Appenzeller Sennenhund - Appenzeller Mountain Dogs

The
Appenzeller Sennenhund
.-/
(SbePfierd--dog)
caf//e..
rhe Appenzeller' is an esthetically beautiful,
likeable and clean dog. And of course, to
. each Appenzeller shephard dog belongs the
traditional original brass and leather collar,
hand-made in Appenzell with scenes of the
alpine-life.
caddieThe Appenzeller Sennenhund (Sh~rd-dog)
Breeding and Distribution
In earlier times the original breeding-region for the Appenzeller was, how
could it be different, the Appenzell. But today it is bred in different places, all
over Switzerland. We now find more and more breeders in foreign countries
too, especially in the Netherlands and in Germany, where there are some good
breeders who buy superb dogs from Switzerland to strengthen their breeding
program. This makes us wonder, because the basis for breeding in Switzerland
is very small, and these Appenzeller-dogs could be used just as much here.
Now as before 95% of the breeders in Switzerland are farmers. In the Netherlands and in Germany it's just the opposite, one only finds 5% of the breeders
to be farmers. It is interesting that with this race there are no professionals,
just convinced hobby-breeders of the Appenzeller who have done their best to
maintain this still natural and healthy race right up to now.
Correctly bred pups with SKG-pedigree and with the necessary vaccination are
given to their future owners no younger than 10 weeks old, at a price of
CHF 1000.--. Breeding dogs are then judged according to strict regulations and
rules through "exterior"-judges and other experts before they are accepted for
breeding. For example the character of these dogs is tested. Weak characters
will not be accepted for breeding.
Appenzeller dogs, which are HD-free or where there is suspicion of HD-(grade'
A + B) are allowed to pair freely. With pairing, one of the partners must be HDfree, whereas the other one is allowed to show slight HD (grade C). By strict
rules and careful breeding one tries to keep the HD-problem under control.
Of course the exterior plays an important role too. Altogether one can say, that
only good "breeding-material" is chosen and will be used. The demand for
Appenzeller is increasing and at the moment is bigger than the supply. Today
they are spread over the whole of Europe, mainly in the Netherlands, Germany,
Austria, France, Belgium and Denmark. But they are also becoming more and
more appreciated in the USA and in South America.
Character
Intensive breeding was carried out right from the beginning, when the desired
characteristic qualities of the Appenzeller were set through a very careful
selection. As their use was of great importance right from the beginning one
could say that the Appenzeller impresses much more with his intelligence than
with his exterior appearance. The Appenzeller has a very strong and impulsive
group-instinct and becomes very attached to his master, his family, the house or
the farm. He becomes very dependent and is grateful for every sig,n of attention,
he also likes to join the children and women. Wagging his tail he can express
his joy and his liveliness, and at times his even vivacious temperament is fully
recognizable. One should therefore never keep the Apenzeller in a kennel (lr
on chains. He needs total overview so that he can keep his territory under control.
Thanks to his excellent observation-ability and his incredible adabtability he is
able to communicate with his master easily. He observes his master's features
and gestures very carefully and he normally recognizes and understands whether
his behaviour is right or not. The Appenzeller accepts the dominance of his
master (leader of the pack) and is relatively easy to breed and to educate.
Nevertheless, from time to time he tries to break out of his subordination.
Short orders are then usually enough to make him obey again. Punishment is
very seldom necessary. Without being too sensitive he can not easily bear hard
punishment. If he is treated badly, without love and kept away from the family life,
he becomes shy and there is the possibility that he may start to snap. It is no
good being astonished in this case when even a friendly approach gets answered
by a snarl or a growl. His incredible temperament in his youth (up to 5 years) then
turns, with age, into a certain quietness and calmness.
A further characteristic which is connected with his original life on remote farms
is his healthy mistrust towards all strangers and therefore his distinct and strong
guarding instinct. At a certain distance he barks incorruptibly at strangers in his
territory, and although he does not want to be involved in a direct fight, he
certainly doesn't lack courage nor the necessary aggressiveness and sharpness.
His biggest strength lies more in his speed and in his agility, also in the extremely
clever way that he dodges, and then he uses his short, fast snapping-ability, an
attacking-method he learnt from being in company with the far superior horned
cattle.
cacld/f2.
The guardian instinct is, as with all the 8Mepherd-eogs, a very characteristic·
quality of the Appenzeller. Each animal is a part of his pack and it is important
for him to show his authority in order to keep his social position. This is in-born
behaviour and deeply seated in his inhereted instinct. When this is missing it is
not possible anymore to compensate it through training. Apart from that the
Appenzeller is very willing to work, has great endurance, and he is very versatile.
As soon as he realizes that he can come into action he gets very excited, starts
to whine in his own way, starts to excitedly walk backwards and forwards and
jumps up at his master happily. Thanks to his incredible power of observation
he is predestined to be an excellent driving dog. Most of the time he is able to
sense· instinctively the behaviour of each individual animal in the herd and
therefore often reacts before-hand when an animal tries to go its own way.
With regard to care and feeding, the Appenzeller is easily satisfied and modest.
A simple shelter, a place of his own, is good enough as long as he is able to go
in and out at all times and from where he has a good overview of his territory.
Very often the Appenzeller chooses this place himself. In general one can say
that with correct breeding and care the Appenzeller is not a problematic animal
at all. Nevertheless he only fits with owners who respect his own character and
who are able to give him the necessary work and exercise.
His place of work
"The Appenzeller farmer breeds only with thoroughly healthy material. What
could not work, walk, run, hunt, bark the whole day long in all kinds of weather
and could not stay watchful throughout the night was eliminated". These words
from a kynologist say a lot about the high demands which the Appenzeller has
to fulfil.
In his original field of activity - the farm - he is normally still kept as a cattledriving dog and farm watchdog. He has the most varied tasks, he helps moving
the cattle in and out of the cow-shed, especially oxen, pigs and sometimes the
poultry too. He does a marvellous job driving the cattle to the pasture and back
again and guarding them making work much easier for the farmer in the valley
as well as for the shepherd on the alps. Usually the Appenzeller barks while he
drives the animals.
If an animal of the herd doesn't keep up or wants to go its own way, he instinctively pinches it with his incisors in the area of its hind foot or on its nostrils,
whereby he is able to avoid the sometimes very energetic defence reactions with
his versatility. He never goes as far as fighting, but simply does not give up until
he has achieved his goal. This very fast snapping is known as "stinging". Stinging
is done skilfully directly under the pastern-joint because, higher up, the dog can
be hurt more easily through a hard kick. If this happens once, which is very rare,
the dog then avoids the animal which he sees as more superior to him, and the
other cows notice this quite quickly and therefore lose the necessary respect.
There are lots of reports about the skill of the Appenzeller. That he knows each'
ox of a herd of 40 to 50' animals or brings back a cow called by the shepherd by
its name is unlikely. But it is possible that a good driving-dog can separate two
mixed up herds within a short time with the help of the specific herd-smell.
That the Appenzeller is master of a herd of 20 bulls and a herd of 100 and more
.animals on the highway is not exaggerated at all.
As already mentioned, the Appenzeller is predestined to be an excellent house
and farm watchdog. Besides this he is used more and more nowadays as a
common utility-dog, as he has an ideal size (up to 58 cm instep-height), has an
enormous staying-power and is willing to work.
The Swiss Association for Emergency Dogs has already had good experience
in disaster areas abroad with him, and the Appenzeller also is being used more
more as an escort-, as protection-, as avalanche rescue-dog and as a tracking
dog.
Summary
The support and maintenance of this exceptional race with excellent hereditary
disposition, the exterior race-standards as well as the expansion of the breedingbase is regarded as the goal, according to the new breeding-definitions. It should
therefore be definite and clear that breeders of today have to pay special
attention to improvements of the existing standard types. Fundamental changes
of the standard are therefore unlikely and will not be necessary. Just as in
the year of 1910 there are also discussions going on nowadays about the best
size of the Appenzeller. At that time it was recognised that the margin of ten
centimeters, which means between 48 and 58 centimeters, is satisfactory. Even
today there are no valid reasons to make alterations.
For training, the sporting-dog lover would of course prefer these dogs which are
on the upper border of the allowed size, whereas for other purposes the size is
not so important. Even if the Appenzeller is kept to his original tasks it is still of
advantage for this race if more and more dogs are trained for other purposes too.
Through this the aspired expansion of the breeding-base will be reached much
more easily.
As long as the ease of use of the Appenzeller continues to be regarded as
fundamental, he is predestined to be an allrounder, as he is, more than any other
dog, able to do any kind of work with his bright and joyoful eagerness to learn.
The famous kynologist Ferd. Schmutz writes in his interesting book "My dog"
the following: lilt has been proven for a long time that the Appenzeller is not only
qualified to move and protect cattle. The fact that the shepherd on remote alps·
is much more able to improve and encourage the relationship between human
beings and animals had the effect that the learning capacity of the Appenzeller
is much better than that of lots of other dogs".
That is why it is possible to teach him other tasks too, and I have no doubt at
all that with his tremendous physical ability the Appenzeller is able to work as
a Red-Cross-dog, as guard-dog, tracking-dog, even as an avalanche rescuedog (which has already been proven in the meantime) just as reliably as other
representatives of the so called "service" dogs.
Luckily, right up to this day, the Appenzeller has not been influenced by any
fashion trend, and he still has been able to win his place in kynology. This is
the reason why buyers are also mainly experts of this race. These buyers are
usually farmers or people of the higher social class, such as doctors, directors,
employers, businessmen etc., who live in detached houses with large gardens.
In such surroundings and if he is considered as a family member the Appenzeller
is happy his whole life long (10 to 15 years) and fulfils his duties reliably. Those
. who live in appartments, in towns or elsewhere in crowded or tight conditions,
and are interested in Appenzeller-dogs, are not recommended to buy one.
In the name of the founding members of the Appenzeller dog-club it is our
pleasant duty to continue in our work in order to keep this natural race from
irrational breeding so that the coming generation is able to have their joy with this
very original, loyal and faithful dog.
FCI-standardno. 46 Appenzeller Sennenhund
Origin: Switzerland
Date of Publication
of the valid
Forehead-incline:
original
8.4.1993
pronounced
standards:
Used as:
Hunting-, g arding-, watch-dog,
house- and farm dog . Today a very
versatile w rking- and also family
dog.
Fel classif cation:
Group 2: (P'ncher and "Schnauzer",
"Molosser" nd Swiss shepherd. dogs). Seeton 3: (Swiss shepherddogs) witho t adaptability-test.
Appearanc
:
Three-color d, average-size, almost
square-built dog, all in a harmonious
balance, m scular, with a lively facial
expression.
Important
roportions:
Height of wi hers in proportion to
body-length = 9: 10, rather short than
long, length of snout towards the
upper head = 4:5.
Behaviour, character:
Lively, full 0 temperament, selfconfident, f arless. Slightly distrustful
towards str ngers; incorruptible
guard, happ ,eager to learn.
Head:
Proportion t body harmonious,
slightly wedge-shaped.
Upper head: Rather flat, widest
between the ears, narrowing evenly
towards the snout. Forehead-wrinkle:
moderately developed.
Not much
.
Facia/ skull: Cheeks hardly
pronounced
Snout: Average strength, narrowing
evenly, with a strong lower jaw,
nasal bone straight.
Nose: On the black dog: black;
on the havana-brown dog: brown
(possibly dark).
Flews Oips): Dry and close, on
the black dog black; on the havanabrown dog brown (possibly dark)
colored.
Teeth: Powerful, complete and even,
incisors (cisor-teeth); pincer-teeth
tolerated. A missing or double PM 1
(premolars 1) and missing M3
(molars 3) tolerated.
Eyes: Fairly small, almond-shaped,
not protruding, situated slightly
oblique towards the nose, expression
lively.
C%r: With the black dog darkbrown, brown; with the havana-brown
dog, lighter brown, but as dark as
possible.
Eyelids: Close, with the black dog
black; with the havana brown dog
brown (possibly dark) colored.
Ears: Positioned fairly high and
broad, hanging, in resting position
flat and close against the cheecks;
triangular, on the top slightly rounded.
When attentive, ears entirely lifted
up and directed to the front, so that
looking from the front and from
above, a noticeable triangle is formed
with head and ears.
Neck:
Hindlegs:
Length average, powerful, dry.
In general: Muscular, seen from
the back: straight and parallel,
not too narrow.
Body:
Powerful, compact
Back: Moderately long, firm and
straight
Croup: Short, continuing straight
on from the back.
Breast: Broad, deep, reaching
right to the elbow, with a distinct
prothorax, breast-bone curving
backwards. Rib-cage round-oval
cross-section.
Loins: Short and muscular.
Belly: Slightly pulled up after chest.
Tail: High, powerful, of average-size,
very hairy, hair on lower part a little
longer. When moving, rolled closely
over the croup, held at the side or in
the middle.
Limbs:
Powerfully-built
bones.
Foreleg:
In general: Muscular, posture seen
from the front: straight and parallel,
not too narrow.
Shoulder: Shoulder-blade long and
oblique.
Upper arm: Just as long, or just
slightly shorter than the shoulderblade. Angle towards the shoulderblade not too flat.
Elbow close.
Forearm: Straight, dry
Forefoot: Seen from the front:
continued straight towards the
forearm; seen from the side:
slightly angled.
Paws: Short, arched and closed.
Thigh: Fairly long, open angle
towards the shank, harmonic
proportion to the angle of the foreleg.
Shank: About the same length, or
only slighty shorter than the thigh,
angle towards the thigh not too
obtuse. Dry and muscular.
Ankle-joint: Relatively highly
positioned.
Rear-metatarsal: Vertical and
parallel, neither pointed inwards
nor outwards. Dewclaws (false foot)
must be removed.
Paws: Short, arched and closed.
Gait:
Powerful forward motion, powerful
gait. When walking fast seen from
the front and from behind: straight
limb-structure.
Hair:
Shorter hair compact and close.
Quality of hair: Protective hair dense
and shiny. Hair below dense, black,
brown or grey, translucency of the
hair below not accepted. Slightly
wavy hair only tolerated on withers
and back, but undesirable.
Color and markings: Basic-color
black or havana-brown, with
symmetrical, rusty-brown and white
marks. Little rusty-brown spots over
the eyes. Rusty-brown marks also
on cheeks, on chest (left and right,
in the area of the shoulder and upper
arm-joint), and on legs, whereby the
rusty-brown color should always be
between the black, havana-brown
and white.
White markings: We\\ visible, white
blaze, reaching continuously from
the upper head to the nasal bone,
could cover snout totally or partly.
White from the chin over throat
without break right to the chest.
White on all four paws.
White on the on tip of tail. White
patch on neck or half a ring around
neck tolerated. Continuous, small,
white ring around neck tolerated,
but undesired.
Size:
Height of withers male dog:
52-56 em, tolerance 50-58 em,
Height of withers female dog:
50-54 em, tolerance 48-56 em.
Faults:
Each deviation of the beforementioned points has to be looked
at as physical disfigurement. This
judgment has to be in relation to the
degree of deviation and must take
into consideration how far the basis
has been affected.
- lack of sexual characteristic
- under- and oversize (in relation
to declarations of tolerance)
- very long or not a harmonious
.body
- a very heavy or a very light head
- a round upper head
- a too pronounced forehead incline
- too long; too short, thin or pointed.
snout; flat snout
- too strongly developed flews
- missing of more than one PM 1
(premolars 1)
- frontal and rear jaw
- -too strongly protruding cheeks
- round, protruding or too light eyes
- entropium, ectropium
~ ears too sma\\, too big, standing
out; too high or too low ears
- back positioned downwards
- back arched upwards
- hip higher than shoulder-area
- stomach pulled up after chest
- flat or barrelled rib cage, missing
prothorax, too short breast-bone.
- soft foreleg-joints
- longish-oval paws (rabbit-paws),
spread-out toes
- elbows pointed outwards
- insufficient angle of the foreleg
and/or of the hind leg
- X-shaped legs
- tail bent like a sickle
- incorrect movement, for example,
short-stepped, low gait, cross-wise
and so on.
- marking-mistakes: black spots in
the white, non-uniform blaze,
continuous broad white ring around
the neck, split white on the chest,
distinct white heels reaching
clearly over the root of the forefoot,
missing white on the paws or on
the tip of the tail.
- weakness of appearance, lacking
vivacity, aggressiveness
Faults excluded from the
evaluation:
- blue eyes
- tail clearly hanging down
- tail bent
- other type of hair than short hair
- lack of three-coloring
- different color than black or havana
brown
Please note:
Male dogs have to have two
obviously normally-developed
testicles which are situated
completely inside the scrotum.