Is the Shiloh Shepherd closer to the American Dirus or German Shepherd?

Shiloh Shepard

Yesterday’s email was a doozy, wasn’t it?

I received many replies, and I cherished each of them.

Thank you for your kind support.

Among the many who wrote back, there was one that stood out.

Let’s take a look at it.

“actually the Shiloh shepherd is supposed to be much more mellow and calm than the German shepherd. The Shiloh shepherd temperament is actually closer to American Dirus than German shepherd.”

This is a common belief.

But not everything is as it seems.

Below is my response.

Thank you for your thoughts on the Shiloh Shepherd compared to the German Shepherd Dog. I remember back when Tina Barber was still with us and writing in all the chats and forums about her dogs. That was before social media. Man, those were the days! Lots of fun (and challenging) discussions were had. I wish a lot of that was still around. 

Tina Barber promoted her Shiloh Shepherd Dogs as a dog breed that could basically do it all. A driven working dog, as well as a gentle family dog with a more outgoing temperament. 

If you take a look at her early videos and writings, she wanted to achieve the ideal German Shepherd Dog of her youth... the Rin Tin Tin type dog. 

There was a LOT of similarity between Tina Barber's personality and our founder, Lois Schwarz's. In fact, many times people would get them both mixed up... or even swear they were the same person. Haha. I don't know if they would have been friends, necessarily, as they were both very strong women, but they were both women of faith striving to bring about a better life for the dogs they loved. 

Tina was heavily into protection dog work, especially in the 90s. Her Shiloh Shepherd Dogs excelled at Schutzhund, as well as search and rescue, service dog, and therapy dog jobs. 

And while the Shiloh Shepherd Dog may not be as driven as a hard-wired Malinois, GSD/Mal, or even the eastern European working line GSDs, the original intent of the Shiloh Shepherd breed was to excel as a working dog. 

Now, whether the majority of Shiloh Shepherds are now, or not, is not my point. After the Shiloh Shepherd Dog's standards were taken over by the American Rare Breed Association (ARBA), Tina had very little say over the unified breeding practices of the Shiloh Shepherd, to her ultimate shame. Tina posted many outraged articles on the horrors of how the ARBA allowed many Shiloh breeders to breed back to the GSD without adherence to the founder's original temperament standards. Sadly, Tina found out the hard way why giving her breed over to an all-breed registry was a terrible idea that could never be undone. 

These facts highlight the sad story of the Shiloh Shepherd Dog's origins. But to get back to temperament, which was the point of my post, Tina always intended her dogs to possess the stable inherited working dog temperament of the GSDs of her youth. Here is a quote from the ISSR, the only founder approved registry of the Shiloh Shepherd Dog: "It was in fact Tina’s desire to recapture the size, even  temperament and the remarkable intelligence of her Grandmothers German Shepherds that led her to develop the Shiloh." 

This video of Tina's Shiloh Training Method from the 1990s also illustrates her desire for a strongly driven working protection (etc) dog:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=yU9a2ghWNKc&t=10s

I am completely aware of what the Internet says about the calmer, more mellow Shiloh Shepherd Dog compared to the King Shepherd. 

Heck, even AI, using Internet consensus, shares this myth.

But the Shiloh Shepherd Dog was never bred to be a calm, mellow, gentle family companion dog void of drive. 

I haven't had the pleasure of meeting Shiloh Shepherd Dog puppies in person. Nor have I watched them grow or given them temperament tests comparable to our standardized American Dirus dog tests. 

But, if these YouTube videos are any indication, it is clear that the inherited temperament of these young puppies is quite different from ours. 

https://youtube.com/shorts/3d71W5SUIdA?si=8-8qSQF8KZwcTQut

https://youtu.be/YeDbFvBVOe8?si=BetlP7_OHzZdUaB4

That's neither bad nor good. It just simply is. There is nothing bad about a more energetic working temperament. It is great for the right family. But it is not a close reflection of the unique temperament developed by Dire Wolf Project founder, Lois Schwarz.

The amount of time it took Lois to turn working line dog breed combinations into an entire breed of calm, mellow, sensitive, aware, and devoted family companion dogs almost void of drive is a remarkable feat unmatched by even the great Tina Barber, herself. 

I hope that clears up my point. 

Thank you so much for your note and for being a part of our world. It's great to have you with us.  

I actually wrote about the Shiloh Shepherd Dog in my book:

The Dire Wolf Project:

Creating an Extraordinary Dog Breed

With such a prominent new dog breed begun right around the same time as our breed, there is a lot to learn about the similarities and differences.

You’ll also come to understand why we don’t conform.

And why we can’t be compared to any other dog breed on the planet, including the Shiloh Shepherd Dog.

Details can be found here:

https://a.co/d/585KAvT

Jennifer Stoeckl is the co-founder of the Dire Wolf Project, founder of the DireWolf Guardians American Dirus Dog Training Program, and owner/operator of DireWolf Dogs of Vallecito. She lives in the beautiful inland northwest among the Ponderosa pine forests with her pack of American Dirus dogs.

Shiloh Shepard

German Shepard

American Dirus

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