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German Shepherd Dogs at Foxwood Kennels

We at Foxwood Kennels have been breeding German Shepherd Dogs for 28 years. Our focus was and is to produce German Shepherds in the working line tradition. By the selective breeding of our German Shepherd Dogs to some of the best working lines, we are able to produce German Shepherd Dogs with large heads, heavy bone structure, and proper angle (too often today you see German Shepherd Dogs over-angulated) and our German Shepherd Dogs have large feet with tight toes. Our German Shepherd Dogs also have very stable temperaments and they are extremely trainable.

Most of our German Shepherd Dogs go into homes as pets, however, some have been trained in Tracking, Search & Rescue, and Narcotics. Our German Shepherd Dogs have been very successful in all of these roles including finding 2 bodies underwater, and a lost child.

If you are looking for a truly fine-quality German Shepherd Dog with an outstanding temperament, please call us at (920) 336-8780 to come out and see ours!

 

The German Shepherd Dog

The German Shepherd Dog has been around for quite some time. Dating back to the 17th century, we find many of the characteristics of Germany’s herding and guarding dogs in today’s working class German Shepherd Dog. From Württemberg and Upper Bavaria, we have the heavier boned German Shepherd Dogs with the longer coat, erect ears, and a mild mannered temperament that’s still prevalent in today’s German Shepherd Dog.

In the Western, Central, and Northern parts of Germany, we see more characteristics similar to the Gray Wolf: a lighter frame, a longer stride, a shorter coat, and a sharpness (well aware of their surroundings) that remains in today’s German Shepherd Dog.

It wasn’t until the late 19th century that the German Shepherd Dog was refined. From the 1890’s up to WWI, the German Shepherd Dog was refined further under the leadership of Max von Stephanitz, an officer in Bismarck’s cavalry (Otto von Bismarck, Chancellor of the German empire from 1871-1890). From here is where the modern working class German Shepherd Dog comes. Through select breeding of German Shepherd Dogs from a few bloodlines handpicked by von Stephanitz do we get today’s German Shepherd Dog.

Writers as far back as 400 BC speak of dogs being used to track down criminals, but it was von Stephanitz and his German Shepherd Dogs who are most responsible for the service dog movement. During WWI, the German Shepherd Dog was used as a dispatch dog, to carry ammunition and rations to soldiers on the front lines as well as ambulance dogs. The German Shepherd Dog’s incredible nose was used to help WWI ambulance crews to seek out the wounded.

The German Shepherd Dog’s qualities that originally made it such an excellent sheep herder, protector of flocks, and home guardian is what propelled the German Shepherd Dog to the frontlines of wars and police units. And it is these inert qualities of the German Shepherd Dog that made it a perfect fit for nearly any service work that man wants them for. For example, after WWI the German Shepherd Dog excelled so highly out on the battlefield with finding the wounded that the Ambulance Dog Association in Germany directed its resources to training German Shepherd Dogs to be guide dogs for the blind. (Prior to the German Shepherd Dog, poodles were primarily used to guide the blind)

The German Shepherd Dog has also been used to” sniff out” metals for miners. Many metals are in sulfide ores (rock formations) and in a 1964 test, an experienced human prospector found 270 such rocks. When a German Shepherd Dog was brought onto the same field it “sniffed out” 1,330 rocks with metals in them.