Belgian Shepherd: Four Coats, Shared Origins
The Belgian Shepherd comes in four varieties distinguished by coat type and color: Groenendael, Laekenois, Malinois, and Tervueren. Two have long coats, one has a short coat, and one has a rough coat. Most national kennel clubs, along with the Federation Cynologique Internationale, recognize these as varieties of a single breed. The American Kennel Club recognizes separate breeds instead. Behind those different classifications lies a shared herding background. The dogs descend from a common Western European shepherd type that also gave rise to the Bouvier des Ardennes, Dutch Shepherd, and German Shepherd, with working ability shaping Belgian dogs for centuries.
By the end of the nineteenth century, that local type was becoming obsolete and faced possible extinction. The Club du Chien de Berger Belge formed in 1891 to preserve it. Adolphe Reul of the Cureghem Veterinary School led a survey and assembled 117 dogs for the standardization effort. Because earlier breeding had emphasized work with little concern for appearance, the dogs varied greatly. Reul's team initially recognized six varieties within one breed. From the first standard in 1892 through 1956, the number recognized by the breed club or the Societe Royale Saint-Hubert ranged from two to eight.
War changed the breeding rules for the Belgian Shepherd. Interbreeding between varieties was prohibited in 1905, but falling numbers after the First World War led to permission for such matings in 1920. The Second World War again endangered the breed, prompting encouragement of cross-variety matings in late 1945. Numbers recovered through breeding, and four varieties are recognized today. The shared classification still creates practical differences across borders: European Groenendaels can produce Tervueren-colored pups, which most countries register as Tervuerens. In the United States, the separate-breed system can prevent those pups from being registered.
The black, long-haired Groenendael is believed to trace to Nicholas Rose, owner of the Chateau de Groenendael, in 1885. Rose paired his dog Petite with Piccard D'Uccle after a lengthy search for a mate. Their descendants Duc de Groenendael and Barroness were widely paired with other dogs, with black offspring retained. The variety took the chateau's name rather than Rose's proposed personal name, which risked confusion because of the black color. Groenendaels later located wounded soldiers and carried messages for the Belgian Army during the First World War, attracting American soldiers' admiration and subsequent imports to the United States.
The short-haired Malinois takes its name from the Mechelen region, called Malines in French, where that coat predominated among shepherds' dogs. It was said to be the first variety to breed consistently to type and became a benchmark for the others. The rough-haired Laekenois, always the rarest variety, was named for the Chateau de Laeken, a royal residence. Queen Marie Henriette favored the dogs she watched working on the surrounding royal land. Beyond herding, rough-haired dogs near Boom guarded valuable linens laid out to bleach in sunlight. Royal patronage helped the variety's popularity at that time.
The Tervueren has a breeding connection to the Groenendael. A brewer named M. Corbeel paired his long-haired fawn dogs Tom and Poes. Their daughter Miss was purchased by M. Deanhieux and paired with Duc de Groenendael; fawn descendants became the Tervueren variety, named after Tervuren. Its double coat is usually fawn with black overlay and black extremities, though gray with black also occurs. European breeders have used this variety to reinforce other bloodlines, especially Groenendael lines. By contrast, Laekenois coats are harsh, dry, and somewhat tangled, with a bristled muzzle and relatively little feathering on legs and tail.
A Belgian Shepherd has a medium-sized athletic frame, muscular without being overly heavy. Males and females differ in average height, and the body is approximately as long from shoulder to haunches as it is tall at the withers, with females proportionally slightly longer. The head is long, the muzzle broad, and the erect triangular ears have rounded bases. Long-coated dogs have short facial hair, a mane around the neck and chest, feathering behind the legs, and a plume-like tail. Short-coated dogs have especially short hair on the face, ears, and lower legs, with slightly longer hair around the neck and tail.
Modern work for the Belgian Shepherd extends into assistance, detection, guarding, guiding, policing, and search and rescue. The Tervueren often works in drug detection for government organizations, while the Malinois has become increasingly prominent with customs, military, border, and police forces. Users include the United States Armed Forces and Secret Service, the Australian Defence Force, and the anti-poaching canine unit at Kruger National Park. Individual Malinois have also received decorations: Diesel received the PDSA Dickin Medal posthumously after the Saint-Denis raid, and K9 Killer received the PDSA Gold Medal for helping capture 115 poachers.