The Belgian Sheep Dogs

Jim Engel

The Belgian sheep dog, or "Berger Belge," is a single breed with four varieties according to coat texture and color.  Since the history and evolution of the Belgian bergers and bouviers is so closely linked, a study of the bouvier is greatly enhanced by knowing something about the other breed which shares his background and  common ancestors.

In Belgium the breed has four varieties:

The Belgian (FCI ) standard also provides for  "Other Colored" long coated dogs, which includes the sables ( sand colored ), beiges and greys.  These are apparently classified with the Tervuerens. 

The Malinois is the premier working dog in the Netherlands, Belgium and France.  Yet a relatively small number, a few hundred in the Netherlands and Belgium per year, are actually registered.  There are also a number of secondary registries, the best known being Kennel Club Belge, which has a history going back to about 1900. In addition there are large numbers of dogs without papers, whose sport oriented owners are totally unconcerned in that they know enough about the background to satisfy themselves, their peers and potential customers for their puppies.  ( This is very similar to the attitude of the Boarder Collie people, if it works, and especially if it produces good working dogs, then it is a Boarder Collie irregardless of the Kennel Club paper work.)

There are several organizations conducting Belgian Ring trials, including Kennel Club Belge and St. Hubert.  St. Hubert does require a competitor to be registered, but if a sport trainer has a dog he wants to compete it is a simple matter to buy a dog with papers, throw it away and go ahead.  None of this seems to raise any real question of propriety in the minds of the working community, and I would caution against a judgmental attitude toward those with a different heritage.

In France, things are apparently much tighter for the French Ring competitors, and it would seem that there is a certain acceptance of a need to move toward known, accurate and recorded pedigrees and a concern for the type and appearance of the breed.

The key figure in the formalization  of the Berger Belge was Professor Adolphe Reul, whose 1893 book "Le Races de Chines" ("The Breeds of Dog") in was very influential.  Dr. Rule was for several years at the end of the century the sole judge of the Berger Belge, accepted as such because different judges were going in different directions and there was a need to solidify the concept of type and get the breed moving.  Although many refer to Dr. Rule as the father of the breed, it has been pointed out to me that he was not a breeder and probably never actually owned a Belgian Sheepdog. 

The first international open dog show in Belgium occurred in Brussels in July of 1880.  The sheep and cattle herding dogs were not formed into breeds at that time and only seven dogs were entered in a general class.

The "Club du Chien de Berger Belge" as founded on the 29th of September in 1891 in Brussels.

Until March of 1898 the Belgian Shepherd dogs appeared in dog shows in three classes: long coated, short coated and rough coated, without regard to color.

In March of 1898 the long coated variety was shown with one class for the Blacks, referred to as Groenendaels, and a class for the other colors.  Groenendael, which means green valley in Dutch, was the village of a Mr. Nicholas Rose who was one of the originators of the black variety.

Shortly thereafter it was decided that each coat type was to be a single color, black for the smooth long coated, red-brown with overlay and mask of black for the short coated and gray for the rough coated.

Excluded were the red-brown long coated ( later to be called Tervueren ), the short coated blacks and the red-brown rough coated dogs, which had been very prominent.  The fanciers who had been written off with a flick of the pen of course immediately founded another club, and the battle was on.

The Societe Saint-Hubert was founded on Feb. 18, 1882.  King Leopold II gave the title Societe Royale Saint-Hubert in 1886.  This society was principally concerned with the dogs of the nobility and the hunting dogs.  Indeed, as it was in the beginning primarily an organization by and for hunters, it is not surprising that the official weekly magazine of the Societe was "Chase et Peche", that is, "Hunting and Fishing."  St. Hubert is in fact the patron saint of the hunters, not the canine race.

St. Hubert became a member of the International Cynological Federation ( FCI ) when it came into existence in 1912.

It was a relatively long time before the Belgian Shepherd Dogs were first registered in the stud book of Saint-Hubert, LOSH. This delay was resented by some of the people involved.  There was apparently an existing "establishment"  attitude that "working dogs" were not nearly noble enough to be taken notice of by a royal society, and that registration of working dogs quite naturally led to an association with working class men, something that many of the upper class were no doubt not really ready for.

The numbers are interesting.  According to Mr. Vanbutsele, St. Hubert (LOSH) registrations in 1959 were as follows:

The historical trend is interesting:                   

Mr. Vanbutsele comments "The decade 1950-1960 is characterized by a quite big decrease of the canine breeding in general."  As I have commented on elsewhere, this is certainly true of the Bouvier des Flandres.  My impression is the Belgium had some very hard times in this era.

In looking at the Malinois numbers, we must remember that these are only St. Hubert registrations, and that the number of Malinois with Kennel Club Belge affiliation or simply without formal registration was most likely quite a bit larger.

In France, the Society Central Canine ( SCC ) registrations for 1995 are as follows:

The Tervuern are further broken down into 1127 redish brown or fawn and 348 "sables" or sand colored,  which includes the beiges and greys.

IN AMERICA

The American Kennel Club, in their usual arrogance, greed and wisdom, has classified the Berger Belge as three entirely separate breeds, the Belgian Malinois with 631 1995 registrations, the Belgian Sheepdog or Groenendael (617) and the Belgian Tervueren (527).

The Laeken is not AKC recognized at this moment, although some effort is being made to achieve recognition.

For a number of years, the AKC division of the breed, and its insistence that imported dogs show a three generation pedigree of the same variety,  led to some problems.  Particularly in the Tervueren, perfectly legitimate breedings between the varieties are not uncommon, particularly among the working lines.  In fact, a long coated dog which occurs in a Malinois litter can be registered as a Tervueren in any of the European  countries.  I am told that it was not uncommon to use false papers to register such dogs in America.

On June 13 of 1995 the AKC rescinded the three generation same variety rule.  Now any Belgian import ( or any other breed ) need only have a three generation pedigree from an AKC recognized foreign kennel club in order to be registered.