4 of the original GSD studs were WOLF CROSSES? Do our dogs have wolf in them?

[jae]

https://www.princeton.edu/genomics/k...er_Genetic.pdf

[Good_Karma]

If you go back far enough, didn't all dogs come from wolves? lol

How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends: Mark Derr: 9781590207000: Amazon.com: Books

How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends: Mark Derr: 9781590207000: Amazon.com: Books

[Gretchen]

Originally Posted by Good_Karma

If you go back far enough, didn't all dogs come from wolves? lol

How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends: Mark Derr: 9781590207000: Amazon.com: Books

Yes, this is true.

If you can look up the February 2012 National Geographic, there is a graph analyzing the DNA of 85 breeds. They are broken down into 4 groups:
Wolflike
Herders
Hunters
Mastifflike

The GSD has some of the least wolflike DNA. The are considered, Mastiff-like. Their DNA is similar to the French Bulldog (maybe that's why I love this breed 2nd to GSD's!),

[Sunflowers]

Originally Posted by Jag

I read that the Czech Republic military tried to introduce this into their breeding program. If I remember correctly, they weren't happy with the results, and it was a short lived experiment.

Well, thank goodness for that!

[Marnie]

How the Dog Became the Dog: From Wolves to Our Best Friends by Mark Derr is an excellent book. Not so much about German Shepherds but about the origin of the dog.

[Tom888]

Originally Posted by Jag

I read that the Czech Republic military tried to introduce this into their breeding program. If I remember correctly, they weren't happy with the results, and it was a short lived experiment.

Czechoslovakian wolfdog - Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia

The breed still exists today. In Slovakia and Czech republic they commonly call both this breed and GSDs vlčák or vlčiak which stands for wolfdog, thus creating some confusion.
Its not common though. Most of the "vlčiaks" I have seen were in fact Czech (Czechoslovakian) style GSDs or GSD crosses.

[Draugr]

From what I've been able to gather, this seems to have been an obsessive rumor started by Tina Barber (founder of the Shiloh Shepherds), with absolutely no factual basis whatsoever. She claims to have had an original of Von Stephanitz' book in the English, before the second editions and beyond (conveniently, what most people own) "cleaned up" the mentions of wolf blood. I have a friend who does own a first edition and no such entry exists that she is able to find, at any rate.

There have been multiple edit wars on Wikipedia regarding this supposed "fact" about wolves in GSDs. I don't pay it any legitimacy.

Von Stephanitz certainly had no love for the idea of breeding wolves with dogs and I see no reason why on earth he would have attempted to do so at all.