Max and Art were talking one weekend, trying to decide what to do. The conversation went like this:

Art: "What do you want to do this weekend Max, we can't just keep going out to the bars. Besides, the girl you were with last weekend might see you. She is still mad that you never called her."

Max: "I don't know Fred, how about going to a dog show? Greta is judging this weekend."

Art: "No, you know those dog shows are a waste of time. There are never any single women, and when there are, they are too busy showing dogs to take time to talk to us. Besides, the last time we were at a dog show, all you did was bitch about there being no good dogs. They are either too small, or too spooky, or they have no top line, or you just don't like them. Why don't we buy a show dog, and show him ourselves. We can do just as good as any of those professional handlers?"

Max: "You and I can't afford a dog to show, they charge too much for a puppy, and all I have is what I saved on my army pay. Besides, do you know how much a handler costs? Any you know the judges only put up the handlers.  "It is so political."

Art: "Why don't we buy a dog that isn't registered, we can probably get one from the pound, and if we tell everyone it is a new rare breed, they will all agree with us, and the girls will be so impressed, they will all want one. You know, nothings gets the girls like a puppy."

Max: "But who would believe that? Everyone already has a registered dog, and they won't let us show our new dogs, and we will be told that he has all kinds of faults, and it will take us years and years to be recognized as a good dog."

Art: "If we keep talking about him, and don't listen to what others say, we can get to a point where we can even call it a new breed, and just pretend it is a standard dog, that no one ever saw before. We can have our own shows, and you can judge and put up our own dog. Then we can even make up a new title, and who knows, in 100 years or so, they will think it is a great breed."

Max: "I like that idea. It won't cost us much, as we can get any old dog, and start a new breed, we can call it a German Shepherd, and then the girls will have to talk to us, because we will be the only person with a German Shepherd. Then we can have a show for our new breed. I'll judge it, and put up whatever dog we pick, and we can call him the Grand Victor."

Art: "I like that idea, but we had better call him a Sieger, after all, we are still in Germany, and we won't be showing in America for a long time. They probably will not recognize the breed before 1913, and they might want to use the name Grand Victor."

So off went Art and Max, (Arthur Meyer and Max Emil Frederick von Stephanitz) and formed a new breed. In 1899 the first Sieger show was held. Max judged the first show in the new breed, and it was a wonderful coincidence that he chooses the dog he used to start his new breed. The very first Sieger was a dog chosen by Max and Art to found the breed they picked a dog call Horand, and it was amazing but Horand won the first Sieger show. Of course he was the first dog in the new studbook, and may even have been the only dog entered. Or at least that is what the losers say.

Max, that great and wonderful founder of our breed, also decided what was good and what was bad for the breed. He didn't even have to worry about being contradicted by Art, for Art died a few years later, and Max took over. Mostly what was bad, was anything he did not like, or he considered a weakness in the breed. Max felt that like light skinned people, a loss of pigment was associated with a lack of strength and stamina, as in the Norse people, and to be avoided. Included in this were the white German Shepherds. He warned about introducing any new factors into the breed. This is what he heard from all those who were breeding at the time, when they talked about Crazy Max, and his new breed, so he figured, to improve his breed, he needed to eliminate other problems. Besides, if he kept stopping others from new ideas, his breed would some day be recognized as the best breed in the world, and some day, even Jimmy Moses might handle them.

White, a factor that is being bred today, always existed in the breed. Notwithstanding the attempt to eliminate what exists naturally in nature, (there still exists white wolves), the small group of "crazy" breeders who have dedicated themselves to preserve the whites continue to breed to the pure ideal. A white dog, with dark rich pigment, shown in black nose, toe nails, and other black areas. They do so under extreme pressure, still resulting from the ideal of Max, and those who will not recognize what is a natural and sustaining trait of the breed.

In the 50s and 60s a number of the top kennels were still using White German Shepherds in the breeding programs, to improve the breed. Longworth Kennels with many ROM animals and the breeders of dogs such as Ch. Chimney Sweep, Ch. Vol ROM, and many others, used Whites to try to improve their lines. When the German Shepherd Dog Club Of America decided to eliminate whites, they did so not by removing them from the gene pool, but by making it a disqualifying fault, and in doing so, causing serious breeders in conformation to avoid breeding whites. What they did not do, was eliminate Whites from the other areas of competition. This limited vision is today running up against the natural progression of the breed.

Today the growth is in areas other than conformation. Agility, Herding, Obedience, and Schutzhund are getting more and more popular, while Conformation entries are less and less. To obtain a major in conformation twenty years ago, it might take 35 or more entries. Today, in may areas, less than 20 dogs are needed. On the other hand, if you try to enter Agility, you better get your entry in early, because they may close, as too many are trying to enter. In those areas that are growing, the White German Shepherd is not only entering, but winning.

Just as the Norse Vikings have proven to be strong and vigorous, the White Shepherd seems to be on the move, growing, and getting more and more popular. They now hold their own shows, (not unlike the early Sieger shows) and continue to be bred pure.

For reasons know only to a few individuals, the parent club of the breed, The German Shepherd Dog Club of America, continues to insist that the White Shepherd remain in the club, and that they must be a member of that parent club, and no other. But, they must not be shown in Conformation, as white remains a disqualifying fault. The vision of Max lives on.

There is no reason to continue to insist that the White Shepherd be a German Shepherd, unless they are willing to allow them to compete with all other German Shepherds. While insisting that the White remain in the breed, they at the same time insist that they cannot or should not be breed into the breeding pool.

It is time to consider, as did Max and Art, that a new breed is being developed. The parent club should not only suggest, but insist that the Shepherd, if they are to continue to be bred, and developed, be done so outside the acceptance of the German Shepherd Dog Club of America, and be encouraged to register and breed as a new and different breed. If, as Max claimed, white is a sign of weakness, then in but a few years the breed will destroy itself. At one time color was used to determine the quality of humans, and with the development of enlightenment, we have learned that to use color as a criteria for men of quality, intelligence or strength was ignorance, and prejudice, and nothing else.

Like Max and Art, the White Shepherd is a change from what was going on at the time they decided to start a new breed. The time has come to recognize the dedication of those who for over twenty years now, (what amounts to 1/5 of the time of the existence of the breed now known as the German Shepherd), who have continued to be "shut out" of conformation, who have been reviled for their love of a new breed, and who have continued to protect the White, be recognized as pioneers, as are Max and Art. While not everyone will want to breed a White, after all, Max told us it is a fault, and so did the Parent Club. But, there is no doubt all those who were showing registered breeds in the 1890s said the same thing about Weird Max and Crazy Art.

Perhaps the time is right, to tell the Whites, we don't agree with you. You are breeding on a fault that Max warned us about. If you continue to do this, you have to have your own breed, and form your own shows, and pick your own Sieger. It is time for you to form your own studbook, and decide on your own parent club. In that way, the German Shepherd Dog Club of America can protect the breed, eliminate any chance that the white gene will be brought back into the breeding program.

Not only that, but the chicks just love those white puppies.

About the author: I used to be, a highschool teacher, a professional magician, a jewelry  salesman, and for the last 25 years an attorney. I have been in Shepherds  for about 30 years, and a member of the GSDCA for over 25 years. I served  eight years on the board of directors of the GSDCA, and am a member now of  the German Shepherd Dog Club of Long Beach, the Inlands City German Shepherd  Dog Club, the Orange Empire German Shepherd Dog Club, and the German Shepherd Dog Club of Los Angeles County. I am also a member of the WDA, and the White German Shepherd Dog Club.

At ASGARD, our kennel, we have bred, owned or sold over 40 champions, and I have shown about twenty of our own dogs to their championships. I have twice shown Asgard dogs to Select, and both my wife Tedi and I are AKC judges of German Shepherds. I also have judged now for four years, the American Rare Breed Associations shows, and last year judged in Mexico. I have judged a Futurity for the GSDCA, and have written articles for the Review, and the Kansas City News Letter, where for four years I published an article in every issue.