I've had German Shepherds all my life. What do ya mean shepherd hysteria?
And are you suggesting German Shepherds are a, "Mean dog breed" in the same category as pit bulls?
He’s saying when GS were called vicious dogs and everyone was scared of them (movies, etc). But that was brief. Chows still hardly anyone heard of. But the truth is we’ve been tailing PBTs for 30 years; it’s not a fad. The fad is considering them to be victims of prejudice. The type is more popular than in the ‘80s as their martyrdom increased, but still not nearly as popular as Rotties (#2 on the attack list) or German Shepherds (down lower, and extremely popular for the last century, possibly the all-time popular dog). Yet, the type (not just one breed) is by far the biggest attacker and killer amongst all dogs.
It was 45 or more years ago.
There was a string of stories about GS attacking people, especially kids.
Shepherds were constantly in the news.
People were talking about them the same way they are talking about pits now.
This was before the internet or USA Today.
It may have just been a Virginia thing or maybe just regional but there was talk about GS being “demon” dogs that shouldn’t be kept by normal people.
A German Shepherd is a fine dog, I love their looks and coloring.
In my experience with my uncles dogs I found them to be very intelligent, loyal and well trained.
When I went to his house we would play with his dogs and never worry.
It was funny because we had to watch my aunts Chihuahua closer than any of his shepherds.