American Tundra Shepherd Dog

This working breed is descended from wolf hybrids created for the U.S. Army by Frank Catania, a Military dog trainer and veterinary technician in the late 1960's. By crossing wolves with military-bred German Shepherd Dogs, Catania intended to establish a superiour working animal for service use in Korea and Vietnam. The Government initially supported this breeding programme, but after years of trying to create consistently larger and stronger sentry dogs posessing a higher prey drive and free of hereditary health problems associated with the GSD breed, the experiment was abandoned as unsuccessful.

In 1976, a number of GSD breeders interested in increasing size and improving health of their dogs began using the leftover stock of genetically superiour Military Wolfdogs. Some fanciers weren't content with simply improving the GSD and it was decided that the American Tundra Shepherd Dog should be established as a separate breed. These powerful dogs have been bred to a consistent type ever since.

The American Tundra Wolfdog is reportedly much healthier than the GSD and is an even-tempered, trainable and resilient working breed. This massive canine is completely devoted to its owner and aloof with strangers, making a good property guardian. Intelligent, energetic and athletic, the ATSD makes a capable competitor in dog sports like Agility and Obedience trials.

The coat is thick, harsh and fully weatherproof, coming in a variety of natural wolf shades, as well as common GSD colourings. Average height is around 32 inches.