It’s quite possible that Schipperkes were the world’s first show dogs. In 1690, cobblers in shoemaker guilds in the St. Gery quarter organized competitive exhibitions of Schipperkes for designated Sundays on the Grand Place in Brussels, events they called, “Sunday beauty contests.”  The dogs wore collars of hammered or carved brass that were always kept gleaming, worn only on Sundays, and fastened in a way designed to pull out as few hairs as possible from the dog’s ruff. Some of these collars survive as museum pieces today, as seen in this image.