Some stuff from various WGSD sites:
The white shepherd has been officially recognized by the FCI as a separate breed, since late 2002. It is called the White Swiss Shepherd Dog. FCI Standard No. 347. For those interested, the standard is posted here: www.fci.be/uploaded_files/347a2002_en.doc Basis for accepting the whites as a separate breed by the FCI was that in the early years of the GSD there had been whites that contributed to the foundation of the breed. So who knows, the coated GSD may follow in these foot steps one day! Grandsire Greif of the GSD foundation sire Hektor Linksrhein - also called Horand von Grafrath, was white. A Horand son, Champion Hektor von Schwaben also came from a white line. Berno von der Seewiese, also a Horand progeny, born 1913, was the first white GSD registered with the SV.
Blues, livers, whites, & longcoats have existed in the GSD breed since the beginning & will continue to exist in the breed because such genes can travel hidden through an infinite number of generations of dogs with standard black pigment. Horand v Grafrath had at least one white longcoated grandparent. While breed standards represent ideals to strive for, it also must be remembered that for the most part, the writing & changing of the breed standards have been in the hands of only a very few people who had control of national breed clubs & breed standards have been changed a number of times with some of those changes to breed standards having been made for political or other invalid reasons.
After World War 2, due to political issues within the SV and a lack of knowledge of GSD color genetics the SV changed their standard to reject white dogs. The GSDCA followed the SV’s lead shortly after that by also changing the AKC breed standard to make white a disqualifying color. I haven’t yet been able to find any verifiable information yet on exactly when or why the SV made blue an unregisterable color, but the GSDCA’s making blue a disqualfying color was due to breed club politics & came about after a bicolor blue & tan dog, Hoobin’s Gray Boy, finished his championship & even won BIS awards. I was acquainted with someone who knew the dog personally & she told me Gray Boy was a beautiful animal, a very impressive mover, and that when the dog attained his championship, took BIS awards, and in the process angered GSDCA “powers that be” by beating some of their best dogs in the process, those GSDCA “powers that be” moved to make blue a disqualifying color (and livers too by requiring that addition to white being a disqualyfing color, any GSD whose nose isn’t predominantly black also be disqualified. Blue dogs have blue noses, liver dogs have liver noses, thus this addition to the standard effectively made blues and livers to be disqualifying colors. It appears that something very similar to the GSDCA’s politically motivated change in the AKC standard has also happened in the UKC when the UKC standard was changed after a particular blue and tan GSD finished his UKC championship.
Almost ALL of the most important sires in the history of the breed carried white and/or blue or liver or carried ALL THREE -WHITE, BLUE, LIVER. Many of the most important and influential contemporary sires also carry one or more of these three genes.
Here’s a list of a FRACTION of the well known dogs in the breed, historical or temporary, that carried one or more of these three genes (blue, liver, white).
Sgr Alf vom Nordfelsen SchH3-prod liver white
Anderl v Kleinen Pfahl SchH3FH Int. blue carrier
Arras vd Jurgensklause-prod blue, white
VA Argus v Klammle SchH3-prod blue
VA Axel vd Deininghauserheide SchH3FH DPH carried white, blue
Ch Bernd v Kallengarten SchH2 ROM-prod liver, white
Bob v Haus an der Schiene SchH3IP3 liver carrier
VA Sieger Select Ch Bodo vom Lierberg SchH3FH white carrier
Brutus vom Milchborntal SchH3FH IP3 carried blue
Canto vd Wienerau SchH2-prod blue, also was a hemophiliac & via his daughters & their progeny spread hemophilia A widely through the breed
VA Casar(Caesar) vd Malmannsheide SchH3 ROM carried blue, white
Ch Cito vd HermannsSchleuse SchH3 carried liver, white
Enzo Manepo SchH3IP2ZVV2 liver carrier
Ex v Schlumborn SchH3 VA blue carrier
Fanto vom Hirschel SchH3FH liver carrier Sieger
Ch Garry of Benlore-prod blue, liver, white
VA,Ch Greif vom Elfenhain SchH3FH ROM-prod liver,white
V-Hein v Richterbach SchH3ROM-prod liver, white
Horand v Grafrath-breed foundation dog carried blue,liver,white
Immo von Batu SchH3FH liver carrier
VA Jalk v Fohlenbrunnen SchH3 carried liver, white
Jeck v Noricum SchH3FH liver carrier Sieger
Sgr,CS, AmCh Klodo v Boxberg SchH carried blue,liver, white
Lasso v Neuen Berg SchH3 liver carrier Sieger
VA Marko vom Cellerland SchH3FH-prod liver
Sgr GVCh Pfeffer v Bern ZPr MH1 carried liver,white
A/C Ch Ravenhaus Noah ROM-prod blue
Rena v Osnabrucker Land-prod liver
VA Rolf v OsnabruckerLand SchH3FH white carrier
Rosel v OsnabruckerLand-prod liver, white
Sel Ch Tannenwold’s Igor ROM-prod liver, white
GVIntCh Troll vom Richterbach SchH3FH ROM carried blue, white
Ulbert v Piastendamm Schh3-prod liver
Can GV, Int Ch Ulk Wikingerblut SchH3ROM-prod liver, white
Uran v WildsteigerLand SchH3FH blue carrier Sieger
Uwe v Kirschental SchH3FH liver carrier
VA Valk v Michelstadter Rathaus SchH3FH-prod blue
V-Vello zd Sieben-Faulen SchH3FH white carrier
Wim vom Fourniermuhlenbach SchH3-prod blue
Ch Wotam vom Richterbach SchH1 CDX ROM-prod blue, white
Just this very small fraction of well known dogs who carry one or more of the genes for blue, liver and/or white should be enough to show that if all the dogs who were carriers of these colors had never been bred from, the GSD as a breed would never have existed at all.