Cassiopeia Bouviers

‘The Bouvier Des Flandres: grim of outward, warm of hart’
by Nora Snyers in WOEF 1993.

‘The Bouvier Des Flandres: stubborn & so tender’
by Gérard Sasias in Atout Chien 1995.

‘Von Gewdraa Oel puts his stamp on the show. Few Bouviers on the annual meeting 1997′
by Véronique Vanderveken in WOEF 1997.

‘International Bouvierday on the 31th may of 1998: an necessary promotion’
by Véronique Vanderveken in WOEF 1998.

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‘The Bouvier Des Flandres: grim of outward, warm of hart’

The official appellation of this breed – the Bouvier Des Flandres – makes me a bit peevish. It’s an artificial definition invented by some French speaking citizens that has nothing in commom with the original name of the breed, nor with the language of the people who created it. The (breed) Schipperke can praise himself lucky that he’s called Schipperke & not ‘Little Sherperd of Brabant’ or something like that… .

The cynological authors write that the Belgian farmers did not even understand the term ‘Bouvier’. The ‘Pikker’ or ‘Piekhaar’, yes, that dog they knew. A Flemish ignorant cynological author heard the name ‘Picard’  and suddenly our cattle-drover had a southern nephew: the Picard who had that harsh coat too.
The explanation is more simple and our Van Daele-dictionnary gives the answer. ‘Pikken’ or ‘pieken’ means ‘sting, prick’. ‘Pikken’ also means speaking snappy; ‘pikker’ is not only something that ‘stings or pricks’ but also a ‘strong guy’. This is the definition of our bouvier. His hair picks & his temperament does that too. It’s correct that his coat has softened thru the years, as did his character… . Maybe he’s not thàt real ‘pikker’ anymore. ‘Vlaamse Koehond’ (‘Flemish Cow-dog’) or ‘Vlaamse Veedrijver’ (‘Flemish cattle-drover’) are more honest definitions but a bit softer & characterless. No, I think he should have kept the old and sturdy name ‘Vlaamse Pikker’ or ‘Vlaamse Piekhaar’.
A mixture of ignorance, politics and arrogance decided something else.

As dogs live.

All over the world people have created dogs for their own needs. Where there are lots of cows, men needed sturdy cattle-drovers to keep the cattle on the field, drive the cattle to and away from the stable, bring them to the abattoir,… .
Why cynological people focused so much attention on the cattle-drover and recognised it as a breed is unknown.
Sure,  there were a lot of cattle-drovers in Brabant (Northern part of Belgium) , but not a word is written down about them. The Ardennen (Southern part of Belgium)  had their bouvier, that’s written in old texts, but the one who can find one of these (with full pedigree) can come to me and prove it.
No, seriously, only the Flemish Cowdog made ‘history’… . Why? Was he a better working dog than the others?
I think that most of the cynological people did not look at the dogs function in the first place. Something else must have caught their attention. The rough appearance? The lonelyness of the dog, alone in the grandiose Flemish fields?
When they found him in towns and hamlets of the ‘Westhoek’ (Northern coast part of Belgium), he must have looked less civilized than he does now. He had real ‘piekhaar’, a harder, shorter & pricking coat. The eyebrow and beard was shorter, so was the hair on the legs and that made him look much bigger.
They didn’t threat him softly. He could never come inside, not even in the stable. He had to work, night and day. During the day in the fields, at night he had to guard the farmyard. He didn’t even have a kennel: a sloping plank against a tree or wall was his only shelter against rain, cold and wind. Most of the time he was chained and laid permanently in mudd.
About his food, I haven’t read anything. It wasn’t much. Although he had to be strong, because a farmer who couldn’t afford a horse put him in front of the milkcart, or he had to turn around the heavy churnwheel. He had a real ‘dogs live’.
Of course the ‘piekhaar’ had to show authority, because cows are more difficult to manipulate than sheep and can be dangerous too. You have to be a dextrous jumper to avoid a hooves. A ‘piekhaar’ had to be strong, quick, imposing, dexterous, fearless and with an air of authority, could never be ill, had to work in all kinds of weather,  had to be willing and docile, and most importantly had to be ready to obey his boss. Conclusion: he had to be perfect… .

Bullbiters & ‘rekels’.

Other countries have their cattle-drovers. Let’s mention some… the small British Welsh Corgi, the German Rottweiler, the Swiss Sennenhunde,… .
With his harsh coat the bouvier is the exception. Where did he get that ‘piekhaar’? Just look at him and you will see that he is broader, more powerfull and built heavier than the ‘normal’ sherperd. That quality you can only get in one other group: the mastiffs.
In our region the mastiffs were represented by the ‘Brabantse Bullenbijters’ (Bullbiters of Brabant) and the ‘mâtins’ or ‘rekels’, who chased big wildlife and were cartdogs too. Our famous Belgian cartdogs (who were never recognised as an official breed) sure gave some chromosomes to the gene-dish of the bouvier. That explains the differences in temperament between the bouvier and the ‘normal’ sherperds.
The bouvier is not a pure mastiff. He’s too willing to be your partner, his ‘will to please’ is not a mastiff-quality. As for the other ingredients in the gene-dish, there are a lot of stories going around.
Mostly the Briard and Picard (already mentioned before?…) played the main role in these stories.
I don’t think the ‘stay-at-home-farmers’ made far and expensive trips to get a dog. You could of course get that rough coat from the ‘Laekense Herder’ (Laeken Sherperd). Brussels was closer to their farm…

The Keltic connection?

It can be found closer or farther. At the border of the ‘Westhoek’, in Koksijde stood the ‘Abdij ter Duinen’ (‘Abbey of the Dunes’). There is nothing else left from it now than some walls and a magnificent stone dogkennel, on a strategic place and fitting for a big dog.
The monks, that’s what the cronicles tell, had a good relationship with the Brittish Island, especially with Scotland.
Don’t they have the Irish Wolfhound and his Scottish nephew, the Deerhound? With a rough coat, mostly grey and brindle?
We know that the abbeys exchanged dogs and that these dogs were not so celibate as their owners. I bet on some Keltic contribution of the Abbey, some strong local ‘rekels’ and a bit of sherperd-blood. After some centuries that cocktail could give us the ‘piekhaar’.
Just around 1910 there was something written down about the ‘piekhaar’ by French speaking citizens who had cynology as a hobby. They named him ‘bouvier’… .

Quarrel

When I look at the official history of the bouvier, it’s obvious that it has been nothing else but a quarrel: about the color, the head, the hight, the coat, the type.
At one moment there were two types: the type ‘Moerman’ and the type ‘Paret’.
New ‘cynological people’ bought some bouviers in farms and did some experiments with them. There were some judges who named theirselves ‘specialists’ of the breed. It seems to me that at a certain moment there were more judges than dogs. All of them with their own opinion.
The biggest quarrel was about the color: one group said that the bouvier had to be big and black, the other group said he had to be nor black, nor big.
The craziest thing is that none of them asked the owners and breeders of the animals what they thought… .

Immigrant

The Dutch came in the quarrel too.
Before we come to that point, let us return to the color.
Since ancient times a guard dog has to impress and is thus best dark. That doesn’t has to say that he has to be completely black.
I think that the original owners of the bouviers exactly knew how big and heavy a bouvier had to be to impress; and how quick he had to be to avoid the hoofs.
They searched for a coat that protected the dog against rain, cold, as well as hot weather. The coat of the actual bouvier doesn’t seem to reach that goal: it doesn’t stop the rain anymore… .
The bouvier-fanciers can comfort theirselves: the rough coat is the most difficult, and mostly all of the harsh coats tend to soften, due to a selection for longer beards and eyebrownhair and more coat on the legs.
The result is that a bouvier needs a more regular grooming, good news for the grooming business… .

The drama of World War I did not spare the bouvier. He didn’t only see his homeland in gun-fire, trenches and barbed wire during four years, he was also shot down, starved, taken by the German. A part of the population went to more safe Belgian regions, to France and the Netherlands (here we are…).
With the result that more bouviers are to be found there! That’s not unusual, Belgium is a small country, and all of our breeds are better represented abroad then they are here.
The bouvier, an immigrant, even took the number one of the list of the most popular breed in the Netherlands!
We can be proud of our creation, the world is fond of it.

Odium

It took quite a long time to make the bouvier into a uniform breed. That is shown by the heterogeneous origine of the breed.
In 1912 there were two standards. The first recognised the black color, the second didn’t.
After the first World War the bouvier was unemployed, the barbed wire of the trenches was now used to keep the cows in the fields.
His only task was now to guard the farmyard. The farmers didn’t need the bouvier that much anymore, they became unfaithful to him and his survival became depended of the fanciers, who didn’t look at his functional criteria anymore, but at his appearance.
Happily there were few people who understood that this workingcriteria was one of his biggest trumps and began to test him for defense.
Gradually the bouvier evolved from a suspicious yarddog to a calm, self-confident dog with a high provocation-threshold (or should we say ‘pik-threshold’).
It took the breed a long time to get there: he carried the odium of the chained dog a long time with him.

In 1921 the first bouvierclub was established and two years later, in 1923, the new standard appeared. The bouvier inspired some of our countries biggest breeders to a live long passion and devotion.

Justin Chastel.

In 1932 Justin Chastel showed his first bouvier, the first of a whole serie, that didn’t stop untill today.
Hopefully we will be able to see bouviers of ‘de la Thudinie’ at all shows.
Chastel is called ‘the father of the modern bouvier’, and is recognised as in the whole world. He’s one of the few breeders of our small country who build a reputation which stands more than 60 years.
Dogs of ‘de la Thudinie’ are on every pedigree of any bouviers who proved himself.
Chastel worked so consequently and grim on the building of a uniform bouvierfamily that the quarrel about color and type stopped and that everyone took his idea of the ideal bouvier. A great performance.

His breeding method? A dose of inbreeding with a relentless selection. Chastel thinks it’s wrong to mate different families frequently. It can give some good results but it is futureless.
In the first place he looked at fundamental qualities: character, type and movement. He was convinced that a good breeder must be a ‘user’, that he should work with his dogs, otherwise he can never get a good overview of the temperament and character.

The character is as complex as the appearance and a good breeder should keep that in mind when mating two dogs. If a breed looses an eminent characterquality, the breeders are responsible for that.
The goal is not only to breed the exceptional animal that wins a lot of titles, but breeding a bloodline that passes on the normal breedcharacter.
This were some ideas of the book that Chastel published. He adds that the owner of a bouvier should not expect his dog to be a hero, but that he should be really dissappointed if his dog wouldn’t defend him when he’s in danger.

A second kennel, also a pillar in the construction of the breed, is certainly ‘Du Posty Arlequin’ of Grulois.

Belgian compromise.

The definitive standard of the breed is the one from 1965. We can say that the breed is only recently recognised.
The quarrel about the ideal appearance lasted for years and this standard is probably the the golden mean.
The real cradle of the breed – de Westhoek, Roeselare and Gent – is in Belgium, but also in French-Flandres (were people still speak flemish) people said the breed was ‘theirs’.
The French didn’t want a black bouvier, the Dutch (here they are again…), who adopted the breed during World War I and bred it, liked the black. The bouvier who didn’t had to jump for a hoof anymore, could be bigger and stronger.
The case was ended with a big compromise, like everything in the Belgian tradition: the breed was French-Belgian, got the pompous name of ‘Bouvier Des Flandres’, could if needed be purely black, with a maximum height of 68 cm.
The type that Chastel created was the ideal for the showring. Ends well, you can’t turn back history… .

Noska and Manno.

She’s dark, wrapped in a mass of rough and dark hair. Once in a while when the sun comes from behind the clouds, you can see one of her dark eyes. Her name is Noska and her breeder got the title ‘Topfokker van het Jaar 1992′ (Topbreeder of the year 1992) thanks to her. Her small and cropped ears move above the mass of hair and her big feeth are jumping in the air, all four together. She got a charming pink tongue. When she likes you, she lies herselves down trying to give you her feeth. You can touch her strong ribs. She’s frank and friendly, without suspicion, the opposite of the rough appearance a bouvier has. That doesn’t mean she can’t throw herself at the agitator. She bites the sleeve with all of her teeth. Her silhouette has something compact, shortly build, like the standard wants it.’Cob’ they call that. The small tail that she kept, is moving funnily in all that hair. When you see her eyes under her eyebrowns, she gives you the look of a honest, rustic dog.
Noska – she was the figurehead of her kennel in 1992 – is almost black. Manno, the older male, is slate-coloured and got more prices that the little lady. He’s a real ‘manneke’ (‘guy’), with strong and big hips, a broad back, a short body, a great coat and both fierce and kind-hearted eyes, a dancing movement and the quality of turning very quickly. He likes defense and bites very well. Don’t mock at him. But I can touch him, throwing my arms around him. A darling of a ‘piekhaar’.
I ask the breeder about the qualities of these two dogs: ‘A good pigmentation, good teeth, a closed eye, a parrallel skull and muzzel, a strong back, a good ears- and tailsett, a frank movement, good coats, a fierce attitude in the ring, they score high points in the charactertest and the CQN ànd are HD free’.

It’s difficult for a Belgian dog to become a champion, they have to get a working certificate, where the Dutch dogs ‘only’ have to be beautiful… .

Maternity.

The breeder works with his dogs and that takes a lot of his time, but he thinks it necessary to keep beautifull ànd good bouviers. That way he can show his dogs in Working Class.

A visit to the kennel, where 11 bitches are jumping. With Manno the kennel has 3 males and two pups. They stay in neat kennels, near a green grassfield.
There’s also a special maternity where mom and pups spend the first days after birth. It’s spotlessly clean out there and I admire the special floor, used in clinics too that keeps contaminations out.
What surprises me is that I can put my fingers thru the wiring, the bouviers bark but let my fingers whole and are curious. The pups are not shy at all, they jump and are extremly curious. I like all the dogs here, small and big. I see that they are all in a seperate kennel: there has to be a good reason for.

The breeder looks to the future: in one of the kennels I see a bitch with small uncropped ears, well started on the head and hanging down. He bought her in the Netherlands (where the cropping is forbidden since a long time now), she comes from a famous Dutch kennel from witch the dogs come for 3/4 out of his bloodline. She will, if needed, add the good uncropped hanging ears into his kennel.

The dogs out of this kennel come from a cocktail of the ‘de la Thudinie’ and Dutch dogs with worktemperament (special working-bloodlines).

When the breeder started in 1975 he saw the problem of the movement. Still now he has to be carefull to keep the worktemperament and the strong, right back.

Late-flowering.

What is the character of the typical bouvier? There are many words for it: kind, social, friendly for kids, willing to work, frump, good guarddog, honest, quiet, affectionate, can adjust himself, is a late-flowering dog. You can’t work with him too much, when he’s young.
This element is clear in his learning-process, where the owner should be very patient.
A high percentage of the dogs out of this kennel succeed for the workingtests, especially the bitches (!). They are convinient for obedience and ‘Veldwerk’ (‘Fieldwork’). They work a bit slower than a Malinois (who doesn’t?) and don’t like the heat at all. The are good jumpers, willing too, so agility is a sport for them.

The pups are born very dark, the breeder selects them at 6 to 7 weeks. The pups have such a strong characters then that this is very easy. Playing is all they are interested in!
Most of the pups come back for grooming, that way it’s easy for the breeder and his wife to see the results of their selection, they learn everything about the positive and negative points of a combination. An important advantage for a serious breeder.
A lot of buyers here want to work with their dog. The breeder is very happy about that, because every breeder is dependent of what the owners will do with their dogs.
He starts to breed the bitches at the age of 5 (after conformation and the CQN) and 2 or 3 litters are more than enough.
The bouvier is a strong, healty and vital dog who can easily reach the age of 10, sometimes even older and stays normal untill the end. Like in every breed there are some hereditary problems, but they are rare and a good breeder selects carefully and tests the parents.

The bouvier, the ‘piekhaar’, a dog from our country: solid, reliable, grim of outward, warm of hart… .

The club announces: Belgische Club Belge du Bouvier Des Flandres.

Connected at the KKUSH (Koninklijke Kynologische Unie St. Hubertus – Royal Cynological Union St. Hubertus) with number 70.
The Bouvier is first mentionned with the Belgian breeds by Prof. Dr. Ad Reul of the veterinarianschool in Kuregem in the year 1894. Around 1912 they appeared in the North of France and the region of Roeselare. Charles Huge published the first detailled description of the bouvier in 1919 under the name ‘Bouvier Belge’.
In 1921 Ph. Gryson of the kennel ‘de la Lys’ established the Club du Bouvier des Flandres in Gent. In 1937 a common standard was created by the Belgian and French Club. The Belgian Club changed his name in 1947 into ‘Club National Belge du Bouvier Des Flandres’ with Florimond Verbanck, Félix-Eugène Verbanck and August Fransket in the comitee, all tree well-known cynologues and breeders. Félix Verbanck made the Bouvier to what he is today. The most important Belgian and North-French breeders selected their Bouviers and mated them with his good advises.

A new common standard for Belgium and France was approved by the FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale). In 1974 Justin Chastel, owner of the kennel ‘de la Thudinie’, became president. He had promoted the type of Bouviers that we know now for 40 years then, with great succes.

In 1990 Leo Goyvaerts (Topbreeder 1992 with the kennel Von Gewdraa Oel) became president, a true fancier of the working dog with attention for his beauty.

The official clubname is now Belgische Club Belge du Bouvier Des Flandres. The members pay attention at the character of the Bouvier. His use as guard- and defencedog is an important quality for them. To keep that quality they organise selectiontests (charactertests), CQN (Certificat de Qualité Naturelle – Certificate of Natural Qualities) for defense and tracking, and specialty shows.

Every serious and sporty fancier and/or breeder is welcome as a member.

Warning: there’s an other club for the Bouvier Des Flandres (‘Vereniging voor Vlaamse Koehonden’) but that one is not recognised by the KKUSH.

Note that the Comitee of the Belgian Bouv Club has changed since 1993.

Translation by Véronique Vanderveken of the article of Nora Snyers in WOEF, copyright 1993.