What is a King Shepherd - Page 1

These are breed in America. Does anybody know what these lines come from and WHY are they breeding them? They look like German Shepherds that have gone wrong. For what purpose are they breed for - I hope they don't come to England. LC

It's an American "breed" developed from German shepherds mixed with a large flock guardian breed- I think Great Pyrenees, but not sure. They generally have a long coat and are significantly larger a German Shepherd bred to standards- sometimes well over 120 lbs. Their purpose... well, I guess as pets for people who think they like German shepherds, but want them a bit bigger.

This type of "Shepherd" is also know as the "Shiloh Shepherd". There is supposed to be a distinctive difference between the two, perhaps it is the other dog breed(s) that is(are) crossed with essentially oversized GSD stock. These dogs are touted as "the giant GSD that you remember from your childhood." Well, when I was a kid, they were all giant dogs. During the 1920's, there was a GSD movie star named Braveheart who was 120 (one-hundred twenty) pounds in weight and slender, if you will believe that. He was a captured dog from the first war, similar to the Rin Tin Tin story. Was linebreeding to Braveheart and his descendents responsible for this? I doubt it since that was so long ago, but I could easily be wrong. Neither the King Shepherd nor the Shiloh Shepherd is a breed recognized by the A.K.C.; however they are treated as a different breed by the O.F.A.. I presume that these dogs are all registered through the C.K.C. (Continental Kennel Club) or another breed registry that is not recognized by the F.C.I. Personally I find this to be a very strange breed of dog. Bob-O

I understand the Shiloh Shepherd has Malamute crossed in to get the size and the coat - the King Shepherd has Guardian/Molosser breed mixed in to get the size and coat. Ick. molly

I met a woman who said a King Shepherd "breeder" named Shelly Watts in New Jersey would buy purebred AKC long coat GSD's from her without the papers and resell them as "King" shepherds with a hefty markup. Talk about unethical! Later on a woman who bought these "king shepherds" from Ms. Watts smelled a rat and somehow tracked down the original breeder and had her dogs DNA tested with the suspected parents. What do you know they matched!!

they are just mutts with a name...

Re: Shiloh vs. King shepherds... From my understanding, a Shiloh is still a German Shepherd; an extremely oversized German Shepherd, but still a GSD. The weird thing is that the lady who started breeding "Shilohs" thinks that the oversized, long-coated dog is the "old style" of German shepherds, when in reality the older GSDs were, if anything, smaller than the modern dogs and certainly not long-coated. The King Shepherd breeders, on the other hand, freely admit that their "breed" is an outcross of GSD with flock guardians. Their racket is still not nearly as good as the "poo-dog" racket. If you really want to make an easy buck, get a nice male standard poodle and a few yellow lab and golden retriever females and churn out litters of "labradoodles" and "goldendoodles"- both of which commonly sell for much more than either parent purebreed. No breed club to deal with, no registration costs, no breed standard, no oversight at all... a real huckster's paradise. There is an old saying that no one ever went broke underestimating the intelligence of the American public, and the current fad for "designer dogs" (read: mutts) is yet another data point in favor of that argument.

Do a search on the iternet for Shiloh Shepherds and you will find lots of info. If memory serves me, they were started by a female Vet. who wanted a larger shepherd and starting breeding large shepherd like dogs and controlling closely who got them. There are only a few people who are "allowed" by her to breed them and sell them. People have to agree to this when they get the dogs. Of course in America that won't last long. They go for way big bucks and are registered through "her" own organization. They come in all colors, almost always with long hair and always larger than a standard size GSD. They can be very pretty. Look something like very large Collies to me. The allure to having them is the exclusitivity (probably spelled that one wrong) of having them.

The original breeders of Shiloh Shepherds did not use other breed(s) to increase size or coat, but Malamutes were added in later on, though most breed fanciers won't admit it - check this out, it was easy to find, http://www.shilohshepherd.org/origin.html

Thank you very much for all your posts on the King Shepherd, it is very interesting but i'm not exactly sure what to think of them. To me in England they look like the Old Fashioned German Shepherd type with long coats. LC