Figure 1.--Here we see a German boy with the family pet, a German shepherd, duruing the 1920s. We are not sure why his ears are down. That is something we do not see so much with American shepherds, but seems to have been mpre common in Germany. We even notice Hitler's shepherd Blondie often had its ears' down. Germany produced about 50,000 dogs for yse during the War. After the War, however, the shepherd faced many problems. The dog here looks young so it probably was not a war dog.

The Germans in particular had huge numbers of dogs during World War I. There were large numbers of these dogs produced during the War. Most were shepards. We think many German dogs also had to be euthenized because of the difficult economic conditions. We are not sure what German Army policy was toward the dogs. Presumably many of the handlers wanted to bring their dogs home. One would think that might be difficult if they lived in cramped city aprtments. Nor are we sure to what extent war dogs could become docile family pets. We do no yet have complete details on what happened. We do know that in the last year of the war, shortages developed on the home front leading to a collapse of civilian morale. Germany at the time of World War I was not self sufficentv in food production and the Allied naval blockade cut off food imports. Even so, the Government did not implemebt an effective rationing program or take steps to excuse agricultural workers from cinscription. As a result, domestic harvests declined. Some authors describe a famine. That may be an over-statement, but there were severe shortages and many people experienced real deprivations. Some children appear to have starved or at least sucumbed to illness because they were famished. In such aituations, many people could not keep their pets. Some dogs starved, others were eaten by their owners. Dog experts report that many war dogs were sterile or gave birth to high numbers of stillborn pups. This may have been the result of massive Army breeding programs. Postwar veterinary care and access to canine medicine was very limited. Canine diseases as aesult ran rampant. German shepherd breeders in Germany worked to restore the breed. We do know that as Germany became to rearm in the 1930s, the Wehrmacht instituted and even larger dog program.

Created: 5:26 AM 6/20/2011
Last updated: 5:26 AM 6/20/2011