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Belgian Shepherd Dog Association of Finland |
In 1971 there were 26 Belgian Shepherd Dogs in Finland. The only breeder at that time was Ulla Tikkanen (kennel Of Nocturno) who later became an honorary member of our association. It was primarily her and a few other dog enthusiast's idea to establish an association in Finland. The constitutive meeting was held on the 24th of May, 1971, and was attended by eight members.
In 1973 the club became a member association of the Finnish Kennel Club. Belgian Shepherd Dogs have belonged to the working breed group since 1977, and after that it became possible for our association to develop and expand various dog activities. From the beginning of 1995 we have been an independent breed club in the Finnish Kennel Club.
The aim of our association is to inform the public about our breed, to improve the quality of the breed, and to act as a link between the Belgian Shepherd Dog owners and breeders. The domicile of the association is Helsinki and the sphere of activities covers whole Finland. The annual general meetings are held twice a year, in March and in November. The association is under the management of eight board members.
There is some information of the Belgian Shepherd Dogs in Finland from the years 1925-1927, but the first planned imports took place in the 1950's. The breeding programs started with the Groenendael and the next variety was the Tervueren. The number of registerations was quite low until Finland opened the borders to Central Europe in the 1980's. It became easier to import dogs from Central Europe and the number of registerations started to increase. Nowadays the varieties in the order of popularity are the Tervueren, the Groenendael, the Malinois and the Laekenois.
Number of registerations since 1990
| 1990 | 1991 | 1992 | 1993 | 1994 | 1995 | 2000 | 2005 | |
| Groenendael | 170 | 210 | 270 | 224 | 214 | 146 | 152 | 141 |
| Laekenois | 8 | 22 | 11 | 9 | 10 | 12 | 0 | 1 |
| Malinois | 15 | 13 | 26 | 50 | 56 | 54 | 104 | 121 |
| Tervueren | 214 | 238 | 296 | 370 | 445 | 373 | 219 | 218 |
| Total | 407 | 483 | 545 | 699 | 735 | 653 | 475 | 481 |
One of the focal points in our club's activities is to maintain, or improve, the health of our breed. A large number of Finnish dogs have been examined and we have a lot of detailed information about our dogs.
For example, the percentage of health examined dogs with HD-free hips at present is 91.3%, and with healthy eyes 96.7%. We have also conducted a survey to obtain information about seizures in the Belgian Shepherd Dogs in Finland. The result was that 9.6% of our dogs have had a seizure and it seems to be most common among the Groenendaels. All of the health information is registered in our computer database, and the information is available for all the breeders and other club members via the breeding committee and local clubs.
One can join the association either as an ordinary member or a family member. Lifetime members are not accepted any more, and honorary members are separately accepted by the annual general meetings.
The development of the association membership is represented by the following figures:
1980 1985 1990 1991 1992 1993 1994 1995
Ordinary members 142 341 833 1008 1243 1538 1646 1851
Family members 58 121 258 311 384 426 444 425
Honorary members 1 1 1 1 1 1 1 2
Lifetime members 3 3 3 3 3 3 3 2
Members in total 204 466 1095 1323 1631 1968 2094 2280
Versatile and active local clubs and regional groups are responsible for local activities in our association. Local clubs work under the rules of the main association. At the moment there are five local clubs and several less official regional groups. The local clubs offer a wide range of activities from dog training to club meetings.
The Belgian Shepherd Dog Association of Finland deals with all breeding inquiries, gives breeding advice to breeders, collects and gives information related to breeding, organizes training events for breeders, members of the association and judges. The breeding committee was established in 1973. In 1993 new members were nominated for the committee and a new, more efficient operations model was prepared. At present there are over 200 active Finnish breeders who have registered Belgian Shepherd Dogs. It is typical for Finnish breeders to breed in a small scale. The commitee has an adp-system which helps searching and analysing the needed information.
The Belgian Shepherd Dog is a working breed and that is why one of the main aims of the association is to encourage dog owners to participate in working trials. That way the association gets information of the working ability of the dogs. In Finland we have many different possibilities for working trials: Tracking, Search, IPO, Skijouring, the two national trials, the Message Dog trial and the General trial, plus SAR.
Special breed championship competitions have been arranged since 1987, and nowadays they are held annually in the working trials, Obedience and Agility. Special training camps have been organized annually since 1977.
About 20% of the Belgian Shepherd Dogs in Finland have participated in different trials.
The association encourages its members to temperament test their dogs. These tests are organized by the Finnish Kennel Club. Our dogs have been tested in large numbers since 1977, and practically all breeding dogs have been tested. Since 1994 it has even been possible to attend a temperament test especially designed for Belgian Shepherd Dogs. About 30% of our dogs have taken the tests and about 75% of those passed it.
The major event of our association is the annual breed speciality that has been arranged since 1985. In 1993 a new entry record was made when over 600 Belgian Shepherd Dogs attended the speciality. We believe that this 1993 show was one of the largest Belgian Shepherd Dog specialities in the whole world.
About 70% of our dogs participate at least once in a dog show and 80% of those get the first price.
The association publishes a newsletter called "Belgianpaimenkoirat" six times a year. In addition to this, the association sells publications dealing with dog care, training and breeding, as well as a large anniversary publication "15 years of Belgian Shepherd Dogs". We are currently working on the new 25 year anniversary publication. The association also publishes an annual year book in which all show and competition results are reported.
Some contact persons
See the board of management for this year.
Note! You will find the names of all the other board members and members of the breeding commitee and other key contact persons in our newsletter. We send our newsletter free to all clubs which also send us a copy of their own newsletter.
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