History

The Malinois Tjop & Dewet

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TJOP
(LOSH 6132)

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DEWET
(LOSH 6466)

Among the members of the Club of Malines, was Frantz Huyghebaert (brother of Louis), owner of TJOP (LOSH 6132), one of the pillars of the Malinois together with DEWET, who belonged to the brothers Mairesse of Frameries. The characteristics of these two champions are found in every pedigree of the first generations of selected Malinois. 

TJOP was born on the 1th of November 1899 and had as father TOMY, an extraordinary guard dog (born on the 5th of October 1896) owned by H. Segers of Brussels. His mother was CORA I (LOSH 6143) (also called CORA VAN OPTEWEL) owned by Louis Opdebeeck of Malines, a laudry man by profession and an excellent trainer. CORA I won the first price of the first dressage trial of 12th and 13th of July 1903. 

TJOP, who was gifted with an excellent morphology, a perfect sceleton and angulation, a good colour, but without mask, was a very good utility dog, even if it was extremely nervous. It was 57 cm. high. From its father TOMY, it had a typical head, excellent ears and a well carried tail. Even if it had the look and the intelligence of its mother, it inherited too long a back, rather too fine paws and rough hair on the croup. 

VOS (LOSH 5647) (called also VOS DES POLDERS), born in 1897 and owned by Mrs J. Van Haesendonck of Antwerp, was the father of DEWET (LOSH 6466) and MOUCHE (owned by Mrs Duchenoy) was his mother.  

This was how Henri van Aldaba de Haan Hettema expressed himself about DEWET (60 cm. high), when he was judge for the dog show in Brussels in 1902 :
 “It is a magnificent dog, very well built, with an excellent coat and highly recommended, remarkable shoulders and chest, back and croup out of the line, good head, fautless carrying of the tail, small triangular ears, excellent general effect. But, since there is always a but, the colour is rather pale. This fault however is largely compensated by the black mask and the strong shade on the shoulders.” 

All the efforts of the fanciers led, around 1900, to the production of these two beautiful dogs - who are quite different from one another - between whom a battle was fought and whose names we can find in almost every actual pedigree; one might even say that studying the line of TJOP and DEWET, is like studying the principal ancestors of the variety.

Jean-Marie Vanbutsele 
(translated by Pascale)