| Ann started the Olderhill line of german shepherds in the early 60’s , the first Olderhill I can trace is Sirius of Olderhill born 5/12/1960.
Ann was an extremely intelligent strong minded person, who spoke as she found , she did not suffer fools gladly . She lived around animals all he life and had a feel for all that would be hard to teach.
During the second world war Ann drove tanks in Egypt where she saw German Shepherds used by the German Army playing their part in the war. She was so captivated with their intelligence, agility, loyalty, and all round soundness , that her love and respect for the German Shepherd began.
40 years ago Ann saw that the hindquarters of the German Shepherd were becoming exaggerated , her instinct told her this was causing much of the hip problems that was prematurely ending the life of these beautiful dogs. So when Ann decided to breed German Shepherds in the 60’s she started by importing these same straight backed working line German Shepherds she had seen in action during the war. For Ann , sound temperament , Intelligent, healthy , loyal and Fit for purpose was what a german shepherd should be and that is what each of the dog’s she bred would be.
Sirius of Olderhill ( Ann’s first dog) traced to Horand Grathrath is only 15 generations Horand Grathrath is the very first registered German Shepherd bred by Captain von Stephanitch in 1898 .
Ann close bred her dogs , in her words “when you have something good , why risk putting something bad in”. She used her own dogs as often as possible and only brought in new blood when she had too. All new blood was very carefully chosen . By this carefully chosen breeding she got to the point where from a litter of 10 pups , every single pup was suitable for police work . The Sussex police could not get enough of Ann’s dogs and their relationship carried on for 30 years.
Although I never met Ann, I was lucky enough to meet a very close friend of hers at 92 years of age. She and Ann were very close friends for over 20 years . It was this very wonderful lady that gave me a copy of the photo of Ann with her dogs on this website and copies of the pedigree’s that allowed me to trace my dogs back to Horand Grathrath ,which is 25 gernerations The respect and admiration she felt for Ann comes through in everything she said.
I think Ann would have been appalled and sickened by the sight of the hindquarters of the German shepherds being bred for the show ring these days.
As a breeder my aim is to carry on this incredible line of German Shepherds with sound temperament, high intelligence, total loyalty and above all fit for purpose and to enjoy a long healthy life with their family.
|
|
|