The breeds · herding
AKC Foundation Stock Service · UKC Herding · FCI standard 313
Schapendoes.
FCI 313 utilization: a herding dog used for herding flocks of sheep and still used in the same capacity; the sheep pasture lies mainly in quiet, lonely areas, so it needs great endurance, mobility and speed, a great facility for jumping, intelligence and the ability to act on its own; a true herding dog in character, body and soul. UKC: a true herding dog in character, body and soul; prized in the Netherlands around 1900 for intelligence and tireless pleasure in work. AKC breed page: a shaggy sheepdog of Holland, also known as the Dutch Sheep Dog..
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.
The body
What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.
Height at the shoulder
Low and high span all three; the AKC page prints one breed-wide band that counts in both sex rows (its 20 in high is above FCI and UKC female highs). No ideal printed, so center is blank.
Weight
One source; the AKC band is wide and breed-wide, and counts in both sex rows.
Coat
Shedding
Heat tolerance
Derived from the standard's coat description; the standard prints no heat figure. Long dense double coat reads as the heavy double / long tier, 2.
The dog at home
What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.
Exercise need
No Royal Kennel Club page exists for this breed (the RKC A to Z list holds no entry), so no exercise band in minutes is recorded.
Energy
Grooming load
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Grooming
The work
What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.
Role
Primary game
Stock worked, not game.
Also used on
Search pattern
Field trial standard
How common the problems are
Evaluated dogs skew toward breeding stock; the numbers are still the best there are.
Hip dysplasia
OFA all-data is undated and skews to breeding stock (dogs evaluated for breeding), so it may not match the pet population. Current all-data, accessed Oct 9 2026. OFA's rank for the breed is 212; the printed grades sum to 2.0 from rounding. n is small.
More
akc bands
Fourteen AKC bands in one row; the selector reads each by name. Breed-club ratings: a tendency, never a measurement.
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. 4 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.
- Also called
- Dutch Sheepdog, Dutch Sheep Dog, Nederlandse Schapendoes, Dutch Schapendoes
Every breed, read the same way.
The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.
All published breedsYour schapendoes, on the record.
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