A gobelin of Christian III, made in the end of the 1500's.
It is believed that the Broholmer is a very ancient breed.
Archaeologists have found a dog sceleton in a Viking village in Fyn, Denmark, who is of Broholmer-size
and type. It is assumed that the Vikings did bring Mastiffs from England
to Denmark and Scandinavia when they occupied the British Isles.
The common believe have been that the Vikings only had
dogs of the spitz type, but remains of tall and heavy dogs are found several places. In "Brattli", the farm of Eric the Red
in Greenland, it is been found a skeleton of a big heavy dog, while at the neighbor farms there have been found
remains of the spitz-type dogs. In the gravefind of the Gokstad Chief (Norway) there have been found 6 dogs, one of them
of large and heavy type, and in the Oseberg ship find there have been found a similar dog.
The English Mastiff in the years 800-1000 was a much fiercer animal than todays members of the breed, and it
is easy to imagine that the Mastiff appeared impressive to the Vikings, who also were fierce, compared
to the already existing Scandinavian small spitz-typed dogs. We know that the Vikings did rob with them
everything they found interesting, bringing it back to Scandinavia. A lot of the Scandinavian domesticated
animals are derivated from animals the Vikings introduced, and I truly believe, on the background of the
many dog-finds, that they did bring Molossers to Scandinavia, and that the Broholmer is the remains of these
dogs. But not the only remains, until the end of the 1800's there were a dog breed in Sweden called
"Dalbohund" (Dalbo-dog) who was a dog of true mastiff type. This dog had no relatives in Sweden and
it was told that the dog have been there as long as the people have been. Sadly this breed became extinct
in the late 1800's/early 1900's. A dog much similar to the Dalbohund, and most likely close related, were to be found
in Norway, but this breed also became extinct in the 1800's. Both these breeds was kept as flock guardians,
to guard and protect the cattle, especially against wolfs and the Scandinavian brown bear.
You can read more about the Dalbohund and its Norwegian cousin, the "Norsk Dogge", at their own pages here at Molosserworld.
Danish spiked collar, used by mastiffs hunting wolfs.
The progeny of these ancient Danish mastiffs have been crossed with German Mastiffs,
who the danish got from German Royalty several centuries later. In the seventeen century
the Danes recieved English Mastiff as presents from the British Royalty, and these English
dogs where bred to the existing Danish mastiffs.
We can find written evidence that "powerful built, strong and swift english dogs wearing spiked
collars to protect the throat, was used in the hunting of the wolfs (extinct in Denmark in the late 1700's),
arranged by the chief hunter (Jegermester)".
Since these "english dogs" was described as both powerful, strong and swift, we can safely assume that the
dogs exported from England to Denmark was of the Mastiff/Greyhound cross, a dog that has its origin
in Britain. Illustrations, as well as other descriptions, further support that this was
dogs of the Mastiff/Greyhound cross. This dog, described on the continent as "Englische dogge" never became
any popular in Britain, but when exported to Germany and Denmark this "breed" soon gained popularity as a hunting dog.
These "Englische Dogges" probably had influence on two modern breeds; they was bred into the already existing
Danish Mastiff (the Broholmer) and they also served as a breed base for the Great Dane.
The Broholmer where not only a guardian and companion at the estates and castles,
but was also used as a livestock guardian. It companied the cattle in Jylland to the market
in the big towns. This is the reason that the dog also was known as the butchers
dog. All the way up to this century, you could see a Broholmer laying in front of
the local butcher-shop in Copenhagen.
It is believed that the Broholmer also have been used on hunt for wild boar, when
these still lived in the Danish forests.
"Englische Dogge", by John E. L. Riedinger (1698-1767) of Augsburg, Germany.
Despite that the Broholmer is a breed that have existed for centuries, and was very
popular, it got rarer and rarer, like many other breeds, as time got by.
Around 1850 the Royal game-keeper Sehested decided to preserve the old
Danish dog and started a slow and expencive breeding-program. He traveled around in Denmark and
collected all Broholmers he could find.
After many years of intensive work the "experiment" was a success.
To advance the breeding of these dogs he gave puppies to people in the country as
a present - on one condition, though, that they promised to follow up the breeding.
The Broholmer got widely spread and soon they were common and appreciated
dogs.
In the old Danish dogbook "Hunden og Hunderacene", published in 1887, it is written that
the Broholmer was a common dog in Denmark, especially in Copenhagen, where the streets was full of them.
In honour of Sehested and his great effort the breed was named after his estate Broholm in
Fyn and was given the name of Broholmer.
The Broholmer was the favourite dog of the King of Denmark, Frederik, and his Dutchess Danner,
and therefore the Broholmer was also known under names like
"Frederik VII's dog" and the "Jægersprisdog".
One of the King's Broholmers, "Tyrk", was so dearly beloved that he after his
death was stuffed and placed in the Zoological Museum in Copenhagen, where
you can see him today.
"Tyrk" had a very important function for the King. About ten minutes before
bedtime the dog was sent into the bedroom, and when the King where ready
to go to bed, "Tyrk" had driven out all the ghosts off the room.
The King and the Dutchess had both a Broholmer.
The King's was always named "Tyrk" and the Dutchess's dog was named
"Holger", regardless of which sex it was.
Dutchess Danner, the King of Denmark Fredrik and the Broholmer Tyrk.
At the first danish dog-show held in the year 1886, several dog interested people,
among them members of the Sehested family and other members of the land-owning royalty,
meet with the purpose to write the standard for the Broholmer.
This is exact the same standard who where recogniced by the FCI in 1982, 96
years later. A smaller adjustment was made for the black colour, who now is
accepted as a true colour.
In 1887 the breed was recognized as a breed of the Danish game society, where it
was listed in the Danish stud-book as the Danish breed Broholmeren.
Broholmers at the Zoological Garden of Copenhagen.
Other classes of the community were also fond of the Broholmer.
One of the best and most faitful patrons of the Broholmer was without doubt the
zoological garden, -where they from 1859 to 1929 had Broholmers as part of the animal population.
A total of 200 puppies was born in the zoo over the years.
These zoo-bred Broholmers was very famous because they were used to raise
lioncubs.
About the year 1900 the tivoli-garden kept black Broholmers from the zoo-stock
and used them as night-watchdogs.
A Broholmer female at the Zoo, -giving milk to a lioncub.
Unfortunatly the Broholmer lost more and more ground. Distemper, epedemics,
inbreeding problems and the nowadays quite harmless mange led to the
destruction of many breeding animals.
The Danish Kennel Club has no registration of the breed later than 1910, but in
Danish Breed Union they have both registrations and shows of the Broholmer
until the year 1939, and some pedigrees written as long as to the year 1956.
In 1940 it was believed that one old priest where the only breeder left in the
country.
The situation got worse because WW 2 and the priest too stopped his breeding,
because of his high age.
After the war the breed was decleared extinct.
Despite it was believed that the breed was extinct, it still lived in the memories to
they who once had known this wonderful danish breeed.
Dog-people still dreamt of finding dogs who had survived and of a reconstruktion
of the breed.
In 1974, Jette Weiss wrote an article in the Danish Kennel Club magazine, under
the headline "On the track of the Broholmer".
In this article the breed standard, dating 1886, who were completly forgotten by
the Danish Kennel Club, was included.
A short time after the release of the magazine, Jette Weiss recieved a telephonecall from a woman,
who told that an chemist in Helsinge in North-Sjælland was in
posession of a true Broholmer, -and that the dog was 11 years old.
They left for Helsinge at once, and there they found a big dark fawn male, 78 cm. (30,6 in)
at the withers and with a weight of 80 kg. (176 lbs). He was definitive what they were
looking for.
The same year (1974) it was given permission to show this dog, "Gamle Bjorn fra Helsinge" (Old Bjoern from
Helsinge), at a DKK (Danish Kennel Club) show, despite that he did not have any pedigree.
At the show he was jugded after the old Broholmer-standard by selected judges.
All the other judges at the show, many of them was from other Scandinavian
countrys, did run to the place where the Broholmer was examined, for watching this historical event.
After the judgement, all of the participans was agree, this was actually a true
representant of the Broholmer, which a long time was believed to be extinct.
Unfortunetly, this dog were too old to breed from, -but the gods were mercyful.
Due to a big national newspaper-campain, together with danish veterinary
magazines, they found several other representatives of the breed, although all were not
breed-typical and as beautiful as "Bjorn", not suprisingly, since they were the last
remains of a breed once large in numbers.
Gjorn, a modern black Broholmer.
The most beautiful of them all were "Manne", a big black dog from North-Sjelland.
He looked breed-typical and was very important,
since he was a link to the black Broholmer.
In the beginning of the rescue work, they would not believe that Broholmers could have been black,
due to that it not had been mentioned in the first standard, but when they
collected information and fotos, together with interviews with old people in
North-Sjelland, they discovered that the breed had been used by hunters and
coalworkers from the Grib-forest and by their employeed in the forest.
The reason to mention of only the fawn variant in the first standard have a simpel
explaining, due to that the fawn colour was the preferred one by the Kings.
The owner of "Manne" told that his fathers family always have owned a black
Broholmer from the zoo-stock, and he could prove this with fotos.
The breeding started with the reconstruction of the Danish Mastiff
as the goal and in 1974 DKK formed a breed-council, who since have worked for the
reconstruction of the Broholmer.
In addition to common interest and the exchange of experiences the object of the Society among other
things is to spread general knowledge of the Broholmer.
All dogs which by the Breeding Committee are approved to be included in the reconstruction work,
are registered and ear tattooed by the DKK.
To become the owner of a Broholmer you had to, and still must, be a member of the Broholmer Society.
In the early years of the reconstruction work it was not allowed to export Broholmers from Denmark, not even
to the neighbour countries.
The Broholmer was International recognized as a Danish breed from 1st of January 1998 and from the same datum
Broholmers can be sold outside of Denmark. In order to secure the future in their homeland, maximum 10 % of
the offspring one given year can be sold to other
countries and maximum one puppy of each litter.
It is important to remember that dogs in other countries other than Denmark must have been born after 1st of January 1998,
to be regarded as Broholmers, since no dogs have been exported before this datum.
The Broholmer now can compete for a Cacib and be given the title International Champion.
It is in order to praise the Broholmer Society for their efforts and dedicated work bringing the Broholmer back to life
again, and Molosserworld want to congratulate the Society for reaching their long awaited goal.
Broholmer meeting at the steps of Moesgård Mansion.
Alf with Ursa at his right side, and the 2 pups Raga
and Menja and their mother Tara to his left side.
