The German Shepherd Dog: In Word and Picture (*PDF eBook)

The German Shepherd Dog: In Word and Picture, by Max von Stephanitz

This is the foundational work on one of the world's favorite dog breeds — the German Shepherd Dog — by the godfather of the Shepherd, Max Emil Freidrich von Stephanitz.

Originally published in Germany (in German, obviously) in 1923, The German Shepherd Dog in Word and Picture is the English translation of one of the most important books on the German Shepherd — but also on breeding dogs.

Stephanitz, and the granddaddy of all German Shepherds, Horand von Grafrath, give you a look at the earliest days — and the ideals behind — one of the world's most popular purebred working dogs. The German Shepherd was believed by Stephanitz to be the "perfect herding dog," a title that's stuck with them ever since (whether they're herding sheep, cattle, or socks).

Contents include: "The Shepherd dog and Herdsman's dog, their Origin and Relationship", "The Nature and Service of the Shepherd Dog", "Breeding", "Rearing", "Judging", "Training", "Kennels", etc.

I'm Lance — I'm one-half of A Boy and his Dog: Outdoor Americana. When I'm not writing about critters and conservation and camping — I sell books. Specifically, I sell old, rare, and otherwise hard-to-find books.

Vintage books can be incredibly expensive. Many of them, like this one, can be reproduced and republished independently. I began making some of these older books available to my bookshop's customers several years ago. When putting them together — I look at it with a conservator's eye: I try to find the best copies, the best scans, and I create my editions with the kind of love and attention their original publishers and binders did.

For this edition — I've included a biography of Stephanitz as a preface, and used a 1923 edition (one of the earliest printed in English) as the basis of this PDF. I cleaned up the scans of this edition as best I can (without rescanning it myself — and as I don't have a better hardcopy myself, that might be a bit of a challenge).

This is the first release of this edition, before I begin the work of creating ePub, Mobi, and Kindle editions — and it's available starting at the low, low price of "free," for my readers and subscribers on Substack at https://boyandhisdog.substack.com.

I spent hours of my time putting this together — and I'm still absolutely fine with you having it for free. This is a work that deserves to be preserved, read, and loved by anyone who loves our best friends that have been Velcro'ed to our side for 30,000 years.

And this one — I referenced heavily in one of my recent pieces on dogs.

If you enjoy this, consider coming to visit over on Substack, Medium, or Newsbreak, where you can find all my writing.

We'll see you on the trail.

Happy tails, readers.