A dog breed created by Tina Barber in order to preserve the old type German Shepherd characteristics. The parent club, the Shiloh Shepherd Dog Club of America, continues to promote the futher development of the breed.
Origin
Tina Barber, an American breeder of German origin, started her breeding program in 1962 when she was aged only 14.
Her aim was not to create a new breed of Shepherd dogs, but to perpetuate the old type of German Shepherd dog she remembered from her childhood: true family companions, of exceptional intelligence, both physically and mentally sound, and large in size.
The Shiloh shepherd descends from the foundation lines of Shiloh-Emmview's Kara Lobo, a stock of very tall, leggy, wolf-like sables, which were crossed with the Old Württemberger Shepherd dogs, to improve bone size and hip quality. Apart from these carefully selected old-style German Shepherd dogs, Tina Barber infused some Malamute blood into her breeding stock to improve hips and increase size of the breed. The amount of Malamute blood is negligable as the lines were not directly outcrossed to a Malamute. Instead a MAW was used, i.e. a special cross of a Giant Malamute, an Alt Deutcher Shaeferhunde (old-style GSD) and a White GSD. Thus, the MAW dog itself only carried approximately 1/4 of malamute blood, and his direct offspring in the early 90's only had 1/8 of Malamute blood in them.
Tina Barber's breeding for good hips was not just to produce sound dogs, but also to improve temperament as dogs with a low pain level often (understandably) show temperament problems.
The Shiloh Shepherd Dog Club of America was formed in 1991 by a group of dedicated "Shiloh" lovers, to preserve and protect the future development of the breed. The same year the International Shiloh Shepherd Registry (ISSR) was created under the auspices of the parent Club SSDCA in order to separate the foundation stock from the FCI registered Shilohs. The registry holds records of more than 4000 true Shiloh Shepherds, as well as over 47,000 of their ancestors.
Several club splits have led to new registries, which, however, are not recognized by the original founder of the breed.
Appearance
Shilohs come in two coat varieties: a smooth coat of medium length and a plush coat (with abundant feathering), which was originally accepted by the GSD standard.
White is an accepted coat color in Shilohs provided that the nose, lips, and eye rims are black.
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