The association was founded in April 1962. A public meeting was held at the Civic Hotel in Canberra and a provisional committee elected. That committee comprised of John De Ville, Ian Stirton, Hank den Hertog & Garth Hardham.

A second public meeting was held at the Civic Hotel on 9 May 1962 and the following committee was elected.

 

President - John De Ville

Vice President - R Goldberg

Secretary - Miss J O'Connell

Treasurer - Hank den Hertog

Asst Sec/Treas - Miss Y den Hertog

Committee - Paul Kornprobst

Other attendees -  Ian Stirton, Garth Hardham, Mrs. Goldberg, Mr. Hagermann

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Following this initial meeting, the Associaton commenced obedience training in conjunction with the ACT Companion Dog Club, with whom it shared a facility in Fyshwick. One of the association's early decisions was to hold a breed show in conjunction with the Canberra Kennel Association (CKA) at a major show event on the weekend of 31 - March - 2 April 1963. This event was eventually moved to the October long weekend. The ACTGSDA has been running shows in conjunction with this event ever since. The association was affiliated with the CKA in July 1962 & applied for affiliation with the GSDCA in 1963 and has been an active participant since 1964. The association also started a demonstration team which continued until the mid-1980s.

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The association hosted the 2nd National Show & Trial in 1972 following the success of the 1st National in Sydney. It again hosted the National Show & Trial in:

- 1978 (5th National)

- 1982 (10th National)

- 1986 (14th National)

- 1991 (19th National)

- 1998 (26th National)

- 2003 (31st National)

- 2014 (42nd National)

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The association was also the host to the 1988 & 1992 Main Breed Exhibitions.

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The association was located with the ACT Companion Dog Club in Fyshwick unis this organization moved elsewhere in 1984. From a temporary location at the National Velodrome, the association moved to its current location at the Canberra Show Grounds (Exhibition Park in Canberra) in 1985. It initially operated out of a small shipping container until late 1988 when the association's clubhouse was constructed, the funding coming entirely from monies raised by the membership.

The clubhouse was fitted with an approved commercial kitchen which has been used frequently to cater for club events and shows, as well as to other organizations conduction events in the vicinity.

Since 1964, the association has been a major contributor to National Council activities. These included:

- Assistance with the struggle with the lifting of the importation ban, through the efforts of Geoff Hallinan & Louis Donald.

- Based on research by the ACT the proposal was made to produce a magazine format National Review.

- The National Tattoo records we computerized into a database to avoid duplication of tattoo prefixes.

- The HD/ED database was established and the combined HD/ED certificate was produced from this database.

- The first "on-demand" computer-generated grading certificates, which included the exhibit's name,  grading, and critiques were produced for the ACT Championship shows.

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CLUB LIFE MEMBERS

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- Mr. C Poulus

- Dr. W De Compte

- Mr. W Krebs

- Mr. P Burrett

- Mrs. A Burrett

- Ms. T Longhorn
- Mr. V Grzeskiewicz

- Mr. L Donald
- Mr. W Meffert

- Ms. A Innes

- Mrs. M Barnes

- Ms. L Gallagher

- Mrs. J Kenworthy

- Mrs V Fairbairn

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