Dr. R. POLLET
Member of the Belgian Standards Commission

Comments on the new Standard:
     “Is the head of the Schipperke wolf-like (lupoid)
 or fox-like (vulpoid)”?

                                                                                                                                                              
       In the ‘guest book’ of  the website of the Belgian ‘Royal Schipperkes Club’ the question was asked ‘why, in the new standard, the head of the Schipperke suddenly is defined as wolf-like, and not as fox-like’? 

    The answer is rather simple: because the Schipperke head IS NOT fox-like! Why not? Because there are marked differences: in the fox head the cheek muscles (masseters) are more developed and the muzzle is over-refined or pinched, strongly tapering towards the nose and relatively long. This also means that the head proportions are different, more precisely the proportion ‘length of muzzle/length of head’. In the Schipperke the average value of this ratio, which we obtained after having measured 50 show Schipperkes, was 0.40. This means that the length of the muzzle is 40 % of the total length of the head. See the article ‘Weight, height and measurements of the Schipperke’ (2) and also the new Standard (Important Proportions) which stipulates ‘muzzle definitely less long than half the length of the head’(3).
                                                                              
    But why then, in the past, has the head been described as fox-like or vulpoid? We can try to give an explanation. In the past, the level of canine knowledge was not what it is to-day, and breed standards certainly were not as precisely worded as they are now. It is possible that the following reasoning played a role: the Schipperke is a small dog and the fox seems to be a small wolf, and so, Schipperkes can be compared to foxes. However, at the present, most experts agree and we all know that the general appearance, the shape and structure of foxes and Schipperkes surely are not similar. Although wolves and foxes belong to the same family of the ‘Canidae’, they are another ‘species’. We do not exclude as well that, since the learned  term ‘vulpoid’ could have been very imposing, it could have been a way to limit the knowledge on the conformation or shape of the head to only a few canine experts or initiates.

     It has also been argued that the wording ‘fox-like’ in fact related to the facial expression. However, the comparison fox-Schipperke then is even less appropriate. The expression of foxes has always been described as anxious, cautious and scared, while the Schipperke is a fearless, curious and inquisitive little dog.  

      Further questions are, ‘is it really needed that in a standard the head be compared to that of another animal?’, and ‘is the head of a Schipperke really wolf-like?’. The answer to the first question is no! The answer to the second question is less simple. First of all, the term lupoid (wolf-like) was used to make clear that the head should not be fox-like. As to the possible wolf-like shape of the head, in wolves, the conformation of the head is rather varied, but we do know that in dogs (at least dogs of the so-called lupoid type) the skulls are comparatively narrower than in wolves and accordingly the heads smaller. The term lupoid in the Standard certainly also means that the Schipperke belongs to the morphological (with regard to form and structure) type of the lupoids, and not to another type, such as the braccoids (hounds), molossoids (mastiffs) or graioids (sight hounds).

     According to the classification of Pierre Mégnin, lupoid dogs have the following characteristics: head shaped as a horizontal pyramid, ears upright, muzzle stretched and narrowing, lips dry and close-fitting. Mostly, lupoids are ‘mediolineal’ (having normal proportions) and they seldom are hypermetric (size and weight more than average). Schipperkes without doubt show lupoid characteristics and they belong to the lupoid type, the head too is lupoid, but perhaps not the size of the dog. Anyhow, the head of the Schipperke resembles the wolf head much more than the fox head!     

    Further reading from the same author:

1. ‘Schipperke’ (in English), Dr. R. Pollet, Interpet Publishing, 2001.

2. Article ‘Weight, height and measurements of the Schipperke’, Dr. R. Pollet, see this website for a summary. 
   For a full text (in French and German), see  www.belgiandogs.org

3. This website: FCI-Standard of the Schipperke, text revised by R. Pollet.