Through breeding experiments, breeders have been able to create variations of the German Shepherd. Such experiments gave way to new kinds of German Shepherd dogs, one of which is the white German Shepherd. But in spite of these great results, there are some people who wish to stick to its roots by breeding old-style German Shepherds which are larger than your usual German Shepherd. These purists argue that though these experiments can produce German shepherds with special attributes, the qualities which gave the breed its reputation such as intelligence may disappear.

The different lines of German Shepherds

For those who do not know anything about German Shepherds, you may think that all of these dogs are one and the same. They are not. In fact, there are many lines of this breed and the old-style is just one of them. Each line was created for a specific purpose and these are:

- International working line. This line of German Shepherds is bred mainly to gain the working traits rather than the looks. Because of this, the appearance of these dogs may differ.

- International show line. This line was designed for breeders who are after the appearance of the dog rather than its working traits.

- North American show lines. This line was designed also more for the looks of the dog but with certain variations. These include sloped backs and sharper angulations. There are now debates on whether this line should be considered as a different breed of dog altogether. But breeders of this line argue that though there are great changes in the appearance of the dog, the working attributes have not been changed.

Appearance

Aside from the lines stated above, there is also another line which is called the old-style German Shepherd. The goal of the breeders of this line is simply to bring back the German Shepherd dogs to the way it was before. They aim to produce a line of dogs that looks and acts the same as its first ancestors. The old-style German Shepherd differs from the regular German Shepherd simply by its sheer size. A normal German Shepherd is around 24 to 26 inches tall. The old-style German Shepherds dwarf them by four more inches.

So an old-style German Shepherd is about 30 inches in height and would weigh around 124 lbs. or 54 kg. Though the features on the face are the same with regular German Shepherds, the old-style dogs have larger heads. The other physical attributes of this kind of breed include a straighter back, big bones, and no extreme angulations on the legs, giving it a noble and more poised look.