|
| First litter bred in 1987. sire: Buddy dam:
Swanny |
The American Alsatian was first developed by Lois Denny in 1987. The first litter between
a purebred Alaskan Malamute (Buddy) and a purebred German Shepherd Dog (Swanny) was whelped on February 4, 1988 in Oxnard,
California.
The idea for this new breed of dog entered the mind of a child around the year 1969 when
a mixed German Shepherd Dog followed her home. At the age of 9 years old, Lois Denny started breeding animals. (Guinea pigs, pigeons, mice and rats). Genetics
had a hold on her and she spent her days in local libraries researching her passion. She kept records of the coat colors,
density, eye shapes, mutations, and albinism that occurred.
By the time Lois was 30 she had the experience behind
her of hundreds of breeds as she trained, groomed, handled and bred animals for others. In her mind she was constantly evaluating
and gathering information as an image of a new breed of dog formed deep within her. She prepared a standard of what this new
breed would look like and how it should behave. She knew the character it needed to have to become the best breed she had
ever known. The brains and heart of the dog had to come first. She wasn't concerned about the looks just yet, that could be
done in a couple of generations, but the heart and the intelligence would take some time. She had figured at least 6 years.
This would be an expensive undertaking and would take a lot longer than she had imagined.
Several
AKC American Show Shepherds, other working German Shepherd Dogs coming directly from Germany, Holland, and Canada, as well
as two purebred Alaskan Malamutes formed the basis of the foundation stock used to start shaping the temperament and character
so prized in this relatively new large breed of dog. After ten years of breeding within these mixed lines, a new and consistent
temperament was formed, although the looks were still too similar to the German Shepherd Dog. It was at this time that a
few hand selected American Alsatians™ with mellow, even temperaments were then outcrossed with a fawn colored English
Mastiff, Brite Stars Willow of Cold Springs, who was out of Ch. Brite Stars Sir Winston Churchill who gained his championship
at the young age of 18 months. The English Mastiff breed was chosen to add the full round bone and large head of the strongbred
American Alsatian™ one sees today.
After several years of breeding these American Alsatian™/mastiff
mixed dogs and choosing only the quietest, boldest dogs in the litter (and disregarding the look in order to concentrate on
the most important feature of this new breed, its companion dog personality) each litter began to reproduce themselves consistently,
thus continuing the formation a new rare breed of dog.
In 2002, all lines were set and each litter produced
a similar personality and look. These strongbred dogs were bred unto themselves to beget 18th and 20th generations who
were again crossed with unrelated dogs in 2006. This time the outcross dogs were an Anatolian/Great Pyrenees mix out of purebred
lines and a shepherd/malamute mix. She chose these two dogs in order to keep the largeness and enhance the temperament. We
are now in the fourth generation from this last outcross and all lines are once again strongbred dogs, meaning they beget
themselves consistently in personality, health and looks.
After
20 years of breeding and the recording of litters and owners while striving for perfection, she has at last reached her goal.
Today there is such a dog! A dog that fits the standards of the breed in both health and temperament that she had envisioned
so many years ago.
Although at present each dog when bred begets itself in conformation, the wolf look
is not complete. Because Lois concentrated on the health and the mellow, calm, non-barking temperament before looks, the
breed's conformation is still under development. Now the founder will be working to improve the look of the 'big
bad wolf.' At some point, we will once again outcross, this time in order to concentrate on the wolfie look of the breed
without compromising the health and temperament that have been the most difficult of the three to achieve.
The name of the American
Alsatian has changed several times as this breed progressed from a mixed breed of dog to a separate breed conforming to its
own unique standards in temperament and looks. In 1988, the name of the breed was the North American Shepalute. Lois,
our founder, chose to take the words shepherd and malamute and blend them together to reflect the blending of the two founding
breeds. In 2004, the breed name was changed to Alsatian Shepalute in order to start the transition from the portmaneau
word, Shepalute, to a name that harkened back to the past when the German Shepherd Dog was called the Alsatian Wolfdog. The
term Alsatian came to remind one of a dog that looked, in some general characteristics, similar to a wolf. Since this
breed was meant to resemble the extinct Dire Wolf in bone and body structure, this term was adopted. On February 21,
2010, the name of this breed was again changed, dropping Shepalute all together. Our club decided this change in order to
completely eliminate the tie this breed once had to the mix breeding of the shepherd and the malamute. In order to reflect
this breed's strongbred conformity, the name was changed to American Alsatian. The descriptive term American was added in
order to reflect this breed's origins and create a distinctiveness from the colloquial usage of Alsatian in Great Britain,
Australia, and New Zealand.
