In the 1890's a young German Calvary officer, Max Von Stephanitz came up with an idea for a new breed of dog. He envisioned a dog of medium size who would be extremely intelligent, quick, protective, and noble in appearance, trust-worthy in charter, physically sound so they should work all day and born with a desire to please. Thus the idea of German Shepherds was established.Through the 1890's Max Von Stephanitz experiment with dog breeding. He was very interested in the shepherd dogs because they were the true working dog of the era. In 1889, he attended a dog show and purchased Hektor Linkrshem and changed the dog's name to Honrand Van Grafrath.
In 1899, he and friends founded the Verein for Deutchse Schaferhunde (SV) (German Shepherd Dog Society). Honrand Van Grafrath became the first stud dog, he was the first registered German Shepherd dog.
The club statutes and the breed standards were drawn and are used in Germany today. Those breed standards stated that "A pleasing appearance is desireable, but it can not put the dogs working ability into question. . .German Shepherd breeding is working dog breeding, or it is not German Shepherd breeding.
Under his leadership, the club and breed grew steadily. By 1923, there were 57,000 members in the SV. The breed became famous in World War One for acts of courage. During this time, police agencies discovered the dogs and put them to work for personal protection, search and rescue and property protection.
After the first World War the breed grew in popularity it the United States when American soldiers returned with tales of the dogs courage, loyalty, and intelligence.
Serious American breeders continue to import top German dogs to develop dogs in the true German tradition. These dogs are strong, efficient, noble, loyal, and intelligent. According to the German Shepherd Breed Standards, top quality German Shepherds are "stamped with a look of quality and nobility-difficult to define, but unmistakable when present."
These are the dogs—the sons and daughters of World Champions—which we import and breed on our ranch in the mountains of Montana.