So this is actually a really interesting question that calls up a long history of the attitudes of Jews toward dogs, though I will separately note that German Shepherd dogs were actually renamed Alsatians by the British during WWI, from which you can take what you will.

There is a long history in Jewish literature of ambivalence toward dogs, starting with Biblical descriptions of them as impure, with dogs specifically being mentioned as animals which eat corpses and maul people, though they do get one positive call-out- dogs are described as having been silenced by God when the Jews were leaving Egypt, with the implication being that normally dogs would bark at people to scare them and alert others to their presence, but God prevented the dogs from doing this to the Jews. A later midrash says that as a reward, dogs are to be given carrion, which is forbidden for Jews to eat.

In the Talmud, there is a similarly ambivalent-leaning-negative attitude toward dogs and dog ownership, with some rabbis cursing those who breed dogs and other rabbis banning dog ownership unless the dog is kept chained, as there is a fear both of the dog biting and of the dog's bark causing fear and harm (such as in one story of a barking dog scaring a woman into a miscarriage- one who does this is described as causing the Divine Presence to leave the world). There is also a principle that one should not own an "evil dog," though what precisely that means is unclear. Dogs are often used as a catchphrase for low beings, with the measure for what is and isn't considered food being whether it is "fitting for a dog to eat"- anything that even a dog won't eat couldn't possibly be considered edible. That said, dogs are also imputed to have some fascinating powers; in Bava Kamma 60b, it says that if male dogs are crying for no reason it's because they sense the presences of the Angel of Death, and if they are playing for no reason it's because they sense the presences of Elijah the Prophet- but that if there is a female dog present then actually it's probably because of that. Dogs are also described as giving security through their barking by scaring away thieves, and one rabbi specifically recommends the raising of small, harmless dogs as a way to control vermin in the home; it is even mentioned that some of the rabbis of the Talmud owned dogs. Playing with pet dogs is seen as an idle and wasteful activity, but better than doing nothing. Guard dogs, whether of sheep or of people, are seen as beneficial.

In medieval times, being called or compared to a "dog" was one of many denigratory weapons used by Christians against Jews (and sometimes the other way around), and as far as I can tell dogs and dog ownership were not cast in a particularly appealing light. Rabbis at this time debated whether dog ownership was permitted, and while Maimonides believed that dogs were too dangerous to own if left unchained, other rabbinical figures felt that this only applied to "bad dogs" mentioned above- those which bit. It seems clear from the fact that these are questions which were discussed that dog ownership was a real phenomenon, though not necessarily a prioritized or prized one in the sense of pet ownership. Another negative association with dogs comes from the horrifying fact that apparently medieval European executions of Jews were specifically associated with dogs- either with living or dead dogs being specifically placed next to the Jewish person as they were being executed, or, worse, with the method of execution being the Jewish person being eaten by dogs. In addition, the Kabbalah, which became popularized at this time, considered dogs to be demonic, adding to their negative reputation among traditional Jews.

With the dawn of the Enlightenment, Jews seem to have become more interested in dog ownership as pets, if they lived in places where this was common; in researching this I found several articles, for example, examining the popularity of dog ownership among American Jewry in the 19th century, as a way in which Jews fell within the general cultural zeitgeist. That said, a general attitude persisted among traditional Jews in Eastern Europe in which a fear/mistrust of dogs was quite common- one Yiddish proverb states that "if a Jew has a dog, then either the Jew is no Jew or the dog is no dog" (a phrase recently heard in an episode of the excellent Israeli Netflix drama Shtisel, in which a very religious lead character is followed home by an extremely cute dog). There were special hand gestures used to deter dogs, as well as incantations or chats, such as one which made clear that the Jew in question was a descendant of Jacob, and the dog is more like Esau, who is compared to a wolf. Jews acquired a reputation (one which many would feel free to affirm the truth of) of being frightened of dogs. Dogs in the stories of Sholem Aleichem, a storyteller about Jewish shtetl life (including the stories upon which Fiddler on the Roof was based), are generally not owned by Jews and bear Slavic names. Dogs are seen as a quintessential negative figure to be compared to in proverbs. Owning a dog in the shtetl was seen as a rebellious and unusual act, and it was far more common for a surrounding Christian family, or a local lord, to own a dog with which to terrify Jews, who were known for this fear.

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