It’s not as easy as you might think to name all the dog breeds acceptable in an AKC show ring that are solid black, and only solid black.  Scotties comes in brindle, Flat Coated Retrievers and Curly Coated Retrievers can be liver, Black Russian Terriers can have a few scattered gray hairs, the Belgian Sheepdog is allowed a moderate patch or strip of white on its forechest, and on it goes.

The Schipperke is one of the few AKC breeds that calls for a black, and only black dog (though graying with age is okay) in the conformation ring. The “trick words” here are “AKC” and “show ring.” The breed does come in cream color, and colored Schips have been permitted in conformation competition in the U.K., Australia, New Zealand, and South Africa for decades – but not in AKC show rings.

Our homework has come across references to an efforts to include colored Schips in the standard for “conformation” judging in the U.S. in the 1950s, but it was unsuccessful. Even in its country of origin, a proposal by the proponents of cream, chocolate, grey and red Schipperkes to be included in the breed standard failed. The first standard approved by Belgian Schipperke fanciers in 1888 permitted only black specimens.

Since the color trait is a genetically recessive one, and since the Schipperke gene pool is rather limited anyway, very few color specimens have turned up in U.S. kennels, anyway, but an old breeding adage reminds us that breeders don’t create what’s in a gene cool, they reveal them. We’ve read that a test now exists to determine which Schipperkes carry the recessive color genes for cream and chocolate colors. With this knowledge, it’s possible to breed for – and against – the cream Schipperke.

 “The Cardinal’s Song” by Janice Petrella-Walsh is available in print here.