White German Shepherd or White Shepherd?

If you've been browsing the internet looking to learn more about white coated German Shepherd Dogs, you might have noticed that some breeders call their dogs "White Shepherds" while others call them "White German Shepherds". What's the difference?

White colored German Shepherd dogs have been around a long time, since the beginning of the breed. For a variety of reasons, the SV (German Shepherd Dog Club of Germany) decided that white was not an acceptable color. So for many years in Germany, white puppies (which can be produced by two colored parents) were culled from litters. Germany succeeded in drastically reducing the number of white puppies born. They did not eliminate white from the gene pool, but they did reduce the frequency of white puppies. The US has never had the strict regulations Germany has about breeding GSDs, so white puppies, although disqualified from AKC conformation, survived and were protected here. Groups of fanciers sprung up who preserved these beautiful dogs and ensured that their breeding was still held to high standards.

White dogs are beautiful, and many people in Europe wanted them. Many dogs from the US were exported to Europe and were called American-Canadian White Shepherds - largely because the name "German Shepherd" was controlled exclusively by the SV. These white dogs were bred and have become a fairly popular dog in Europe. In 2002, a seperate breed, the Berger Blanc Suisse (Swiss White Shepherd) was recognized by the FCI, the governing body for many countries dog clubs. The country of origin of these dogs is Switzerland, not Germany, but the breeding stock came from pure-bred German Shepherds, primarly imported from the United States.

European countries (and many countries worldwide) have one major kennel club that is a part of the FCI. There are not alternative registries like there are in the US and the FCI controls everything. Germany is an FCI country and the SV basically owns the rights to the German Shepherd Dog. So the only option for registering white GSDs was to recognize them as a seperate breed. In the US however, we have a different situation. First, the American Kennel Club (AKC) is not a member of FCI. The GSDCA (German Shepherd Dog Club of America) does not use the SV standard and the American GSD looks different from the German GSD. There are many who would argue that the American line colored GSDs are not "German" Shepherds. Like it or not, Americans don't subscribe to the standards of the FCI and we do things differently here.

In response to the FCI recognition of the BBS (Berger Blanc Suisse), some white GSD fanciers in the US pushed for breed seperation here as well. The problem is that the white GSDs are registerable by the AKC as GSDs (in Germany, whites have not been registerable for a long time), so breed seperation is more difficult. All white coated German Shepherds in the US that are registered with AKC are registered as German Shepherds. The only other option in regards to AKC is to not register the dogs. BBSs imported from other countries cannot usually be registered with AKC because they are not German Shepherds.

Since changing GSDCA and AKC policies is difficult, fanciers supporting breed separation approached the United Kennel Club (UKC) and petitioned for seperate breed status. This was granted to a degree - UKC recognizes the White Shepherd as a seperate and distinct breed from the German Shepherd, but white coated German Shepherds can be registered and shown as either a White Shepherd or German Shepherd.

Many people believe that breed separation is detrimental to the health of the dogs. Separating out a small gene pool from the German Shepherd based on color would be unnecessarily harming our genetic diversity. This site was created to provide information about the white coated German Shepherd Dog, not any other breed. We believe that these dogs are purebred German Shepherds and calling them something else doesn't change that.