KENAI
Dutch Shepherd

The breeds · herding

AKC Miscellaneous · UKC Herding · FCI standard 223

Dutch Shepherd.

FCI 223 utilization: companion dog and sheepdog; Group 1 Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs, Section 1 Sheepdogs, with working trial. FCI history: originally a countryside shepherd; from about 1900, with sheep flocks largely gone, it became a police dog, a search and tracking dog and a guide dog for the blind, and it can still herd. UKC: originally a sheepdog and general-purpose farm dog; now also a companion and guard dog. ADSA: a jack-of-all-trades dog; used by the Dutch Army before the Second World War. AKC breed page: lively, athletic, alert and intelligent, with its herding instinct intact..

Breed sets the odds. The parents set the dog. Every number here shows its source, its spread and how sure we are. Nothing on this page is a prediction about one dog.

0INHeightdogs null, bitches null. An ideal from the standard, not a range.
42–88LBWeight, all linesbreed 42 to 88 lb.

The body

What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.

Height at the shoulder

dogs 21.5 to 24.5 in · bitches 21.5 to 24.5 in

Breed clubUnited Kennel Club

Female row spans UKC, ADSA, FCI 223 and the AKC page (breed-wide range counted in both sex rows).

Weight

42 to 88 lb

Breed clubAKC

Registry weight comes from the AKC breed page only. Low and high span the AKC page (42 to 75 lb) and both Wikipedia figures (text 50 to 70 lb, infobox 66 to 88 lb). The infobox disagrees with its own text, but by ordinary amounts, so it counts in the span (show every source; the Oct 9 amendment is for sharp conflicts).

Coat

FCI 223 and UKC: three varieties, short, long and wire (UKC: rough) haired, each over a woolly undercoat. Short: quite hard, close fitting. Long: long, straight, harsh, no curls or waves, feathering on the backs of the forelegs, no fringes on the ears. Wire/rough: dense, harsh, tousled, with eyebrows, moustache and beard. The wire coat is hand-plucked about twice a year (FCI 223 and ADSA standard). Colour: brindle only, golden or silver ground (golden from light sand to chestnut red); a black mask is preferred. AKC breed page: shedding level 3 of 5, coat grooming frequency 2 of 5 (AKC bands, not mapped). ADSA: the rough coat is the rarest of the three; brindle is often lost in its tousled coat.

Breed clubFCI-Standard N° 223, 2019

Shedding

Shedding 3 of 5 (AKC breed page trait score)

Breed clubAKC

AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.

Heat tolerance

3 of 5 · FCI 223: short hair hard, close fitting, not too short, with woolly undercoat, ruff, breeches and tail plume; long hair long, straight, harsh, with woolly undercoat; wire hair dense, harsh, tousled over a woolly dense undercoat. UKC: the same three coats over a woolly undercoat.

DerivedFCI-Standard N° 223, 2019

Derived from the coat (medium double coat = 3). The short-haired variety sits nearer 4, the long and rough varieties nearer 2 to 3. No measured data.

The dog at home

What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.

Exercise need

AKC breed page: energy level 5 of 5, mental stimulation needs 5 of 5, playfulness 4 of 5, trainability 5 of 5, watchdog/protective nature 5 of 5 (AKC 1-5 bands). FCI 223: a dog with lots of endurance, active, with persistence. UKC: plenty of stamina, vigilant, active.

Breed clubAKC

No RKC band (the breed is not on the RKC site read). AKC bands are scores printed on the breed page, not measurements.

Energy

AKC breed page: energy level 5 of 5; mental stimulation needs 5 of 5; affectionate with family 5; adaptability 4; good with other dogs 3; openness to strangers 3. UKC: may be somewhat reserved and should be well socialized. FCI 223: independent, alert, watchful; works willingly with its owner yet handles any assigned task independently. Wikipedia: very versatile farm and service dog.

Breed clubAKC

AKC trait bands are 1-5 scores, not measurements.

Grooming load

2 of 5

Breed clubAKC

AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.

The work

What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.

Role

FCI 223 utilization: companion dog and sheepdog; Group 1 Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs, Section 1 Sheepdogs, with working trial. FCI history: originally a countryside shepherd; from about 1900, with sheep flocks largely gone, it became a police dog, a search and tracking dog and a guide dog for the blind, and it can still herd. UKC: originally a sheepdog and general-purpose farm dog; now also a companion and guard dog. ADSA: a jack-of-all-trades dog; used by the Dutch Army before the Second World War. AKC breed page: lively, athletic, alert and intelligent, with its herding instinct intact.

Breed clubFCI-Standard N° 223, 2019

FCI, UKC and ADSA agree on the shepherd and farm origin and the police and service career.

Primary game

Sheep. FCI 223: the dogs kept the flock off the crops by patrolling the borders of roads and fields and accompanied flocks to common meadows, markets and ports. UKC: originally a sheepdog.

Breed clubFCI-Standard N° 223, 2019

Stock dog, not a hunting dog; the stock worked in the sources read is sheep, then cattle on the farm.

Also used on

FCI 223: kept hens out of the kitchen garden, herded the cows together for milking, pulled milk carts, alerted the farmer to strangers; later police, search and tracking, guide dog for the blind. ADSA: obedience, dog sports, herding, tracking, search and rescue, police and occasionally service work; army service before the Second World War. Wikipedia: also used in the Second World War.

Breed clubFCI-Standard N° 223, 2019

Search pattern

Patrolling and tending style. FCI 223: keeps the flock off the crops by patrolling road and field borders; independent, deals on its own with any assigned task; when herding larger flocks it must work with several other dogs. UKC and ADSA: a typical shepherd temperament, vigilant, active.

Breed clubFCI-Standard N° 223, 2019

No source read classifies the style as gathering, driving or heeling.

Field trial standard

FCI 223 classification: Group 1 Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs, Section 1 Sheepdogs, with working trial. ADSA: the AKC accepted the breed into its Foundation Stock Service in 2012 and approved it for the Miscellaneous Class from January 1 2017. UKC shows it in the Herding Group (recognised January 1 1995).

Breed clubFCI-Standard N° 223, 2019

No herding-trial or police-trial pass statistics read.

How common the problems are

Evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock; the numbers are still the best there are.

Hip dysplasia

8.5% · 8.5% dysplastic of 1,152 OFA hip evaluations on record (current all-data, accessed Oct 9 2026); 90.2% normal; mild 5.9%, moderate 2.4%, severe 0.2%; breed rank 147 in the OFA table

MeasuredOrthopedic Foundation for Animals

Voluntary registry: affected dogs are under-reported and evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock, so true prevalence is higher.

Elbow dysplasia

7% · 7.0% abnormal of 1,017 OFA elbow evaluations on record (current all-data, accessed Oct 9 2026); 92.8% normal; grade 1 5.7%, grade 2 1.3%, grade 3 0.0%; breed rank 62 in the OFA table

MeasuredOrthopedic Foundation for Animals

Voluntary registry: affected dogs are under-reported and evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock, so true prevalence is higher.

More

akc bands

AKC breed page trait scores (1-5): Energy Level 5; Mental Stimulation Needs 5; Trainability Level 5; Barking Level 2; Watchdog/Protective Nature 5; Good With Young Children 3; Openness To Strangers 3; Good With Other Dogs 3; Shedding Level 3; Coat Grooming Frequency 2; Drooling Level 2; Affectionate With Family 5; Playfulness Level 4; Adaptability Level 4.

Breed clubAKC

Fourteen AKC bands in one row; the selector reads each by name. Breed-club ratings: a tendency, never a measurement.

What to ask a breeder for

The health clearances the breed’s own club and registry name. Reference only: what to ask for, never a statement about any dog’s health.

How to read this page

Every value carries a label. Measured means peer-reviewed data on many dogs. Studied means peer-reviewed, smaller or indirect. Breed club means a club or registry states it. Editorial means expert opinion with no measurement behind it. Where two good sources disagree, both are shown and neither is averaged.

Published when the entry rests on the best information available from no fewer than three independent sources, checked by a second pass that did not write it. 5 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.

Also called
Hollandse Herdershond, Dutch Herder, Dutchie

Every breed, read the same way.

The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.

All published breeds

Your dutch shepherd, on the record.

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