“Here I come to save the day!”
German Shepherds don’t need capes.
Not that there’s anything wrong with that, beagles.
“Ahem. Hold my beer.”
I didn’t find Duncan with an online search, but IMDb’s list of silent-film dog stars has quite a few German Shepherds on it
Here are some of them at work. The only ones I can name (because of this) are the two together: the light-colored shepherd is Lady Jule and her pal is Strongheart:
People like to look at German Shepherds “smiling” and doing things!
Oh, wait. This post is about dog shows, isn’t it.
Even the AKC shows that happy, friendly “smile” and the dogs doing things with people — that totally black Shepherd is amazing, too!
Here is the breed standard:
Sometimes the dog is not smiling when it shows plenty of teeth, which is why Shepherds make good security guards.
Unfortunately, like all dogs, German Shepherds take their cues from their owners and handlers, which occasionally include humans carrying a big burden of hate and power madness.
That can end up very badly, but it’s not the dog’s fault.
Let’s end the videos — only a few of many out there — on a happier note:
As a kid, it seemed quite natural that Rinty got star billing and camera close-ups.
More information:
- AKC breed page
- Wikipedia on Rin-Tin-Tin
- German Wikipedia page
Featured image: Zuzule/Shutterstock
Flight To Wonder 