Weidenstrasse German Shepherds

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Weidenstrasse German Shepherds Since 1996, Weidenstrasse Zwinger has proudly served the global community of GSD enthusiasts.

Bad ear day
15/10/2026

Bad ear day

Had the most wonderful visit with Carla vin der Weidenstraße and human mom Antoinette ♥︎♥︎ Thank you for loving her so d...
15/10/2026

Had the most wonderful visit with Carla vin der Weidenstraße and human mom Antoinette ♥︎♥︎ Thank you for loving her so dearly♥︎

Early morning walk♡ Photo credit Family Corbett♡
12/10/2026

Early morning walk♡ Photo credit Family Corbett♡

Zeus, the Whale Watcher Tx Dr C
09/10/2026

Zeus, the Whale Watcher
Tx Dr C

Fantasic to have Peter September part of the Weidenstraße family♡♡♡♡RESPECT SIR
09/10/2026

Fantasic to have Peter September part of the Weidenstraße family♡♡♡♡

RESPECT SIR

08/10/2026

Healthy is the minimum. Happy is the goal. 🐾💦
We've always cared about the basics: good food, health screening, vet care and clean kennels.

Animal welfare science is clear, though, that welfare means more than the absence of illness. Dogs also need positive experiences: play, choice, comfort and things to explore.
So we built the dogs a sundeck with a splash pool. 🌳☀️
Here's why it matters:

🔹 Enrichment changes behaviour. Dr Deborah Wells (Queen's University Belfast) reviewed the research on kennelled dogs. She found that a more varied, stimulating environment and more social contact improve their behaviour and welfare.
🔹 Welfare includes good feelings. The Five Domains Model (Mellor et al., 2020) is used by vets and welfare bodies worldwide. Under it, the aim is for animals to have positive experiences, not only to avoid suffering.
🔹 Play is a sign of good welfare. Researchers Held and Špinka (2011) describe play as both an indicator of good welfare and something that improves it.
🔹 Swimming ( in our case splashing....) is good for the body. A study of healthy dogs and dogs with osteoarthritis found swimming improved joint mobility (Nganvongpanit et al., 2014). That's a real plus...and ....
🔹 It keeps them cool. On a hot Gauteng afternoon, shade and water are a big deal.
Watch the video: some dive straight in, some prefer to waddle, and some just supervise from the deck. Every dog gets to choose, and that choice is part of the point. 😄

Healthy dogs. Happy dogs. That's the way we roll...

References (for my fellow nerds)
Wells, D.L. (2004). A review of environmental enrichment for kennelled dogs. Applied Animal Behaviour Science, 85, 307–317.
Mellor, D.J. et al. (2020). The 2020 Five Domains Model. Animals, 10(10), 1870.
Held, S.D.E. & Špinka, M. (2011). Animal play and animal welfare. Animal Behaviour, 81, 891–899.
Nganvongpanit, K. et al. (2014). Effect of swimming on clinical functional parameters and serum biomarkers in healthy and osteoarthritic dogs. ISRN Veterinary Science.

Living the very best life♡♡♡ photo credit family van der Merwe♡
06/10/2026

Living the very best life♡♡♡ photo credit family van der Merwe♡

SAWTDA trials
05/10/2026

SAWTDA trials

Our girls did so well at the Magalies GSD show under Roberto Caputi Thank you Sandferra German Shepherds and for your f...
05/10/2026

Our girls did so well at the Magalies GSD show under Roberto Caputi
Thank you Sandferra German Shepherds and for your fantastic handling as per usual

There has long been a divide in the German Shepherd Dog world: working line versus show line.Somewhere along the way, we...
05/10/2026

There has long been a divide in the German Shepherd Dog world: working line versus show line.

Somewhere along the way, we started speaking as though these were two different breeds. On one side, the “working dog”: drive, courage, trainability and ability. On the other, the “show dog”: structure, movement, type and beauty.

We at Weidenstraße, believe that divide is artificial.
The German Shepherd was never intended to be either beautiful or capable. The ideal has always been a dog in which form and function belong together.

That is what we mean when we say we breed German Shepherd Dogs.
We want the unmistakable type, sound construction and movement of a beautiful German Shepherd, but we also want the dog inside that beautiful body to be intelligent, confident, trainable and willing to work. A dog should not lose its working heritage simply because it can stand proudly in a show ring.

And working ability does not only mean protection work.

This week three of our GSD's participated in the SAWTDA Working Trials, where dogs are asked to demonstrate precisely the qualities that remind us what a versatile working dog really is: obedience, control, concentration, problem-solving, independence and, above all, partnership with the handler.

It was wonderful to see our German Shepherds being given the opportunity to use their heads as well as their bodies.

For us, that is worth celebrating.

We don't want to choose between show and work.
We want to preserve the German Shepherd Dog as it was meant to be: beautiful enough to admire, sound enough to move, stable enough to live with, and capable enough to work.

Well done to Arman and Tammy
*Yosheba von der Weidenstraße got silver in Manwork Nationals and Bronze Grand Challenge;
*Jaegyr von der Weidenstraße got Bronze Manwork and Silver in the Grand Challenge

Seppie and Mufasa von der Weidenstraße got two gold and two silver ♥︎♥︎♥︎
Weidenstraße German Shepherds

…for the love of the breed… 🐾

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23 Willow Road
Midrand
1685

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