THE COLOR BLACK
Jim Engel, December 1996
Debate and conflict over coat color and texture in the Bouvier is time honored, in fact predates the formal establishment of the breed. In the early years of this century there were running commentaries in the various Belgian country and sport magazines, often one judge disparaging the selections and comments of others. (See Chastel’s Book for details.) Much of this has been discussed in my book, although some of the more interesting material got left out in the interest of space.
Broadly speaking, the original Dutch lines, from the 20’s forward, were black with sparse coat, the type spoken of as "Old Dutch." Although there has been a massive influx of Belgian blood into the Dutch show lines, beginning in the sixties, the police lines still go primarily back to the original Dutch (Roulers type) lines. A lot of the show dogs go back to the white male King van Dafzicht:
B Ch Noceur de la Thudinie LOSH.222155
Oecles du Posty Arlequin LOSH.235833
Liska du Posty Arlequin LOSH.207836
Rif du Posty Arlequin HD+- '68 LOSH.261440
Ch Naris du Posty Arlequin LOSH.227905
Ch Picolette du Posty Arlequin LOSH.246553
Ch Odelette du Posty Arlequin LOSH.231047
King v Dafzicht HD- NHSB.602588
Ch Konard du Rotiane '61 LOSH.200564
Milord ten Roobos '63 LOSH.214245
Kara LOSH.203070
Rocca ten Roobos HD- NHSB.451716 LOSH.265077
Ch Konard du Rotiane '61 LOSH.200564
Mina ten Roobos LOSH.216578
Lisette ten Roobos LOSH.207986
As a result, when you go to the Dutch Club Match (National Specialty) at the expo hall in June at Hilversum, the winning dogs are almost entirely massive with profuse gray coats. Since the American show scene has been dominated by imports from these Dutch lines, that is what you are seeing in the American show ring. And of course American judges would put up pink dogs with three legs if they saw enough of them with expensive handlers.
But when you go to the Dutch IPO working championships the first week of October, you would probably think you were at the wrong place, the trials for another breed, because all of the strong dogs will be black, agile and on the whole more lanky, with much less profuse coats. These dogs are the remnants of the Dutch Police lines, perhaps the last best hope to make something out of this breed.
The Belgians and French did have good lines at one time. The "du Clos des Jeunes Plantes" kennel produced competitive Ring Sport dogs and two of Chastel’s dogs were French working ( Campagne ) champions for Dr. LeLann. But this is a quarter century ago and the current breeders are more talk than production when it comes to character. ( Our first Schutzhund dogs, which were also conformation champions, were primarily out of such lines from Miss Bowles and Bruce Jacobsohn at du Clos des Cerberes. Very few outsiders bred to Lutteur du Val de Rol, which was most unfortunate as he produced great character, excellent heads, movement and dentition.)
So, in a broad sense it a good generalization to characterize the gray dogs as the "Bouviers des Boudoir" and to expect most of the best of the working dogs to be black.
My personal preference in coat is to have the darkest possible gray brindle because I find such dogs more attractive and because you generally have much better texture than with the black dogs.