The first Weimaraner brought to the United States was in 1929; a New England sportsman by the name of Howard Knight imported the dog. Knight would later found the Weimaraner Club of America – but the breed predates this period by a lot.

Most experts believe the Weimaraner traces back to the Grand Duke Karl August of Weimar who bred (wait for it) Weimaraners to hunt big game on his lands in Germany in the late 18th and early 19th century. They were then known as “der Weimaraner Vorstehhund.” But the breed’s origins may predate this period as well.

Art and literature is replete with examples of apparent Weimaraner ancestors, such as a painting by Van Dyck done in 1631. Some believe the breed might even go date back even further to a dog known as the Gray Hound of St. Louis that France’s King Louis IX brought home from a crusade in Egypt in 1248. All that said, the ‪AKC‬ recognized the breed in 1943, but its popularity really soared when soldiers coming home from Germany after WWII brought Weimaraners with them.

Image: Weimaraner by Jody Whitsell
www.bigdawgzsquared.com/