shepherds are characterized by their hardiness, endurance and easy-keeping qualities. They can be found throughout Germany working flocks and herds.

One notable strain of the Old German Shepherd is the Westerwälder Kuhhund (Cowdog), first mentioned in the late 13th century. This dog has a natural heeling tendency (nipping low at the heels of the animals) and typically has a medium-long, hard coat of red-brown with black shadings. Used for herding large groups of cattle, taking them to and from the villages and keeping them together on unfenced pastures, it has also been employed in sheepherding.

When itinerant sheepherding and open-field cattle herding declined in Germany, the Old German Shepherd varieties diminished in numbers. The German Society for the Preservation of Old and Endangered Domestic Animal Breeds has listed them as critically endangered. But numbers are now beginning to grow again.

Below are some examples of German herding dogs from early in the century. Dogs like these, registered by the SV, figured among the ancestors of the modern German Shepherd Dog. For pictures of present-day Old German Shepherds, visit the AAH and IAH websites, linked above.

Information and photos of Old German Shepherds as well as of many herding breeds of the world can be found in the book (in German) Hirten-und Hütehunde by Karl Hermann Finger, 1988. A number of photos of the original German herding dogs and other herding breeds are in The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture, first published in 1923 by Max von Stephanitz, founder of the modern German Shepherd Dog (from which the above pictures were taken).