Breed Education

TRANSLATION: Mrs R. Binder / Original Version : (FR). ORIGIN: Switzerland. DATE OF PUBLICATION OF THE OFFICIAL VALID STANDARD: 04.07.2011. UTILIZATION: Companion and family dog. FCI-CLASSIFICATION: Group 1 Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs (except Swiss Cattle Dogs). Section 1 Sheepdogs. Without working trial. BRIEF HISTORICAL SUMMARY: In the USA and Canada White Shepherd dogs have gradually become to be accepted as a distinct breed. The first dogs of this breed were imported to Switzerland in the early 70ies.

To know the history of the White Swiss Shepherd is to also know history of the German Shepherd Dog; as their histories are intertwined for a period of time. The breed standard for the White Swiss Shepherd call for a dog based on the type and coloration of sheepdogs found in the German state of Thuringia, which were known to come in white, and of a type in congruence to todays White Swiss Shepherd.

One of our goals as a custodian for the WSSD breed, is to ensure the future health of the breed by maintaining a health database of breed stock and determining applicable health testing to be done by breeders to ensure healthy progeny. This means keeping track of known abnormalities in the breed, as well as abnormalities in the breed that we share common ancestry with, the GSD. In order for a dog owner to receive a CHIC certificate (which for our breed is an indication of COMPLETE health testing) we require dogs be tested for all applicable genetic health anomalies that affect the White Swiss Shepherd Dog as well as monitor hearts and eyes.

Numbers and statistics from the database of the Orthopedic Foundation for Animals of the White Swiss Shepherd as of February, 2022 Total WSSD dogs in the database- 181 (Format for listed results: name of result/ number of dogs with that result/ % of dogs with that result) NUMBER OF OFA HIP ENTRIES: 128 excellent 14/ 10.9% good 81/ 63.3% fair 20/ 15.6% borderline 5/ 3.9% mild 4/ 3.1% moderate 3/ 2.

The World Canine Organization, formally known as The Fédération Cynologique Internationale, includes 98 members and contract partners that each issue their own pedigrees and train their own judges. The FCI makes sure that the pedigrees and judges are mutually recognized by all the FCI members. The FCI recognizes 354 breeds. Each of them is the ‘property’ of a specific country. The ‘owner’ countries of the breeds write the standard of these breeds (detailed description of the ideal type of the breed), in co-operation with the Standards and Scientific Commissions of the FCI.