You'd be surprised to know that the German Shepherd didn't actually become a breed of dog until the late 1800s.
There was a vet by the name of Max von Stephanitz, who saw a homebred dog at a dog show.
This dog was the first ever German Shepherd, and von Stephanitz felt that it'd make an optimal working dog.
The German Shepherd has an amazing sense of smell, a great work ethic, and great physical traits that he felt made it ideal for working and herding sheep.
With this in mind, he felt that he was on to something and ended up buying the dog straight from the show, and bringing it home.
He renamed this dog, and gave it the very interesting name of Horand von Grafrath (yes, times were different back then).
During the next few years, the dog slowly grew in popularity, but you'd be surprised to know that there were only 54 German Shepherds registered with the UK Kennel Club in 1919.
While the dog did become more popular over the next few years (there were 8,000 of the breed registered by 1926), it wasn't until the popularity of movie star Rin Tin Tin (a German Shepherd) in the 1920s that this dog really became one of the most popular breeds worldwide.
Ever since then, the German Shepherd has exploded in popularity, and remains one of the most owned dogs in the world.
They are the third most popular breed in the United States, which says a lot about how prevalent they've become.