Color in Schips

Only a few of our fellow citizens are familiar with Schipperkes--and even fewer have heard of Schips of any color other than black. But, while rare in this country, Schipperkes have appeared in colors other than black since before there was a standard for the breed. Although the first Schipperke standard approved by Belgian fanciers in 1888 permitted only black specimens, they first had to reject a proposal by the proponents of cream, chocolate, grey and red specimens to be included.

Early in the twentieth century, the Schipperke club of England accepted Schips of color (mostly “creams”) in their Schipperke standard, and that British version was adopted by a number of other members of the Commonwealth. Canada was included among the nations that permitted Schips of color for a time, but eventually aligned itself with the U.S. standard, which, based on the Belgian version, permits only black Schips.

While the British Schip fancy was divided on the issue for a time, for the past fifty years or so, the Schipperke Club in the UK has recognized and awarded championships to cream Schips as well as the traditional blacks. Today, the cream Schipperke competes in the breed ring in Australia, New Zealand and South Africa as well as in the United Kingdom. They compete as equals in the same show ring, not as a separate breed or variety. Indeed, the Best of Breed Schipperke at the Crufts Dog Show in England this year was a cream colored bitch.

Early efforts to include colored Schips in the standard for “conformation” judging in the U.S. have been unsuccessful although a fairly well organized effort was made in the nineteen-fifties. Resistance to any change from the original Belgian version of the standard was, and is, very strong--at least partly because very few have seen any colored 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. And, since the gene is recessive it can be harbored for generations in families of black Schipperkes, until a chance breeding with a similarly equipped mate, might produce a cream specimen—usually within an otherwise black litter.

With the advent of DNA and the mapping of the canine genome, a test now exists to determine which Schipperkes carry the recessive color genes for cream and chocolate colors. Armed with this information it is now possible to breed for the cream Schips as well as to avoid them.

In the face of the widespread hostility toward the cream Schips on the part of many established breeders, we opted to leave the Schipperke Club of America in order to pursue the development of a separate line of cream Schipperkes. Since the American Kennel Club recognizes our creams as the purebred Schips that they are, they are eligible for AKC performance events such as obedience, tracking and agility.

Dulring the past two years, a small group of like-minded Schip fanciers established the United States Schipperke Club, Inc. Although limited in resources we have done our homework, collected our research and made representation to the United Kennel Club, one of the two largest dog registries in the country, and sponsor of dog shows and trials nationwide. Very recently, the UKC has agreed to modify its Schipperke Standard to admit colored Schips to their registry, and to competition in their dog events.

Beginning in 2010 our colored Schips will begin to compete in UKC events as well as in AKC performance events. We believe the added exposure willl "win friends" for our colored animals. Stay in touch through the "Contact Us" section of this website, and join us in celebrating this breakthrough for our breed.

To do our part, we will also continue to breed a few quality Schips—both black and cream—and to continiue to export a few qualitiy animals to the British Schipperke market as well as for a few discerning U.S. fanciers of the Schipperke breed.