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BEAUTIFUL BIG-BONED WHITES

by Mark Olsen

When you think of a German Shepherd, what do you think of? Do you think of a strong, agile canine with smooth curves or a fearlessly loyal dog that is both eager and alert?

Perhaps these ultra-familiar characteristics are secondary to the arguably most distinguishig feature of the German Shepherd Dog-----the ears.

I've always loved dogs. Big dogs, little dogs...it didn't matter. I was never allowed to own a big dog growing up, but I did have Beauregard, my fierce half dauschund half terrier. (He was so ugly he was actually cute)

About 5 years ago my fiance recieved a puppy for Christmas. When asked what kind of dog he wanted, he immediatley said that he wanted a German Shepherd. Fast forward 5 years....Data is an amazing dog. He is calm,but still highly alert.

We had wanted another dog, and we had no doubt what we wanted:another German Shepherd.

Data is a beautiful shade of tan and black In my mind, I was seriously considering a female with a black coat. Wouldn't she look great with Data? But, by some strange coincidence I began reading about German Shepherds and found out that White Shepherds were drowned in the early days of their existence. It was thought that these beautiful dogs were inferior to the more common German Shepherd.

I was so horrified that I immediately knew that was what I wanted. I couldn' t stand the thought of those gorgeous things being treated badly because they look different. Come to found out, White German Shepherds, are completely indentical to the standard German Shepherd. They are not albinos ( an albino lacks sufficient pigmentiaion)

The white coat is simply a recessive gene, just as blue eyes are a recessive gene. We found a breeder of White German Shepherds and I immediately fell in love with my dog. She was 8 weeks old when we brought her home. What did we name our White Shepherd: what else: Midnight. I've done some further resaurch these past 9 months and found that MIdnight is what is known as a Big Boned White (I'm not making this up) Of course, I knew something was up because she's not yet 10 months old and already she's 56 pounds......definitely BIG BONED! I have learned that these (beautiful) Big Boned Whites are able to take on any dog breed.

They are strong enough to reportedly fight off such attacks from Doberman Pinchers, Pit Bulls,and Rotweilers. It has been reported that the White Shepherds were saved primarily because of their extreme intelligence. In fact, it has been theorized that the alpha White German Shepherd Dog is the most intelligent, and the toughest dog alive today. When I saw Midnight's parents it was obvious that she comes from a beautiful, yet potentially terrfifying line. Her mother, for example, was 100 pounds. She was the biggest dog I had ever seen.

In contrast, our precious Data, though he is rock solid, is 75 pounds. Then there was her father.....he topped out at a mere 130 pounds. Forget what I said about her mother being the biggest dog I had ever seen-he was huge. Enormous. From the looks of him, I'd say he scared more people than not.

He was terrfifying. I was so glad that we chose Midnight. She has been great for Data and he has done wonders training her. She's growing into a little spitfire, and before long she'll be bigger than Data. But, for now, she's still just a puppy.