“Very loyal and reliable, always alert, watchful, active, independent, with persistence, intelligence, prepared to be obedient and gifted with the true shepherding temperament. The Dutch Shepherd Dog works willingly together with its owner and he deals independently with any task which is assigned to him. When herding larger flocks he must have the capacity to work together with several other dogs”
Quoted from FCI standard n°223. It describes the breed the registry recognises, not any individual animal.
Drawn from sources rather than written as an opinion — cited health research, the registry’s own standard, and peer-reviewed longevity. FCI breed standard. One breeder’s animals can differ from any of it, and an empty column means we hold nothing for that side rather than that there is nothing to say.
FCI standard · Dutch Shepherd Dog
As the FCI standard sets it out. Every line below is the standard’s own wording, tagged preferred and undesirable.
Short hair: All over the body, quite hard, close-fitting, not too short coat with woolly undercoat.
Ruff, breeches and tail plume are clearly visible.
Long hair: All over the body, long, straight, well fitting, harsh to the touch, without curls or waves and with a woolly undercoat.
Distinct ruff and breeches.
Tail abundantly coated.
Head, ears and feet and also the hind legs below the hocks are short and densely coated.
The backsides of the forelegs show a strongly developed coat, shortening in length towards the feet, the so-called feathering.
No fringes at the ears.
Wire hair: Dense, harsh tousled coat and a woolly, dense undercoat all over the body except for the head.
The coat should be close.
Upper- and lower lip should be well-covered with hair, the whiskers and beard, and two well defined, coarse rough eyebrows that are distinct but not exaggerated.
Furnishings are not soft.
The hair on the skull and on the cheeks is less strongly developed.
In profile it seems as if the head has a more square appearance.
Strongly developed breeches are desirable.
Tail is covered all round with hair.
The brindle colour may be less pronounced because of the tousled coat.
The wire hair coat should be hand-plucked on average twice a year
Preferred, permissible, undesirable and disqualifying are FCI’s own words about the breed. They describe what the standard asks for — not an assessment of any individual dog, and not ours.
Base colour
Brindle
Shortened from FCI standard n°223 — each label is the standard’s own wording with the verdict lifted into the tag beside it. Read the full clause at source.
What a judge marks the Dutch Shepherd Dog down for, and what puts one out of the ring, in the registry’s own words. This describes the breed standard — it is not a checklist for the animal in front of you, and a pet with a disqualifying fault is an unshowable dog rather than an unhealthy one.
Puts an animal out of the ring altogether.
FCI divides the Dutch Shepherd Dog into these varieties, listed in the registry's own words. Depending on the breed they separate colour, coat, size or line — they are not a full list of colours, which no registry we hold publishes. Ask a breeder which variety their line is.
Breed-level information from The Dog API. It describes the Dutch Shepherd Dog in general; any individual animal can differ.
No breed-specific health panel has been written up for the Dutch Shepherd Dog on this platform yet. That is a gap in our records, not a clean bill of health — ask the breeder which hereditary conditions their lines are tested for, and ask to see the results for both parents, dated and from a named laboratory.
This is where Dutch Shepherd Dog owners’ own photographs will go, from the pet profiles they keep here. Nobody has added one to a public page yet.
A photograph in a pet profile stays private to its owner. We will not put one here unless they ask us to.
No Dutch Shepherd Dog breeder has a record on this platform yet, so there is nothing to list. That is a gap in our coverage, not a fact about the breed.
