Belgian Shepherd Dog

Before the end of the nineteenth century, Belgian shepherds were known only as working dogs by shepherds and farmers, and were not a separate breed.

On September 29, 1891, the Club du Chien de Berger Belge was founded in Brussels by A. Reul. On May 8, 1892, the first Cureghem show for Belgian shepherds took place. In the same year, the first standard was written. It identifies three varieties, described as: long hair, rough hair and short hair. This standard has been amended several times to today’s standard with four varieties.

Another club, the Berger Belge Club, was founded in 1898 by L. and G. Huyghebaert Geudens. This club was based in Mechelen (Malines in French). Various arguments over color, hair and other important characteristics of the breed came about.

This was recognized by the Societe Royale St. Hubert’s Canine (Belgian Federation). A few years later the Royal Groendendael became a recognized club. On March 30, 1990, these two clubs joined together to create the Royal Union of Belgian Sheepdogs.

In 1901, the first “Belgian” was registered in the studbook. This was the Malinois Vos de polder.

The Belgian Shepherd is bred in four varieties:

Groenendael, which is long-haired and black,
Laekenois, which is wirehaired,
Malinois, which is short-haired, and
Tervueren, which is long-haired, red-brown or fawn, with black overlay.

Hollandse Herdershond and Laekenois

The same type of dog is also found in the neighboring country, the Netherlands. The Hollandse herdershond’s physique and appearance is virtually identical to the Laekenois. The Belgians have simply named their variety differently. Both breeds come from the same area. The separation of the breeds took place when Belgium separated from the Netherlands and became independent.

Description

The Belgian has a light bone structure and an elegant overall appearance. The fact that his head is quite high (which has an angle of almost 90 degrees of neck topline compared to about 45 degrees for today’s German shepherd), makes the dog appear very noble and proud, without exaggeration. His head is dry (i.e., tight skin without being coarse).

Its stop (forehead) and muzzle should be nearly parallel with the upper back. In contrast to the German shepherd, which is longer than it is tall, the Belgian shepherd is ideally square-built and slightly bent.

His shoulder is steep, sloping to the hindquarters and slightly bent, i.e., it is more under the body. This allows the passage of the Belgian shepherd to be less “ground covering.”

The steep hindquarters explains the speed and agility, as well as the outstanding jumping ability of this dog, and shows the usefulness of “building” his physique to provide for specific purposes. The best way to see these differences today is to compare the German shepherd and the Malinois.