Reference: Encyclopaedia Britannica
More dog facts.
Prairie dogs, those little pups popping in and out of holes on vacant lots and rural rangeland, are talking up a storm. They have different "words" for tall human in yellow shirt, short human in green shirt, coyote, deer, red-tailed hawk and many other creatures.
The German Shepherd Dog was created by German cavalry officer Captain Max von Stephanitz. In 1899 he registered a dog named Horand von Grafrath as the first official German Shepherd.
Anti-German feelings after WWI led the AKC to drop "German" and call the breed simply the "Shepherd Dog," and in Britain it became the "Alsatian." The AKC restored the original name in 1931, while the UK Kennel Club didn't fully return to "German Shepherd Dog" until 1977.