DUTCH SHEPHERDS

A GLIMPSE INTO THE RARE AND VERSATILE BREED

- Adnan Khan

A beautiful and quite rare dog breed, recently introduced to Indian dog lovers, is one to watch out for, known as Dutch Shepherd. A close cousin to the Belgian Shepherd and the German Shepherd Dog (GSD), this breed is fast gaining popularity in its second phase of life. One of my personal favourite breeds, the Dutch Shepherd is one of the very few breeds that have faced extinction and then revival for many years, which is still an ongoing process today.

I, along with a few other patrons of this breed introduced Dutch Shepherds to India. I was responsible for bringing in 4 of the formative dogs from the KNPV-Dutch Police Dog Program to India. Today, along with a few of my friends, we have almost 10 founding dogs brought in to India. Out of them, we have less than 20 puppies as progeny and we are in the very formative years of developing and introducing this breed.

Some famous personalities like MS Dhoni and Preity Zinta are proud parents of the Dutch Shepherd and it is fast picking up interest from many others. There is no doubt that it is a near complete breed with less recognition as it checks in all the points for me, be it health, looks, fitness, or temperament.

The Dutch Shepherd is currently the best breed preferred and selected by the International Police, Military, and Special forces alongside the Belgian Malinois. Hopefully, we will soon be deploying some of our Dutchies into the Indian defence forces and private security.

HISTORY