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American Alsatian™ History
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| 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 again 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.
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