History of the Schipperke
I am Belgian,
small, faithful, intelligent, courageous and black
A wonderful
slogan and a complete description of the Schipperke.
The Official
Book of the Schipperke states that:
“Mr.
Victor Fally, one of the founders of the Schipperke Club (Belgium),
wrote a story of a dog without a tail appeared in the chronicles of the
monk, Wenceslas, written in the 15th
century, thereby establishing that the tradesmen guilds of Brussels
possessed a house dog without a tail which could have been no other than
our Schipperke. This is claimed to be the earliest written mention of the
breed.
Then, there is the story handed down about
William of Orange (William the Silent: 1533-1584), national hero of
Holland and Belgium, whose life was saved at one time from a would-be
assassin by two jet black dogs without tails. There are also believed to have been Schipperkes.
Legend says that one day two shoemakers quarreled
because of the unwanted visits form the dog of one to the house of the
other and one of them avenged himself by cutting off entirely the tail
of his neighbor’s dog. Fanciers observed that the little animals were better
looking without their caudal appendage and so established the custom of
the tailless Schipperke.
The known history of the breed begins about the
year 1690s when the shoemakers in the St. Gery quarter organized a
competitive exhibition of Schipperkes on designated Sundays on the Grand
Place in Brussels. At this time, workmen often exercised their ingenuity by
making collars of hammered or carved brass for their Schipperkes. Always kept gleaming, these collars were worn only on
Sundays and were fastened in a manner designed to pull out as few hairs
as possible from the ruff. During the decade of 1830-1840s, the Schipperke was very
fashionable in Brussels and, curiously enough, was protected in
particular by the disciples of Saint Crisping. Even in this later period, it was still the custom to
adorn Schipperkes with an enormous collar of worked brass which often
was a real work of art. On Sundays one could see a shoemaker going out with or
without his wife or children but never without his Schipperke. He could readily forget to shine his boots but he would
never forget to polish his dog’s collar.
In the early nineteenth century, the Schipperke
was widely distributed throughout the towns of central Belgium and was
practically the only house dog known there until around 1880.
In 1880, a
group of hunting dog fanciers led by Belgium fanciers declared that the
Schipperke is their “national” dog and in fact the first club for the
Belgian breeds was the Schipperke Club. Every year they proudly wear number 1 and celebrate their
centennial since March 1888.
The Schipperke
originated from the heart of Belgium and has as its capital, the city of
Brussels. The “Leauvennaar”,
a mid sized dog that was tailless, followed the wagons between Brussels
and Lauvain. He weighed
between 22 and 26 pounds and was considered the missing link between the
Schipperke and his cousin, the larger Belgian Sheepdog we know today, or
the Groenendael. In Belgium,
the Schipperke still today is in the Herding Group with the other
Belgium Sheepdogs.
Brabancon
mini-Shepherd, some say is their true origin. Spitz is a common name in Europe for all small dogs with
pointed ears and noses.
During the three years we were in Germany, they called my Schips a
“Spitz” every time.
Expressing my frustration to a German friend, she finally told me all
small pointed ear and nose dogs were called that as anyone here would
generalize “horse” for all breeds of horses. The Schips certainly do not look like the Spitz breed, and the
word “Spitz” was around long before the breed was.
The origin of
the name has been described as “Schaap” = sheep; “Schaper” = shepherd; “Scheper”
= same, dialect form; “Scheperke” - same, diminutive form; “Schieperke
or Schipperke” = same, variations …therefore, Little Shepherd dog.
Yet most romantically associated the breed with barges or boats “Schip”
and boatman = “Schipers” unfortunately.
Mr. Reusens was
a Schipperke breeder who ran a freight boat line between Brussels and
Antwerp. He is called the
“father of the Schipperke” because of his promotion and enthusiasm of
the breed. His Schips are
about the only traceable history of the Schipperke being barge dogs
since most of the Belgians could not afford the prices the dogs fetched
at that time.
Mr. Reusens
also owned a dog called Franz who was the model pretty much for the
Belgian standard. In 1880,
they formed a group to list characteristics they felt should represent
our breed.
The Official
Book of the Schipperke goes on to explain:
“These fanciers discovered that they had a group
of dogs not all uniform in type. These differences are described in an article by E. R.,
Spalding printed in the
American Book of the Dog (G. O. Shields, editor) published in
1891. Herein, Mr. Spalding quoted a letter written by John Lysen of
Antwerp (a recognized authority on English Setter and other English bird
dogs) in which he described three different types of Schipperkes
existing in Belgium at that time. Apparently, the breed varied according to the locality.
The three varieties described are the Antwerp,
Louvain and the Brussels types. The Louvain type had a smooth, shiny coat with little
ruff and a longer head with tall narrow ears, sometimes described as
terrier-like in appearance.
The Brussels type had a much shorter head with
large eyes, broad forehead and unusually large ears set far apart and
low on the head. With this type there usually went a fair, hard haired ruff
and good coat; but unfortunately, also, all the dogs of this group were
much out at the elbows which, added to their square short head, seemed
to indicate a Bulldog cross.
The Antwerp type was between the other two and
was the most attractive and most popular. This was a thickset dog having a distinct ruff and
culottes or long hairs with shorter hairs on the sides of the body and
on the legs. These dogs were also characterized by a long mane (jabot) extending
down between the forelegs back to about half the body. The standard clearly described the Antwerp type as it
was the one developed by the Schipperkes Club.
Schipperkes came into the United States in different
ways, but Miss Isabel Ormiston did the most to promote our breed. In the early 1920’s, she became interested in the breed through
Belgium friends and in 1924 she visited Belgium, studied the breed and
selected her first breeding stock. Nearly all Schipperkes today trace their ancestry to her stock.
Miss Ormiston also founded the Schipperke Club of
America and AKC adopted the Belgian standard. It is hard to understand why we are not in the Herding Group as
the Schip is in Belgium.
Perhaps it was because the Non-Sporting Group was being formed by AKC
about that same time.
The Belgians have always insisted the Schipperke is a
diminutive shepherd and that he was derived from the small, native black
Belgium sheepdog. Belgium
canine authorities have consistently repeated this origin down through
the years.
Again, as noted in The Official Book of the
Schipperke, a Belgium judge of some years ago
Charles
Huge and Mr. Victor Fally have written that those Schipperkes left with
a tail carry it like a Groenendael Sheepdog or shepherd. For proof, in an earlier French dog book by M. Megnin,
there is a photograph of a Schipperke with a tail which is carried
straight like that of a sporting dog. Mr. Fally and other have said that an undocked
Schipperke with its tail curled over the back like a Pug or Spitz if
evidence that there has been crossbreeding in its ancestry regardless of
the names appearing in the pedigree. Some English authorities state that the undocked tails
of the Schipperke are carried in one or two ways, some will be carried
straight like a shepherd and others will be carried curved over the
back.
The elder
Mr. Louis Vander Snickt, one of the founders of the Schipperkes Club and
a noted discoverer of Belgian breeds, wrote in 1886 that “the Schipperke
is, perhaps, the only indisputable Belgian dog that we possess.” We of today add the hope that the Schipperke may always
thrive there, his native home.