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RinTinTin Bloodline?

13K views 27 replies 13 participants last post by  MiaMoo  
#1 ·
Hi there,

We adopted a German Shepherd from Save A Dog Scheme roughly three months ago. He is now about a year and a half old.

He's a beautiful boy with a heart of gold intelligence to match.

We were just curious... It seems to us that he is very close to a RinTinTin-type German Shepherd, and it has been pointed out by someone at the GSDCV as well, so I'd like to post some pictures here to get everyone's input. We'd love to know what you think, anything that can tell us more about where our boy potentially came from. :)

First picture is RinTinTin and Buddy (RinTinTin on the left).
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/Krice_Verta/RinTinTinBuddy_zps3b02f8d5.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/Krice_Verta/BuddyBody3_zpsb089017e.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/Krice_Verta/BuddyBody4_zps4ab8484f.jpg
http://img.photobucket.com/albums/v211/Krice_Verta/BuddyBody_zps62ad9995.jpg
 
#4 ·
Rin Tin Tin is a really interesting story. There was a recent biography of him. He was a pup found by an American soldier in a bombed out French barn during WW1. There was some info on his progeny in the book.
Nice looking dog.
Yep, we've read up about it. It's a fantastic story. :) Thanks for your feedback.

Without a pedigree there's no way of knowing if you have a dog that has Rin Tin Tin in the pedigree. At the moment your dog just looks like a very low pigment saddleback or even possibly sable. The thing with Rin Tin Tin was that he had a reverse mask...he didn't have the black hair on the face or the nose which your dog seems to have.

We feel like he's at least from a much older line, given how close he is to RinTinTin (despite some discrepancies), like the slim long body and the long legs. We were just curious as to how much information other people know about this older-type Shepherd as we'd like to know more as well. Even though we don't have his pedigree (as he is a rescue), it would still is interesting to get opinions/knowledge from other GSD owners/lovers. :) Thanks for your feedback.
 
#3 ·
Without a pedigree there's no way of knowing if you have a dog that has Rin Tin Tin in the pedigree. At the moment your dog just looks like a very low pigment saddleback or even possibly sable. The thing with Rin Tin Tin was that he had a reverse mask...he didn't have the black hair on the face or the nose which your dog seems to have.
 
#8 ·
Correct me if I'm missing something, but I don't think you can assume he's from the same line as RinTinTin just by his general body shape.

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I didn't assume that he IS from the same line, and certainly not JUST by his body shape. I simply asked if people thought that he could maybe be from a RinTinTin-TYPE of line - aka, either RinTinTin's line itself or offshoots directly from that line. I was interested to hear what people thought, not looking to offend or annoy anyone. Thanks for your feedback. :)
 
#9 ·
When you Google image search "Rin Tin Tin" there appears to be several different dogs used to portray Rin Tin Tin - sable, full mask, reverse mask, partial mask, etc. So, I think it's pretty much impossible to tell by looks alone.
 
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#10 ·
Is your dog neutered? One thing that leads to longer legs, skinnier body is an early neuter. There are so many factors that could've led to your dog ending up leggier and skinnier. If you're looking at older pictures of any GSD you'll see that they're skinnier and a bit leggier than today's dogs. Rin Tin Tin was alive almost 70 years ago, so through selection we have bred GSDs to be a little more intimidating looking and just a bit bigger over all.

The Rin Tin Tin line is quite guarded, so for you to have a rescue from that line is probably unlikely. Plus, if Rin Tin Tin was a great great great great x10 grandfather of your dog, its extremely unlikely that any of his traits would've lasted that long without purposeful breeding back to that line in order to keep some of those traits.
 
#12 ·
The Rin Tin Tin line is quite guarded, so for you to have a rescue from that line is probably unlikely. Plus, if Rin Tin Tin was a great great great great x10 grandfather of your dog, its extremely unlikely that any of his traits would've lasted that long without purposeful breeding back to that line in order to keep some of those traits.
My boy goes back to Rin Tin Tin. Sadly, not all breeders guarded their stock.
 
#11 ·
I met a neighbor awhile ago, that said she knew one of his grand puppies. Very nice lady and she really seemed to know her stuff
 
#13 ·
It's highly unlikely that your dog goes back to Rin Tin Tin. The bloodline is still around, but they are quite rare, as the breeder sells all her pups on spay/neuter contracts and is rather strict about where they go, as I understand. It's unlikely that such a dog would end up in rescue. He has the look of a randomly-bred American pet line GSD, so it's very likely that he came from a backyard breeder, which of course does not mean his intrinsic value is any less! Just enjoy him and don't concern yourself with his bloodline; without a pedigree, you will never know anyway. :)
 
#14 ·
I'm at the office, so I don't have his papers with me. I'll update once I get home tonight. He does go back to Rin Tin Tin. Not saying that makes him a wonder dog...well, to me it does.
 
#21 ·
The actual nose was black...but his face didn't have any black on it. Rin Tin Tin had to have a reverse mask because otherwise you wouldn't be able to see his face on black and white television. This is probably the biggest reason that he became as famous as he was...first time a GSD was able to be on TV due to the lighter face.

On another note...dogs with faults can still be registered. Registration has nothing to do with their correctness to the breed standard, it just has to be a GSD. I'm not even sure how Rin Tin Tin was registered originally as the story goes that he was a stray found by an American soldier while fighting in WWII. Not sure if AKC had little bit laxer rules than today, but that's probably the only way there is a Rin Tin Tin line today.
 
#19 ·
Ah, all very informative answers. We do enjoy him, every day, and we don't stress about where he came from. We were just curious as to what his line might be, but given what you all have said, indeed that does help us understand a bit.

He's a compassionate, intelligent dog (That's just the GSD, I suppose :) ) and he does things/behaves in certain ways that make us wonder how anyone could have given him up.

He was apparently found by the ranger wandering around with two cats. One of his two previous families had children who apparently 'teased' him.

Unfortunately that's all the information we have.

And yep! He is neutered. We've only had him for three months so we don't know when that was done.
 
#20 ·
Daphne Hereford has been breeding RTT line bred dogs for many years ... I'm sure if you send her a picture of your dog she'll be able to tell you if she thinks it is related to RTT dogs or not.
 
#22 ·
Hondo's sire is by Zeus, who is by Rin Tin Tins Dare Dawg, who is by to Rin Tin Tins Oooh-Ahhh.
 
#27 ·
Your dog is a year and a half so some of that tall/thin look may fill out as he matures.

I don't think there is technically a "Rin Tin Tin type" GSD. There are dogs from the Rin Tin Tin lines, but to me they always looked more like the dog from the 50s TV show than the "original" Rinty.

I got to meet the at the time current Rin Tin Tin probably about 10 years ago, at a pet show. I was going to get a photo with him but they wouldn't let my dog be in the photo so I didn't do it since I was there with my dog. Too bad. Funny, my dog (same dog) also got to meet Benji once (and her "sidekick" from the most recent movie).