The origin of dogs

The discovery of the oldest fossilized domestic dog so far hinders the history of about 1200 years. But people don't know exactly when!

Began to turn into a domestic dog. In ancient times, wolves and humans had a lot in common in their way of life, which made the transformation of wolves from wild animals to domestic dogs easier. At that time, wolves, like people, ran around looking for food, and people often gave the leftover food to wolves to eat. Wolves gradually became familiar with people, always following human tracks, giving advance instructions to nearby herds and warning of dangerous situations. People are also interested in wolves, and wolf cubs are easy to domesticate. This gradually began the evolution of wolves to domestic dogs.

With the rise of human breeding and animal husbandry, livestock have become the prey of wolves. Free-moving wolves become enemies from human friends, while domesticated "domestic wolves" can take care of livestock, defend tribes, and thus evolve into dogs. It was not until more than 100 years ago that it was bred and raised as a breeding dog. With the rise of textile industry and agricultural intensification, wool has become an important industrial raw material, at the same time, it has brought a demand for a new dog breed-sheepdog. The task of the sheepdog is to look after and drive the sheep, to stop the sheep from trampling on the crops, and to protect the sheep from poaching. Therefore, it must be alert, flexible, patient, fast, able to work independently, follow orders, and be gentle and considerate to the lambs. Different kinds of sheepdogs have been formed in different regions and different geographical conditions, which have their own outstanding characteristics. To this day, the long-haired German Shepherd in the plateau is famous for its enduring perseverance. In clay areas, short-haired sheepdogs are formed, so that the clay rarely sticks to the body. Today, most of the world's famous dogs, the German Shepherd, have this fur structure.

The history of modern German shepherds is inseparable from VonStephonitz. VonStephonitz (Marx von Stefanitz) was born in 1864 and died in 1936. It is his lifelong pursuit to breed an ideal multi-purpose working dog. His rich experience suggests that his native shepherd dog has a lot of talent to become a working dog. At that time, dog breeding and dog shows had been introduced to Germany from England. Breeds in many places are called breeds and are bred according to standards, but many working dogs are valued not for their ability to work but for their appearance. At that time, Scottish shepherds and Colle were the most popular, while some people loved aboriginal sheepdogs, especially gray, short-haired (flat-haired), straight-eared, wolf-like sheepdogs. At the end of the 19th century, dogs began to breed commercially in Sachsen and other places. Wvtternberg dogs tend to have erect ears, reasonable bone structure, robust gait, strong toughness, better tail shape and calm personality than Thvringen dogs. Thuringia's tail is often curled. As a result, breeders of Wvtternberg can mate with Thuringhans to get gray, straight-eared dogs. This laid the foundation for German shepherd dog breeding. At that time, people used wolves to mate with dogs, but the results were not ideal.

VonStephonitz looked down on the "ideal dog" Hektorlinksrhein at a dog show and later changed it to HerandvonGrafrath. In 1899, the German Shepherd Dog Association (SV) was established with ArthurMeyer (Artur Mayer).

VonStephonitz is a famous dog taxonomist. During his service, he has been to many European countries to observe the working methods of dogs and collected a large number of dog data and photos. His book "German Shepherd-words and Pictures" introduced all the famous shepherds at that time. His main point is that German shepherds are working dogs, firmly opposed to paying attention to appearance breeding, and published a lot of influential articles in professional journals. Because of his close relationship with the military and his own unremitting efforts, the German Shepherd finally replaced the Collie and AiredaleTerrier as military and police dogs. His efforts were successful. Since then, the outstanding performance of the German Shepherd has made it a pet breed for people all over the world.