What’s in a Name?
White Shepherd Dogs, White German Shepherd Dogs, White Swiss Shepherd Dogs/Berger Blanc Suisse Dogs, what exactly do Fanuilos breed?
In Australia, all white shepherds are technically known as German Shepherd Dogs by the Australian National Kennel Council(ANKC).
White is a disqualifying fault in German Shepherd Dogs and cannot be registered or bred with the ANKC. There is a movement in Australia to have these dogs recognised as White Swiss Shepherd Dogs, as they have been by the FCI (Berger Blanc Suisse Dog - provisional recognised 2002).
Although the ANKC have advised that no Australian line White German Shepherd Dog will ever be known as a White Swiss Shepherd Dog, Fanuilos White Shepherds believe in breed separation. However at this stage in time, we do not believe the White Swiss Shepherd Dog community in Australia has the population size or quality of dogs to support full breed separation.
Does that mean Fanuilos White Shepherds use coloured German Shepherd Dogs in your breeding program?
No – at this stage Fanuilos White Shepherds will not be using coloured GSD in our breeding program. To increase the quality of our lines, we are opting to use imported semen and other quality white lines from Australia instead of using coloured GSD.
We call our dogs White Shepherds as everyone understands what we mean by this. We are members of both the WSSDCA and the WGSDCV and are a registered kennel with both organisations. All our puppies will be registered with both organisations. We do this as we consider the Australian White Shepherd population too small to split the gene pool over the difference in name.
So can White Shepherd Dogs, White German Shepherd Dogs and White Swiss Shepherd Dogs cross breed?
This is currently an issue in Europe – according to FCI regulations one of the requirements to be called a White Swiss Shepherd Dog is having 3 generations of all white dogs in the pedigree. While the breed is provisionally recognised, there are mechanisms to allow white dogs produced by two coloured German Shepherd Dogs to be conformed as a White Swiss Shepherd Dog to help the gene pool and breed numbers. This has caused great controversy in Europe and there is lobbying to have this rule changed. If you study the pedigrees of many European lines, most can be traced back to the USA. White Swiss Shepherds do not exist as a breed in the USA, they are known as German Shepherds (AKC) or White Shepherds (UKC).
German Shepherds of the colour white are still able to be registered with the American Kennel Club and the United Kennel Club have recognised the White Shepherd as a breed.
In Australia, at this point in time, we have the beauty to source lines from all over the world, regardless of the name and improve the quality of our population and increase the numbers of dogs with 3 or more generations of all white pedigrees.