Broholmer

History of the Breed: From the Royal Hound to the "Butcher's Dog"

The FCI standard traces the type back to the Middle Ages, when these dogs were used to hunt stag and later mainly as guards of large farms and manors. The Danish breed club (Broholmerselskabet) fills in the picture. The big Danish hunting dog served the par force hunt — a mounted chase after large game in which the pack had to stop the quarry and hold it until the nobleman arrived. When the par force hunt was banned by law in Denmark in 1770, the king's dog was no longer needed — and spent the next century as a "manor dog", a guard at castles and estates.

In the towns the same dog went by the name Slagterhunden, the "butcher's dog", because it was a familiar sight outside the meat shops. The breed even made it into the Danish dog act, listed among those that had to be kept shut in "from sunset to sunrise".

The decisive episode came in the second half of the nineteenth century, and it had a political backdrop. Otto von Bismarck decreed that the "great Danish dog" should henceforth be called Deutsche Dogge and become the German imperial hound — in other words, that it should change its country of origin from Denmark to Germany. In response the chamberlain and holder of the Broholm entail in the south of the island of Funen — Niels Frederik Bernhard Sehested (1813–1882) — set about breeding the old Danish dog as a Danish breed in its own right. He gathered his breeding stock from Danish manors and from private owners who kept dogs "of good health and correct type", and passed puppies on to owners who undertook to carry the work forward. The breed took its name from the estate: Broholmshunden, later Broholmer.

The first standard was written in 1886; among its authors was Sehested's son, Hannibal Sehested. The dogs spread quickly across Denmark, and at Copenhagen Zoo Broholmers were kept in three roles at once: as exhibits, as breeding animals whose puppies were sold, and as wet nurses for the young of the big cats. At Tivoli the black variety guarded the grounds through the winter season, and in the Gribskov forest the black dogs were known as "Kulsvierhunden", the charcoal burners' dog.

Standard and Appearance

Then comes the moment from which the whole modern breed begins. The yellow male C. Bastian, a descendant of Manne, was mated to the yellow female Muffe. The litter was born on 22 October 1976: four of the puppies — three males and a female — were judged "Broholmer-like" and entered in the DKK X-register under the numbers X-1 Bjørn, X-2 Dana, X-3 Sam and X-4 Thor. Those four are the foundation of the breed.

The scale of the early years is clear from the club's own arithmetic: in the first seven years four males and six females were used in breeding, producing 42 "Broholmer-like" puppies in 10 litters — an average of 4.2 usable puppies per litter. With a base like that, the question of bringing in blood from related molossers arose at once, and it is the failures that are most instructive. A proposal to use the Anatolian Karabash was not supported by the committee. The DKK bought a large Spanish Mastiff puppy; after a hip radiograph graded "E" the dog was taken out of the programme. It was the third option that worked: in the Netherlands a litter was found that had come from a "misunderstanding" between an English and a Spanish Mastiff; two puppies came to Denmark, the female Sif was admitted to breeding and mated to X-1 Bjørn. Her daughter Kraka entered the breeding programme, and a male out of Bjørn and Kraka — X-31 Grane — sired thirteen litters between 1985 and 1989.

The black variety fared worst of all. It had to be rescued separately: in 1996 the DKK advised the club to concentrate on preserving the black dogs, after which a nationwide search turned up a black male, Oscar (X-393) — third generation from X-7 Thor, but, as the club says plainly, with an admixture of Great Dane. In 1997 he sired the first black puppies born since May 1981.

On 20 April 1979 the owners met at Holbæk and founded the Society for the Reconstruction of the Broholmer Breed, today's Broholmerselskabet. On 26 May 1982 the FCI recognised the breed on a definitive basis: the updated 1886 standard was given the number 315. The club, for its part, regards the reconstruction as formally complete on 1 January 1998: from that date the dogs began to receive ordinary DKK/FCI pedigrees, the X-numbering gave way to Y-numbering, and Broholmerselskabet became a full breed club under the DKK. By that point 444 dogs had been registered since X-1. Only then was sale abroad permitted — with the rule that no more than 10% of a litter may leave Denmark.

Main characteristics under FCI standard No. 315 (the version in force since 3 May 2025; the official language of the standard is English):

• General appearance: a large mastiff-type dog of rectangular outline, powerfully built, with restrained and strong movement. The forehand defines the picture. The standard makes a specific demand for marked sexual dimorphism: a male must look distinctly male, a female distinctly female.
• Proportion: the height from withers to elbow and from elbow to ground stand in a ratio of 1:1. Skull and muzzle are of equal length.
• Head: fairly large and broad, giving a heavy impression. The skull is broad and rather flat; its upper line is parallel to the line of the muzzle and set slightly higher. The stop is not strongly pronounced.
• Muzzle and jaws: a massive muzzle that looks short because of the heavy head; upper and lower jaws of equal length. Scissor or level bite. The nose is full and black.
• Eyes: round, not too large, with close-fitting eyelids, from light to dark amber; the expression should convey great self-confidence.
• Ears: medium-sized, set rather high, hanging close to the cheeks.
• Body: straight topline, strong and clearly marked withers, a fairly long back, a croup of medium length and slightly sloping, a powerful, deep chest with a well-developed forechest. The neck is very strong, with some dewlap.
• Tail: set on rather low, broad at the root, carried hanging and without a fringe; in movement it rises to the horizontal, preferably no higher.
• Coat and skin: short and close-lying, with undercoat. The skin is well pigmented and thick, generally loose, especially on the neck.
• Colour: yellow with or without a black mask; red with or without a black mask; black. The mask must appear on the muzzle only. White markings on the chest, feet and tip of the tail are optional.

That last point is not a detail but a recent change. In the previous version of the standard yellow came specifically "with a black mask", and that is still how the colour paragraph looks in a great many descriptions of the breed. The reason for the change is a genetic study the club carried out itself, which we come to below.

Height and weight are given in the standard separately for males and for females, and merging them into a single range is wrong — all the more so in a breed whose standard expressly demands marked sexual dimorphism. As for longevity, the FCI standard says nothing: breed standards have no such section at all. The one marker the club itself supplies is this — the owner receives the "veteran" questionnaire in the year the dog turns eight.

Among the disqualifying faults it is worth knowing the ones that actually turn up here: a nose of any colour other than black; overshot or undershot bite; eyes of different colours; erect ears; a tail curled over the back; incorrect colour; long coat; aggressive or excessively timid behaviour. Ordinary faults include, among others, rose ears, a hooked tail, a "sooty" cast to the coat, white markings anywhere other than the chest, feet and tip of the tail, and also pacing. A separate clause of the standard reminds breeders that only functionally and clinically healthy dogs of typical breed conformation should be used for breeding.

Character and Temperament

The standard describes the temperament in four words: calm, good-natured, friendly — and at the same time watchful. The order of the words matters, and the Danish Kennel Club puts it even more directly: the Broholmer is watchful and can carry itself with great self-assurance, but is generally friendly, towards strangers too. Suspicion of strangers, in other words, is not the breed norm — it is the thing to be told apart from the norm. Both aggression and excessive timidity are disqualifying in the breed.

Another widespread claim deserves to be turned on its head. The DKK does write about the need for clear leadership from the owner — and immediately gives the reason: because of the dog's size, not because of its temperament. That is a completely different instruction from "a firm hand for a dominant breed". The same passage goes on: the Broholmer co-operates willingly and can learn anything, provided the method rests on desire, kindness and trust.

The breed is attached to its own territory and is not inclined to wander without reason; it moves willingly, but usually at an unhurried pace. This is a patient companion that feels at ease when it can see the whole family at once — and therefore needs a close social life with people, not a kennel in the corner of the yard. In character it is more manageable and less given to independent decisions than the classic livestock guardians such as the Caucasian Shepherd Dog.

But here is an honest detail the club does not hide. The compulsory mental description (mentalbeskrivelse) has given the breed a profile built up over decades of observation, and comparing the average result with the ideal one shows two divergences: the breed has less curiosity than it should and more fear. The club states this outright as a breeding objective. Beyond that, certain lines are known in which related dogs behave restlessly, hyperactively and noisily and stress easily — and this is passed on to their offspring. In a dog of this weight such behaviour is unacceptable: within six months in 2017–2018 three young Broholmers were put down precisely because of behavioural problems. That is why the mental description in Denmark is not a formality but a breeding requirement: both parents must pass it after the age of 10 months.

This body of knowledge, incidentally, is thinning out, and the club regrets it. Before 2015 practically every Broholmer went through the mental description: in 2012, for instance, 125 descriptions for 140 puppies born. Since breeding was "let go", the description is mostly done by those planning a mating: 71 descriptions for 94 puppies in 2015, 66 for 148 in 2017. The compulsory health questionnaire that the dog's own vet used to fill in disappeared along with them. Today the club is trying to rebuild the picture through voluntary surveys, sent to owners who are club members three times in a dog's life: at 2 years, at 5 and at 8, when the dog is already counted a veteran.

Upbringing and Training

The Danish Kennel Club's practical instruction is short: train in varied ways, in short bursts, and reward generously. The Broholmer responds well to direction and keeps fairly close contact with its owner, so harshness is both unnecessary and harmful here — it destroys the very mechanism of trust on which everything rests. In this the Broholmer differs less from other molossers than from the myth about molossers: what it shares with the English Mastiff or the Great Dane is bulk and a slow pace of maturing, not a need for a "pack leader".

Early socialisation is critically important, and in this breed it carries a breeding significance as well. Introduce the puppy to different people, sounds, surfaces, places and calm dogs — precisely the range of situations the mental description will later test: contact, handling, play, surprise, sound, "ghosts", gunshot. The aim is not a "fearless guard" but a dog that, having been startled, has the courage to go and check what it was and can settle again quickly.

Pros and Cons of the Breed

Care and Maintenance

The ideal setting for a Broholmer is a house with a large, securely fenced plot. The breed likes being outdoors and copes well with the weather thanks to its dense coat with undercoat — but "outdoors" here means next to the family, not apart from it.

• Coat: short and close-lying, with a thick undercoat. Shedding is noticeable in spring and autumn, so brush more often in those periods; a regular pass with a rubber brush is enough for the rest of the year.
• Ears: inspect them regularly. This is not a formality: in the breed's health survey it was ear problems — redness, inflammation, fungus — that came top of owners' reports.
• Eyes and eyelids: the standard requires close-fitting eyelids; any persistent watering or irritation is a reason to show the dog to a vet rather than to wipe it yourself for months on end.
• Claws: trim them if they do not wear down on walks. In a heavy dog an overgrown claw quickly changes the way the foot is set down.
• Exercise: a young dog is worked moderately. A very concrete piece of advice from the Danish Kennel Club: until the Broholmer has finished growing, a lot of going up and down stairs does it no good. An adult needs long daily walks at a calm pace, not sport.

Colour: the Genetics the Club Worked Out for Itself

In 2013 the breeding council started a colour project to establish exactly which black lives in the Broholmer. The result was unexpected, and it has practical consequences for anyone looking at a litter.

• Most of the breed is sable (Ay). That means yellow and red Broholmers are genetically identical despite looking very different: the shade is set by modifier genes, not all of which have been found. The club's practical conclusion is that two dark red dogs may perfectly well produce yellow puppies, and vice versa.
• Recessive black (a) exists in the breed. This form of black is known in only a few dog breeds, so the finding came as a surprise to the club. In practice it means black puppies appear by two different routes: from a dominant black dog with any partner at all, and from a recessive black dog only if the partner also carries the allele.
• The "sooty" cast is simply the tipping of sable dogs, that is, black hair tips. The standard treats it as a fault — while it follows from the basic genetics of most of the population.
• Recessive red dogs produce no black pigment in the coat at all. The skin usually does produce it, so the nose and eyelid rims stay dark — but the club also records recessive red Broholmers with a red nose and light eyelids. The standard, meanwhile, disqualifies a nose of any colour other than black.
• White markings have two origins: the ordinary kind, where the pigment simply "did not reach" the whole body, and the piebald gene, which behaves unpredictably — from normal markings to a white collar. Two copies of piebald give a spotted, "flowery" Broholmer.
• Black-and-tan and long coat are still circulating in the breed. The last black-and-tan puppy was born in 2012. Long coat came to light in 2008, when one litter produced three long-coated puppies and a DNA test confirmed the parentage. Both traits are recessive: if both parents carry them, statistically a quarter of the litter will show them. Long coat is a disqualifying fault in the standard.
• Brindle has not been detected in the Broholmer.

It was this project that produced the argument which eventually reached the standard: if yellow and red dogs are sable and take their colour from the same genetics, then the rule "only yellow may carry a mask" loses its sense. In the 2025 version the FCI made the mask optional for yellow and red alike.