From Country Life in America (1 July 1911).
White markings are not well-received in this breed.
And I still can’t figure out why, 100 years later, that we Americans call this breed “the Belgian sheepdog” and don’t recognize it as a variety of a Belgian shepherd dog breed that includes the Tervuren, the Laekenois, and the Malinois. In their native country and throughout the FCI, this is how this breed is classified.
“Belgian sheepdog” is a very banal and generic name. It could refer to lots of different dogs that happened to be used to herd sheep in Belgium.
During gestation the pigment comes down from the spine. White toes, chest spot, and tail tip are caused by the melanocytes not migrating all the way before the puppy is completely cooked. While slow migration may be genetic, a lot of other things can cause a pause in migration during development (like an infection), resulting in white toes, chest, or tail tip. It’s not hereditary in the way other white markings are, and it’s just a damned stupid thing to worry about.
I know, but if you have those white marks on one of these, you probably won’t be able to show it.
Before anyone says it: Yes. I know the Laekenois isn’t recognized in this country.
Just dye them.
It works for the Poodle people! =P
And border collie folks.
Why didn’t the AKC call them “Groenendael”? possibly because it would be so often misspelled and mispronounced. And also because at the time they first became recognized, there were none (or very very few) of the other varieties in this country. One might also suspect that the early importers didn’t want any crossing with other-than-black-long-haired individuals, hence the definition as black-long-haired.
Banal the name may be, but they are Belgian sheepdogs.
Wow, the face on this dog looks nothing like a modern belgian sheepdog! :)
Lots of modern Belgian sheepdogs have about the same amount of white as this dog, including some show dogs. It occurs in Belgians just as it does in Goldens. As for the name, this came about because the GSD folk objected to “Belgian Shepherd” when the original registration was set up in AKC. When the breeds split (and yes, there actually are some genetic reasons for the split), the predomant group kept “Belgian Sheepdog” and the Malinois & Tervuren both went to their original variety names. The Laken IS recognized and can earn herding titles in AKC. As for looks, please see photo of the following Breed Champion — http://www.kuymal.com/Ghura.html. There are dogs with that kind of head around, it’s just not the current fad.
Peggy Richter
http://www.akc.org/breeds/belgian_laekenois/ Still Misc.
I don’t consider that full recognition.
in “MISC” class, the Laken can do everything except the conformation championship, so frankly, that’s probably a good thing. The BC folk fought to stay in the “misc” class. The Laken will be in misc only as long as they don’t have the numbers to “move up” or they fall in numbers and drop out. AKC has a time limit on how long a breed can be in “misc”. (http://www.akc.org/breeds/miscellaneous_class.cfm). Given that the Laken was almost gone in Europe despite recognition, they’ve done pretty well since getting FSS status with AKC.