CHAPTER LIX 



THE SCHIPPERKE 



HE marked resemblance between the Pomeranian and the 

 schipperke is too obvious to make it necessary to dwell 

 upon the origin of the little Belgian dog. If we divide 

 fox terriers into smooth and wire-haired, and chows and St. 

 Bernards into rough and smooth we might well have done 

 something similar with these two breeds. As to the absence of a tail 

 making a difference between the Pom. and the schipperke, it might, if 

 they all came into the world tailless instead of perhaps ten per cent, of 

 them, the others having to be made tailless like the bob-tailed sheepdogs. 

 The schipperkes run larger than the small Poms as might be expected 

 of a dog whose place in life is useful instead of merely ornamental. 

 Strength and activity combined with smartness (in our acceptance of the 

 word) are the characteristics of the schipperke. 



Although we have only had the schipperke in dog show evidence for 

 some fifteen years the indication is that the history of the dog is already 

 being lost and the latest dog books are drawing somewhat on imagination 

 for facts. The Belgian Schipperke Club was started in 1888, very shortly 

 after the breed was introduced and in 1890 the following history of the dog 

 and its name appeared over the signature of Mr. John Lysen, of Antwerp, 

 the home of the breed. The letter was published in the American Field 

 and was copied into other publications, including the American "Book of the 

 Dog," a work frequently quoted in England since its publication in 1891, and 

 the statements of Mr. Lysen were never contradicted. 



"They are always called 'Spits' in Belgium, and if you were to ask a 

 dog-dealer for a ' schipperke' dog, he wouldn't know what you were speak- 

 ing about. The name schipperke was given when a few fanciers got up the 

 club, and when, later on, I asked the one who proposed it why they had not 

 given the dog its proper name, he answered that the Pomeranian was already 

 called 'spitz' in Germany, and moreover that a queer name would render 

 the dog more attractive to foreigners ! 



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