Belgian Tervuren are not considered a "rare breed," but they certainly are not as common as most other AKC-recognized breeds.
Out of the 151 dog breeds recognized by the AKC, the Belgian Tervuren ranked 115 in 2003.
For a puppy to be registered as pure-bred with the AKC, the breeder must register the litter when it is whelped. The number of these registrations is reported in the AKC Gazette. In all of 2003, 82 Belgian Tervuren litters were registered with the AKC. For comparison, 45,747 Labrador Retriever litters were registered. That is over 500 to 1!
The AKC also reported that 428 individual Belgian Tervuren were registered with them in 2003. Registrations of individual dogs lag litter registrations by a few months, and not all get registered. Offsetting this are some dogs imported from outside the USA. If the average litter is six puppies, this would mean that roughly 500 Belgian Tervuren puppies may have been whelped in the entire USA that year.
We do not want to discourage you if you know that you were meant to belong to a Terv. At the same time, you need to appreciate that Terv puppies are fairly scarce, and obtaining one probably will require some effort. |
