Breed Priorities – The Belgian Malinois

BY NIKKI RIGGSBEE

AKC recognizes the three Belgian herding dogs – Sheepdog, Tervuren, and Malinois – as three separate breeds. For AKC, the Belgian Laekenois is in Miscellaneous. FCI countries categorize the four breeds as varieties of one Belgian Sheepdog breed, including the Laekenois variety. In FCI countries, the AKC Belgian Sheepdog variety is known as Groenendael.

Thirty-three AKC breeder-judges of all three closely related breeds were invited to participate in the survey identifying their breed priorities. Twenty-seven agreed to participate. Eighteen surveys were returned. The breeder-judges averaged more than thirty-four years in their breed, and almost thirteen years judging it. More than half have judged their national, and all have judged Belgian specialties.

PRIORITIZING VIRTUES

The survey asked the breeder-judges to prioritize a list of virtues from the Belgian Malinois standard. Their responses were averaged. Below are the virtues in sequence by the average ranks, with 1 being the most important.

1. Square dog
2. Confident, naturally protective, strong desire to work
3. Movement smooth, free and easy, seemingly never tiring
4. Expression: alert, ready for activity, intelligent and questioning 5. Elegant
6. Proud carriage of head and neck
7. Loin relatively short, broad and strong
8. Parallel planes of muzzle and topskull
9. Shoulder forming sharp angle with upper arm
10. Full dentition with scissors or level bite
11. Well muscled
12. Male more impressive, female distinctly feminine
13. Ears shaped as an equilateral triangle, stiff, erect, in proportion to head
14. Feet round, well-padded, toes curved close together 15. Black nose
16. Tail reaching hock, in action raised in a curve

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Posted by Alex on Jul 20 2018. Filed under Current Articles, Featured. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0. Both comments and pings are currently closed.