White Shepherds of New Zealand

Rittmeister Von Stephanitz

Max Emil Friedrich von Stephanitz was born to a noble family on December 30th, 1864 and died on the 22 April 1936, which was the 37th anniversary of the club he founded. Stephanitz is credited with having developed the German Shepherd Dog breed as we currently know it, set guidelines for the breed standard, and was the first president of the Verein für Deutsche Schäferhunde (S.V.).

The Rittmeisters idea of the dog was the working quality and the appearance of it.

He had no preferences to colours and the fact is that the first registered German Shepherds had white ancestors and also produced white dogs.

White coats were made a disqualification in the German Shepherd Dog Club of Germany breed standard in 1933 after the breed club came under the control of the German Nazi party that took over all aspects of German society in February 1933 when Hitler declared a state of emergency. The German breed standard remained unchanged as German breeders repopulated the breed in the years after the conclusion of WWII.

It was only in Germany that the white dogs got excluded. 

The White Shepherd Dog emerged from white coat lines of the German Shepherd. Currently, is today recognized by 2 large kennel clubs as separate breeds.

UKC, The United Kennel Club  recognize this dog as White Shepherd.

FCI, The Fédération Cynologique Internationale recognize this dog as White Swiss Shepherd/Berger Blanc Suisse.

(Swiss because it was the first country in FCI that recognized this breed.)

(see separate TAB with UKC & FCI)

Some countries still let German Shepherds be registered as German Shepherds of the color white, some have put them on a special register and some has made the decision to be a separate bred depending on if under UKC or FCI.

Many countries have let the existing blood stock that got locked out in the old days to enroll after inspection by the local kennel club. This has been done for the good of the breed and to have as many separate bloodlines as possible.

New Zealand’s kennel club that is under FCI does sadly not look at letting existing white shepherds enroll but do let imported White Shepherds from other FCI countries sign in under the NZKC.

It would probably give NZKC too much work to inspect existing White Shepherds that have not known and not registered pedigree to enroll since they might in some cases not even be purebred shepherds.