Carl Erik (one part of kennel Chacami) was given the choice between the last two male puppies in this litter from Bjarkarima Fricco and Opale de la Quiévre, who Tina Kralund had imported from Norman Deschuymere in Belgium. Carl Erik chose the little one... Loke, who moved to the north-western part of Denmark in July, 1993.

Loke, very fast, turned out to be an extraordinary dog, which everyone who has met him probably will be willing to confirm. Not only had he the best character that you can find with a Belgian Shepherd; he also had a lot of succes in every discipline that he and Carl Erik took part in.

In 1996, when I, Charlotte Rebekka (the other part of kennel Chacami, later Team-Ami), bought my first and long-wanted Tervuren, the rumours of Loke's achievements had reached Zealand, so I wanted a puppy sired by Loke, which I found with kennel Susmik in 1996. This puppy and the lovely dog, he turned out to be, sealed my love for the breed, and helped me to set the standard for my breeding goals for the Belgian Shepherd. Finally, it led to that Carl Erik and I met each other, which a few years later developed into a partnership.

Meanwhile, Carl Erik and Loke attended numerous competitions and exhibitions in Denmark and abroad. On one exhibition in the Czech Republic, Norman Deschuymere and Anny De Prez from Belgium were judges, and Loke was Best of Breed Tervuren and Best in Show, ie. the best Belgian Shepherd Dog at the exhibition. When Carl Erik sat and relaxed a little after the show, Anny De Prez came marching over to him, and asked: "What do you call your dog?" Which she was told, and then she took Loke's leash and marched off with him ... Anny came back and delivered Loke to an astonished Carl Erik; she just thought that Deschuymere should have the opportunity to look at him. It was on that occasion, Anny decided that she would use Loke for breeding with her female Lubanja's Udala.

An exchange of letters between Anny and Carl Erik followed, which led to that Carl Erik in 1998 drove Loke to Belgium for the mating with Udala. The results of this relationship were three puppies, Zultan, Zippy and Zara, and further study trips to Belgium for Carl Erik and Rebekka and subsequently also Boeje (kennel Coeur-Ami) several times a year, where we stayed with Anny and her husband, Marcel, and their 10 Groenendael and Tervuren. Here we could note that it is possible to find more Belgian Sheepdogs with many of the same excellent qualities, that Loke possessed. We also noted that if we really wanted to learn about the breed and develop our own breeding, we certainly had come to the right people.

Both Anny and Marcel have been involved and committed in everything regarding Belgian Shepherd dogs most of their lives. They have ceased as active breeders under their kennel-affix Lubanja's, which means "a nice place to be living". The last two litters Groenendaels and Tervurens was born in July 2002 and February 2003. Both Anny and Marcel have worked actively with Groenendaels, Tervurens, Malinois, and Anny had a Laekenois as playmate when she was a child. Anny has trained a Malinois for service dog for a disabled man, and both Anny and Marcel have trained people and dogs in obedience, tracking, defense work and served as trial judges and organizers of contests. Anny is out judging as a trial judge, agility judge, sociality-test, "the working test of the Belgian Shepherds" or approved conformation judge almost every weekend the whole year round. She has been chair-woman in the Belgian Club for Belgian Shepherd dogs and has for years been in the breeding council at the club. Anny was with Norman Deschuymere, Yves Dambrain, Lebon Regis and Abel Renard promoter for a major symposium (session) in Belgium in 1998 for conformation judges and specialists regarding the correct interpretation of the standard of the breed. A major reason for this symposium was that too many judges sentenced the dogs' conformation substantially different than the text of the standard prescribes, with the result that too many breeders focused on part of the exterior of the dogs, which were not correct in relation to the standard of the breed.
Anny is also a member of a small group of people who gather evidence and write articles of interest for lovers of the breed, particularly regarding health in the breeding of the Belgian Shepherd.

To the left, Anny is visiting in Denmark to see Lubanja's Vision's puppies from our F-litter, and Marcel stands with Chana Z Kovárny, Qreole de la Quiévre (Loke's half sister & Vision's & Yvor's mother & Dione's grandmother), Quiette van Hof Ter Brughe (Bunny's grandmother) and Lubanja's Undine (Bunny's mom).

Anny and Marcel have through countless hours of conversation, studies of pedigrees and trips out to look at the dogs with Belgian breeders helped us to learn about the different kennels in Belgium, the dog's ancestors and diseases and finally helped us to find the breeding dogs, that possesed the qualities that we wanted to build our breeding base on. This relationship, the respect we got for Anny and Marcel, and the deep friendship, our common love for the Belgian Shepherd dog evolved into, has undoubtedly been invaluable for us and for our understanding of the breed and our understanding of what quality, you should try to focus on, if you want to breed for - in the eyes of the Belgian people - a great Belgian Shepherd dog. All our visits in Belgium has also brought several friends from the world of breeders. And resulted in an import per. 2012 of 23 Belgian Shepherd dogs by us to Denmark. Most of theses dogs were imported from Belgium but we have also imported dogs from Holland, the Czech Republic and France.

Above, you see Anny & Marcel with Chacami Izola Blue (17 months), Lubanja's Blue Bunny (4 years), Quiette van Hof ter Brughe (14 years) & Lubanja's Undine (10 years). These four females are respectively: daughter, mother, grandgrandmother and grandmother - four generations of Groenendael. Anny and Marcel have followed this bloodline further three generations behind Quiette to Frika van de Wilgentronk, born in the late 1970s. Bunny's litter (Belgica, Brava, BunnyBlue & Birger) is made of frozen semen from a fantastic male born in 1980, Reig des Trois Réserves, and therefore the pups from this litter offer many of the old Belgian qualities of this variant, among others strength in character and physics, good health and excellent breed-type.

Groenendael, we would probably never have started to breed, if we hadn't been allowed to adopt Lubanja's BunnyBlue from Anny and Marcel's last litter of Groenendaels. As the owner of kennel de la Quiévre, Norman Deschuymere said about Bunny and Izola in 2006: "The Groenendael need females of this type because they have the strength and size, which the breed too often is lacking, and still these females have retained their femininity. "

Today, we are extremely happy that we did adopt Bunny, for this one dog has proved to be of a quality, that we never would have achieved without her in our breeding-program. Also, we were so lucky in 2008 to have four Tervurens from the daughter of Bunny, which have made it possible for us to carry the excellent qualities of this blood-line on in our Tervuren breeding too.

In the Scandinavian countries, there is much talk about working dogs contra exhibition dogs. According to the original intentions in the making of the Belgian Shepherd dog, this distinction is not possible because a good Belgian Shepherd must have both the physical and mental strength, instincts and willingness to cooperate and at the same time, according to the breed standard, a correct conformation. A Belgian Shepherd dog is simply not a Belgian Shepherd dog, unless it contains both qualities (power/brains as well as beauty). This is supported by the fact that a Belgian Shepherd dog in the homeland of the breed only can become a Belgian Champion, if he or she within one year does a so-called CQN, which is a test of obedience as well as tracking or defense and also achieves two certificates (CAC) or international certificates (CACIB) for two different conformation judges. These requirements ensure that the breed in the home country should meet the original objectives of the breed while the achievement of a Belgian Championship is a seal of quality on the dog.

Paradoxical that we in Denmark have no requirements for the dogs to pass a test (or possibly a mentality test) to become a Danish Champion, especially when the breed belongs to the working dogs group. Such a requirement could probably contribute to the Belgian Shepherd dog today not only was bred for conformation, but also for performance and work.

Should we try to describe our conclusion on the many dogs, we have seen and the things we've learned, it is described briefly in "breeding goals", but we would like to expand it here.

We strive to breed the "whole dog", ie. to integrate a super psyche and a correct conformation according to the breed standard.
A dog, that legitimately can be described as a working dog that is cooperative and responsive to his or her owner, self-confident and mentally strong. The dog should be able to withstand whatever happens around him or her, and should preferably be responding to it, but should also be able to overcome the event again and move forward, a little in the direction of a cork in water. The dog must be observant and react with defense, if there are real threats facing the family, otherwise he or she should be cheerful, inquisitive, curious and friendly - but not necessarily submissive - towards strangers, when they are friendly towards the dog. Furthermore, the dog should be sociable to other dogs and animals and balanced in everything he or she does.

Our ideal of exterior of a Belgian Shepherd

The examples of our ideals of exterior, are Bjarkarima Loke to the right, and his son Chacami Azlan, to the left.

Above the Groenendaels Evi van't Sparrebos & Boetsch de Bruine Buck, who is the grandfather of Evi.

Our ideal of exterior is a compact, powerful and elegant dog, where you clearly see the difference between a male and a female. Medium to big sized, squarely built with a strong and straight back, a deep chest and a straight croup with a well set medium to long tail (which in motion may be carried above the back-line, as this signals a confident dog). The dog should be well angulated in both shoulders and hindquarters, and have ground covering, flowing movements, he or she must have a coat of medium length and good density with a thick undercoat. Regarding the color of Tervuren, we prefer the silver-grey or deep red with a good mask and little charbonnage (tips of black on the coat). The color of the Groenendael, we prefer blueish-black.

The examples above from the left: Bjarkarima Loke, Lubanja's Udala, Evi van't Sparrebos & O.U. Bandit of Dark Brightness.

The head should be roughly equally long in the relationship between skull and muzzle, skull and muzzle should be parallel with each other, the ears should be well-set or high-set and small to medium of size, the eyes should be dark and have the typical inquisitive and smart expression of the breed.

Should we get a little into what we do not like to see in the Belgian shepherd dog, it's primarily dogs with bad temperaments, which for us is a dog who is overly stubborn and uncooperative or anxious, stressed and scared with his or hers tail between the legs and an anxious expression, as we are aware that these features quickly may end up in fear-related aggression. We are neither fond of dogs, who are mentally sharp, which have a tendency to accelerate when the dog feels threatened.

Also, we are not so fond of male dogs that are too feminine, dogs that are too finely built, and thus lack the dog's ideal aura of physical strength, dogs with falling croups (á la German Shepherds), of steep angulation of the shoulder or hindquarters, of tripping steps, of overly long and silky fur, of long toes and narrow heads, which don't allow the dog to have a normal-sized brain, and finally we do not like Belgian Shepherds, who has too much resemblance to the Scottish Collie (overly long, straight nose, no stop and excessive hair), the German Shepherd (broad, heavy nose, too much stop and round skull) or having resemblances of breeds as Pit Bull Terrier, Rottweiler and the like (lack of undercoat, yellow eyes, atypical ears and head).

Strongly inspired by Anny and Marcel's unconditional honesty and integrity, we strive first and foremost to be open, self critical and honest and take the consequences of the things we learn and believe we can do better - while still honouring our overall goals of our breeding. We strive to be honest with our buyers and with other breeders. Therefore, we have published our litter registration, and we are honest about the advantages and disadvantages of our males for breeding, even if this results in lack of matings from time to time.

We are convinced that the honest way is the only way forward towards a long-term improvement and preservation of our great breed. And we hope it is (or might become) the overall target for anyone who wants to breed, whether the breeding is aimed at Belgian Shepherd dogs or any other breed.