History

Early 20th Century Interrelationships between

the Laekenois,  Dutch Shepherd and Bouvier.

by Mara Lee Jiles

Jan-Baptist Jansen purchased a yellow rough haired male, Vos, in the area of Boom, Belgium. Vos, born in 1885, became the foundation sire for the Laekenois and Malinois varieties of the Belgian Shepherd Dogs, and can also be found in the extended pedigrees of several Dutch Shepherds and early Bouviers, in the Raad van Beheer’s NHSB studbooks.

Vos (later designated Vos I) was mated to a brown/brindle shorthaired female known as Lieske, or Lise de Laeken. From this mating came Diane and Mouche, (short hairs who played important roles in the development of the Malinois), Tom de Vilvorde, a grey rough hair, and Spits, also presumed a rough hair. Spits was bred back to Vos to produce Moor, a black rough hair who is also apparently one of the first recessive blacks in the history of the Belgian Shepherd Dogs. Moor, bred back to her grandsire, Vos, produced Poets (or Pouts), a light fawn rough haired Laekenois female who did well in several exhibitions at the end of the 19^th Century [see The Journal of  History No. 2]

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Poets 

Poets played a larger role in this history than previously realized. Bred to her great-uncle, Tom de Vilvorde, 
she produced Vos II and Belle de Saint-Nicolas. This couple, mentioned only once in the Saint-Hubert studbooks 
as parents of Turc, appear numerous times as the ancestors not only of Malinois, but  early Laekens, Dutch 
Shepherds, and Bouviers.  Bred to Duc II, Poets  produced Pitt and Belle II, who appear in the ancestry of some
Dutch Shepherds, but remain unmentioned in Belgian Shepherd history.  

1901 was the first year that the Belgian Shepherd Dogs were admitted to the Société Royale Saint-Hubert
studbooks, but an 1898 color decision by the breed club (CCBB) that the Belgian rough hairs could only be grey,
had effectively shut out the more prevalent fawn and yellow rough hairs until the decision was reversed in 1908.
The grey rough haired Basoef LOSH 6137, whelped in 1897,sired by Tom de Vilvorde, son of Vos I and Lieske, 
became the premiere sire of the grey rough hairs in Belgium for several years. His son, Boer-Sus, whelped in 1901,
sired a few grey rough hairs, but the lines from Basoef and Boer-Sus ultimately died out.  

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Boer-Sus

With fawn rough hairs originally unable to be registered with Saint-Hubert, many began appearing in the 
Netherlands, registered in the NHSB studbooks. The Raad van Beheer studbooks, in the first decade of the 
20th century, listed pedigrees of the registered dogs who were not from unknown origins. The pedigrees 
ranged from one to four generations, and it is here that we can find ties between some of the rough haired
Dutch Shepherds and early Bouviers to the Laekenois Belgian Shepherd Dogs descending from  Vos and 
Lieske. 

The early Dutch Shepherds (Hollandsche Herdershonden) were not all brindled dogs in the beginnings of their 
history, but dark yellow, sand colored, silver grey, light gold, as well as various shades of brindle. Nor were the
early Hollanders all longer than tall, which was added to their standard at a later date.  The rough haired Dutch Shepherds were not that dissimilar to the rough haired Belgian Shepherd Dogs of the late 1800s and early
1900s.

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Fram

Laekenois Genealogy

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Trotteur, with his owner, J. Westerwoudt of Baarn.  
Trotteur was described as a Dutch Shepherd in Hondenrassen.  

The other stud dog was Tuf-Tuf, also unregistered, who in 1909 took a 1st prize at Utrecht, shown in the rough haired Belgian Shepherd class. Tuf-Tuf was from Primus x Cora, with no clues to his ancestry other than his sire/dam. Bred to Favorite NHSB 3638, a younger sister of Cochere, Tuf-Tuf sired Jacot NHSB 4179 and Protegee NHSB 4189, on April 3, 1912. Jacot was registered as a sand colored rough haired Belgian Shepherd Dog, while Protegee was registered as a sand colored rough haired Chien de Bouvier.

This pattern, of Trotteur and Tuf-Tuf siring both Belgian and French Shepherds, continued until World War I brought everything to a halt.  Following WWI, the Raad van Beheer studbooks contained no ties to the pre-war dogs. Whether they continued and were behind some of those registered as from “unknown origins” or from those listed with only unregistered sires and dams, remains undiscovered.  

Although the first Breed Club for the Belgian Shepherd was established in Belgium in 1891,the first Breed Club for the Dutch Shepherd established in 1898 in Holland, with the Bouvier finding patronage in the second decade of the 20th century, the early dogs themselves were quite similar. It was not until standards became more defined, and colors restricted, that differences became noticeable.  The modern Dutch Shepherds, with their brindled colors and longer bodies, still bear a slight resemblance to the Belgian Shepherds. The Bouviers have moved farther away from the Laekens, although there was a period in the Laeken history, in the late ‘60s and early 70s, where the Dutch bred Laekens looked somewhat similar to the fawn Bouvier des Flandres.  

For all of its history the Laekenois has remained the least popular of the varieties in Belgium, occasionally almost disappearing from the Saint-Hubert and Kennel Club Belge studbooks during the first 60 years of their history. In Holland, through the 1960s, the Laekenois was the most popular of the Belgian varieties, and it was to Holland that breeders had to turn when outside interest in the Laekenois was reborn in the late 1960s. Ironically, no modern Laekenois can trace its ancestry back to Vos and Lieske through its Laekenois ancestors, but can through its Malinois ancestors.                                              

Modern Laekenois

Mara Lee Jiles
June, 2002