The Chapter About Schipperkes:
(partial article)

The Schipperke (from the Flemish schipper, boatman, or more exactly from the diminutive schipperke, little boatman. (See picture represented Brave Spitz, owned by Mr. Van Buggenhoudt.)

This breed is essentially Belgian; it came to life in the lowland zone of our country and mostly lived in Flanders, the province of Anvers and Brabant.

The schipperke was the faithful companion of the boatman gliding his barge or lighter boat on the canals and any water of the lowland. Rarely this dog would go on land, as he preferred the floating dwelling, of which he considered himself to be the vigilant guard, incessantly on duty night and day. The schipperke fulfilled, and still does, towards boatmen the role that we recognized of the Pomeranian in Holland. Both of them come and go, nervous, busy, nose in the wind, ears pointing, watching the shore and the boat as attentive observers, guardians of a vigilance and a security above all suspicions.

The boatman community wasn't the only one to own the schipperke, because the old lovers of that little companion of the labor classes assert than few Brussels cobblers were without a spitz in the old days. While a Saint-Crepin disciple hammered the soles, his dog sitting on the window shelf or on the workbench was barking at passers-by or people coming in.

The tradition of that period called for the schipperke always to be restrained in a relatively large copper collar finely worked, which often constituted a real work of art worthy to figure in our richest collections in our museums of today.

In those days, says Chasse et Pêche (Hunting and Fishing),"we could see the shoe maker go out on Sunday with or without his wife and children, but never without his schipper.  He could neglect to wax his own boots, but never, ever, would he neglect to polish his dog's collar".

We can add that in the XVII century, the Brussels cobblers did not organized Schipperke shows but instead, competitions of collars destined to adorn these little dogs, the objects of their liking and of their diligent care.

The cobblers in those days were not called shoe-fitters. They shared with the boatmen the specialty of breeding the real little schipper. A high number of butchers however, also owned this restless little dog. We called him Shipperke (little boatman). It could as well have received the name Schoemakerke (little shoe maker) or Beenhouwerke (little butcher). But, without a doubt, because he was more seen on his boat (schip) than anywhere else in the exercise of his function,  it was the term Schipper (boatman), little schipper, or Schipperke that prevailed and it is under that name that our old native canine breed is now known and is known as such the world over. We still erroneously try to call him a  {German}spitz. We cannot mistake the breed for a Loulou of Poméranie (Pomeranian) or {German Spitz breed} spitz itself, described at page 276 of our work. It is completely another type.

On July 21st 1880, at the first exposition of canine breeds done in Belgium--held in Brussels, in the ancient valley of maneuvers and on the occasion of the 50th anniversary of the celebrations—those little naturals on four paws were placed under the heading of “short hair terrier, black, with erect ears, without a tail, of Flemish breed: schipperke.” On March 10^th, 1888, the Schipperke-Club was born in Brussels, under the patronage  of  the Société Royale St-Hubert(The Royal St-Hubert society) and adopted their rules. They had the goal of the improvement of the pure blood schipperke. We will talk about it a little later.

We can affirm that, until then, the little Belgian dog, which we talk of here, didn't leave his place of birth; he was completely unknown anywhere else. It was the dog shows and the Belgian Schipperke-Club that brought them to light outside of Belgium. At the present time, they are all the rage in England, where we can buy them at gold weight; so every Sunday we raffle them off at the Brussels Market place to meet the request of the English people.

 It is, so we believe, Mr. Krehl, one of the judges who answered with the most eagerness to the call of the Société Royale St-Hubert, who is the promoter of the introduction of our little Belgian dog in the United Kingdom.

If the dog that concerns us is mainly in charge of guarding of the boat, if he in the past has charmed the boatmen in their leisure, it is nonetheless true that he is able to perform other tasks; he is an excellent stable dog and an apartment dog. No other dog likes horses more than he. Here is what it says in Chasse et Pêche (hunting and fishing):

 “Good stable dog, he is a great friend of the horses and an excellent rider. His happiness is to be able to ride the hauling horses; it is then that he struts proudly, barking at people passing by; he would want them to think that he, and only he, makes the boat go.”

One of our workers owned a little dog of that breed named Moor--They're all named Moor, Mooreke, Mol, Molteken or Spitz. --Moor gave his affection to the strongest horse of the stable. As long as the horse had errands to...

Page ends here but not the whole article.