The Wolf in the Alsatian
As a matter of fact the Alsatian wolf-dog is a most intelligent and delightful companion, quick to learn, easily controlled and the terror of trespassers, burglars and others whose profession is not one that seeks publicity. The very fact of its more than average ferocity and the fear such professions have for the variety has made it the breed sought after by those who require a guard immune from bribery and difficult to approach.
The Alsatian is not quite like other dogs; indeed, there are fundamental differences not only in appearance but in temperament. Alsatian owners have constantly of late years denied wolf-blood in the variety and have sought to show that wolf and dog crosses are an impos- sibility. But they are mistaken. Aristotle states that "in Cyrene, wolves mate with dogs," and interesting details of wolf-dog crosses appear from time to time in works of leading authorities. Sir E. Parry reports that the female dogs were decoyed from his ship, returned later pregnant to wolves, and Sir J. Franklin had a some- what similar experience, except that the female grey- wolves persuaded the dogs at his huts to join them for similar purposes. If further examples are required, I could cite the wolf-cubs carried off by Indians to improve their dog breed, and the Esquimaux huskies, which arc frequently crossed with the wolf.
The origin of the Alsatian is not far to seek. It comes from the German sheep-dogs of the latter end of the nineteenth century. These dogs are by no means of the Alsatian type, but it was evolved in Germany by skilful breeding. A dog of distinctly wolf type was desired ; wolf-like in its colouring, wolf-like in its head, and wolf-like in its gait. How such wolf-characteristics were obtained is by no means difficult to imagine.
It was in 1773 that the Marquis of Spontin at Namur commenced a very important series of experiments by crossing a she-wolf with a dog mastiff. The experiment passed ' without any untoward incident except for one affair in which the coachman was bitten by the she-wolf in the thigh and took to his bed for six weeks. It throws a light on the wolf temperament, and so I give it here. The she-wolf had been engaged in a fight with a neigh- bour's dog, and had been beaten off by the coachman and had not made any attempt to retaliate for the beating. But after the man had refastened her to her kennel he decided to "teach her a lesson," and started to thrash her, and in consequence she bit him seriously. He had overstepped the limit of her endurance.
Of the first cross, the female (there were four puppies, three of which had wolf-colouring, the other being black, but only two were retained) was less savage than the male. These two were bred together. The resulting puppies had many wolf characteristics ; the female puppy was in outward appearances more like a wolf than the male puppy, but in disposition was more dog-like. The hybrids being subsequently bred 'together, a male and female puppy followed. The female was gentle and very tame and less wolf-like, but both she and her brother were more wolf than dog in shape, colouring, and quality of hair. These two bred together produced a male and female, the latter with the characteristic wolf gait and with the wolf shape of head and ears, but more dog-like in colouring and in the position and shape of the eyes, whilst the quality of the hair was midway between dog and wolf. When she was mated to her brother, she bore a dog-wolf with a wolf type of facet with ears large and upright, and with the walk of a wolf, but both this dog and his sister were gentle and affectionate : although lupine in appearance, in temperament they were dog-like.
I have 'alluded to the Esquimaux dog as the type of dog evolved from wolf infusion. It has a marked simi- larity to the Alsatian, and it is therefore of considerable interest to find in the schedule of the Paris Dog Show of 1863 a class for dogs of Esquimaux and Pomeranian type, in which the " Alsatian "was admitted. The appearance of a breed stated to be an Alsatian in such a class suggests that perhaps the Alsatian type had already been evolved.
In 1891 a German Sheep-dog Club was formed which came to an end three years later. In 1898 a Mr. H. C. Brooke wrote a letter to the Kennel Gazelle, from which we learn that at Stuttgart in 1885-6 he had crossed a tame she-wolf with a sheep-dog, and that the offspring was of Esquimaux type, and of uncertain temper with strangers. Further, that a German dog-dealer, by name Christian Burger, of Leonberg (Wiirtemberg), bred wolf and dog crosses, and specialized in them, and marked his kennels " Wolfshunde " to attract visitors. As far as Mr. Brooke knew, one of these hybrids had been exhibited in 1887 at the Stuttgart Show.
With so much evidence before us I think we are justified in believing that the wolf-type Alsatian was obtained on a similar plan to that of the Marquis of Spontin—by the crossing of wolf and dog, and subsequently by the interbreeding of these crosses. In this manner the dominant wolf colouring, shape of body and head and the wolf gait were fixed, and, as M. Surivey de Boissy discovered, fixed with the temperament of the dog— loyalty and friendliness. But the infusion of such distant blood brought with it an increase of intelligence, and conceivably a decrease in the power to bear anxiety and pain dispassionately. Behind the dark eyes of the Alsatian may lurk some memory, confused, perplexed, of long persecution, the reminiscences of a long-harassed people, misgivings dormant until rough or improper usage awakens them. For as a breed the Alsatians are remark- ably timid and likely to be nervous.- But few owners have been attacked, and those few may be sufferers from
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