Shepherds and their dogs - 19th century - and still today - in Germany

Being a Shepherd(ess)

In looking for guidance on how to best train our new year old German Shepherd/Husky  which we picked up 3 months ago from the shelter, I came across a couple of sites describing a way of working with German Shepherd dogs that ring deeply true.

For a number of years I have wondered and felt that somewhere, sometime, I was a shepherd. Before observing our dog with the cattle the other day - what triggered it was this thing about liking, or rather, a deep familiarity of eating bread and cheese, not neatly done, but by hand, in a chunk,  and the love and naturalness of walking in nature with a stick.
This is a great site for herding dog info Herding Dogs - German Shepherds - a must read for German Shepherd lovers - and his story of escaping East Germany is worth a movie.

When I took on the job of training our new dog, it seems to have come back, the instinct to walk, the dog just around somewhere, staff in hand. The other day I went into the other pasture to get her back from herding cows - something just felt so familiar....I even knew that is was not proceeding the "right" way - but her instincts are there - keep those big cows away from the fence and out of sight...she did this in a short time and happily returned...the cows seemed fine with it too.

The picture above looks a lot more romantic than it likely was - but the times way back then were different than today. Shepherds were poor and few had 3 dogs.

I look at the pasture and wish there was a herd of sheep to take care of, with enough  land to graze on. I'd love to walk it, with a couple of dogs doing their jobs. Our new dog is quite independent, and somewhere buried, she already knows how to do this. You'd think it would get old, being out there with a hard and simple life, alone a lot. There are moments of freedom there though, lots of them.

Ende des 19. Jahrhunderts wurden in Deutschland, Holland, Belgien, Frankreich, Italien, Ungarn usw. riesige Schafherden von Hirten mit Ihren Hunden betreut. Je nach Region und Land entstanden unterschiedliche Typen von Schäfer- und Hirtenhunden: Aus diesen Vorgängern entstand in Deutschland der "Deutsche Schäferhund", in Frankreich der "Briard, Picard, Beauceron" und nahe der spanischen Grenze die Pyrenäenhunde, in Italien der Maremmano, in Ungarn der Puli, Kuvasz usw.

This here is the first certified "shepherdess" in Germany. It takes 3 years of apprenticeship. It is her dream job.

Dream - job - shepherdess Read more here - it's in German tho...