Regular readers of NPDD will know how often we’ve pointed out the role of the clergy in creating, developing, or protecting our breeds; we add the Bouvier to the list of breeds similarly impacted in their history.
Regarded as an important authority on all things canine in the 1940s, Louis Huyghebaert, a judge, author, and early Malinois breeder (the “ter Heide” kennel name) suggested that monks living at Flemish monasteries of the Middle Ages imported Scottish Deerhounds and other rough coated sighthounds to breed with local farm dogs. Through selective breeding, they created and developed a large, rough coated “chase dog” (probably known to us as a herding dog) that continued to evolve in West and East Flanders.
Putting it kindly, there was little uniformity in these dogs. They were different sizes and weights, their heads were different from each other, and even the color and texture of their coats varied. That said, these were the early ancestors of the Bouvier des Flandres.
Despite their early differences from each other, two types did emerge. The large Roulers (named after Roulers in Western France) was a deep chested, wiry coated dog that appeared in black, brindle or dark gray and could stand 24 1/2 inches at the withers. It’s said that the Dutch preferred this style of dog. The Paret style, favored by the French and named for one for the early breeders, L. Paret, wasn’t as tall as the Roulers, was more barrel chested, had a coat that was less wiry, and could be fawn, brindle, sorrel or gray colored. Around the same time, one Professor Deschambre believed the Paret and Roulers to be in the same category of medium haired French shepherds.
One source writes that there were actually five Belgian Bouvier breeds, the Bouvier des Paret being one of them. Only two of them are around today, the Bouvier des Flandres and the Bouvier des Ardennes. The Bouvier des Moerman and Bouvier des Roulers are considered extinct, and the Paret was absorbed into the des Flandres.
Image: Bouvier des Flandres by Chantal Marcotte/ArtByChantalMarcotte is available as a print here