The Most Versatile Dog Breed

Learn what the most versatile dog breed is.

The German Shepherd, along with the American Pit Bull Terrier is arguably at the top of the “most versatile breed” list. He's not the absolute best at any one task, but he's pretty darned accomplished at a long laundry list of jobs, everything from patrol dog and search and rescue, to sporting breed, farm dog and perhaps the most demanding job of
all, family companion.

The heart of a true German Shepherd pumps herding instincts through the blood. Those herding bloodlines go back, even beyond the official “founding” of the breed by German Max Von Stephanitz in 1899. The progenitor of the German Shepherd was Honrad Von Grafrath, known by his former owner as Hektor Linksrhein. Herr Stephanitz first saw Honrad (neé Hektor) when attending a dog show. He was duly impressed with Hektor's exhibitions of strength, loyalty and intelligence and bought the dog that day. Failed attempts had been made before to begin to standardize and categorize dog breeds in Germany, but as organizations, had failed because -- as we still see today -- there was division as to whether dogs should be bred for performance capabilities or appearance.

Max Von Stephanitz found, in Hektor, the blend and balance of working abilities and instincts and physical attributes on which to build a type of dog, primarily a working, herding breed, and that is still the foundation of the German Shepherd's versatility.

Along with an instinct to herd, a properly bred German Shepherd Dog should have the desire to protect his charges as well as his assigned territory. It doesn't do any good for
a dog to herd a flock together if he is then willing to let a predator onto the premises. If that were the case, the dog would only be making it easier for the predator to pick at choose dinner at his leisure!

The modern German Shepherd draws a great deal of censure for departing from its working ancestry. That's not entirely deserved, although the popularity of the breed for many decades has contributed to overbreeding, poor breeding and breeding solely for conformation, which has, as it has in so many other breeds, become increasingly exaggerated for certain physical traits, ever larger dogs, allowing physical soundness to decline and eroding working temperament and abilities.

There are still old style breeders out there, going for the traditional, smaller dogs with greater athletic ability and speed and more working drive. Some are truly old fashioned and breed for the working “farm type” German Shepherd, the dog who can really do it all, bring the cattle in to the barn, warn predators to stay out of their territory (but are intelligent enough not to go out and take on more than they can deal with alone), kill vermin in the barn, find a calf that's been hidden and misplaced by a forgetful cow, smell when something in the air just “isn't right” and let you know about it, sleep by the door all night, guarding, and come tell someone that Timmy's fallen down the well again.

Another type of serious breeder produces dogs with a greater protective and prey drive. Some of these dogs may end up in law enforcement as patrol partners, some might become search dogs, depending on their natural propensities, looking for contraband materials, explosives or missing humans. These breeders may also have good candidates for sports like Schutzhund, Rally-O and bite work. Often the dogs these breeders produce will tend to be somewhat larger than the original lines, but a reputable one will be putting sound litters on the ground, as free from genetic structural and temperamental defects as humanly possible.

Many people looking for a superior German Shepherd look to imports, but good breeders and superlative lines can be found on any continent. You have to be willing to look and put the time in researching and talking to as many as possible. A good breeder will be thrilled to find a prospective owner for one of their breed -- not even necessarily a dog from their kennel -- who wants to learn and help their dog excel at what they do best, which, for a German Shepherd Dog, might be just about anything.

Written by Heather Leaks of www.pet-super-store.com. Go to her site to see a crazy big selection of dog tracking collars and dog doors.

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