GENERAL INFORMATION ABOUT THE PEPPER/SALT GIANT AND ITS CHARACTERISTICS

The Pepper/Salt Giant, or Gray Giant, (P/S for short), is quite rare worldwide. Here in the U.S. one rarely, if ever, sees them at dog shows.

As I have been breeding black Giants for many years, I always wanted to try my hand at the P/S color, but soon found it almost impossible to find a good one in the U.S. The few that were here were generally small, not much taller than a Standard Schnauzer. The reason is that a few years ago the German Kennel Club made an exception and allowed breeders of P/S Giants to use a P/S Standard to improve the nice P/S color. The color did improve but they also lost a lot of size. Several of these Giants found their way to the U.S. breeders thus establishing the small size on this continent. The ones that were not too small generally had such poor structure that they could not compete in the dog shows and win.

By luck, I saw an outstanding P/S Giant in Germany at a Bundessieger Show in the late 1970's. The dog's name was INT. CH. ADONIS VAN DE HAVENSTAD, a 3 time World Champion. He was huge with beautiful bone and substance and easily beat the blacks. I never forgot this dog and by chance many years later I got in contact with Adonis' breeder/owner Mr. Cyril De Meulenaere in Belgium. It turned out that we had known each other 30 years earlier and Mr. Meulenaere was now the top breeder in the world of the P/S Giants. I myself had been very successful in the U.S. with the black Giants, considered by many as the top breeder of blacks worldwide.

Well, because of my past friendship with the Meulenaere family they trusted me to take over to America their outstanding P/S Giant INT., GER., DUTCH, & LUX., CH. FAUST VAN DE HAVENSTAD, son of ADONIS and also a 3 time World Champion winner. This was to be the beginning of what I hoped to be many generations of beautiful P/S Giants. Little did I realize that one outstanding dog is not enough to make great strides. So, I imported several beautiful females from Sweden; first came CATENA, then HEDDA, then TASCHA and QUINCEY. Then I was fortunate enough to get FAUST'S champion sister, FAVORITE VAN DE HAVENSTAD, from Belgium as well as a magnificent female called KIVOILA VAN DE HAVENSTAD, (KI-KI) a daughter of FAUST. KI-KI'S sister was the top winning dog in Europe when FAUST left. I also got a FAUST son, IPERIAL VAN DE HAVENSTAD, or Whiskey as we called him. These 8 dogs were to be the foundation of the Skansen P/S. Iperial was bred to Catena and produced some superb puppies. One of them, CH. SKANSEN'S LAFAYETTE, like Faust, was a good producer. To introduce better rears and substance as well as widening the very limited gene pool of the P/S, I felt I had to breed Faust to a few outstanding black bitches. When one breeds P/S to black in the first generation, all of the pups are black. However if one of these black pups is bred to another P/S, making the pedigree 3/4 P/S, about 1/2 of the pups will be black, 1/2 P/S. When the colors are crossed some offspring will have a gray peppering in their black coats and some of the P/S Giants with black in their background will have a tan shade to their P/S banded hair. Because of this, many breeders are hesitant in mixing the two colors. In Europe, where the two colors are shown separately, they do not allow cross breeding as the American Kennel Club does, so the Europeans who want to do it for the same reasons I do are very keen in following the development of the Giants in the U.S. feeling we have a big advantage over them. In fact, many of the P/S breeders in Europe today feel that this is the only way to make the breed competitive with the blacks in the future. All the above mentioned dogs are featured on our 2-hour long video about the P/S Giant, which is available for $30 (plus $4 shipping). It is a must if you are thinking of getting a P/S, or want to know more about them.

The P/S is more of a follower by nature and therefore much easier for some people to raise, like children, women, and elderly people. The P/S is very sensitive, sweet, and easily subdued with a harsh word. He is extremely loving in nature and if you raise him from a pup he will always be loyal to you and stay right at your side. They are easy to train in precision work as they are very agile, and because they are often tall and rangy, they are superb jumpers. Like any Schnauzer, they are excellent family guardians even if they are very sweet by nature. They would not do well with an overwhelmingly strong, dominant man, the macho kind, but rather respond to affection and praise. As adults, they are formidable protectors of house and home.

Here in America, the public has become used to the heavily furnished coat on the black Giant. I call it the American style, as you never see it in Europe. These dogs have such thick, long hair on their legs that if not groomed they look like a Bouvier or an ungroomed poodle. Many people like this kind of teddy bear look. In Europe, all Schnauzers, whether black or P/S have very little furnishings or leg hair. I call this coat the German style, as that is where this breed and style of coat originated. Structurally all Schnauzers should be built the same way, but when a dog has less hair on its legs he looks rangier and taller. The advantage to a German style P/S is that they only need to be groomed 2-3 times a year and they always look nice. It is an extremely easy coat to maintain and they do not shed. The American style looks like the black but is a gray color. Because this variety of the Giant Schnauzer is so rare, it is quite a unique dog to own. Many people stop you on the street wondering what breed this big, gray, sleek looking dog is. I feel anyone who gets a P/S to show is a pioneer of sorts, as there are so few that even the judges haven't seen them.

When Faust came from Europe, he immediately became my personal friend and companion and I have never had a male dog of any breed be so well behaved, attentive, and easy to live with. We have finished several P/S Giants here in the USA. Our most famous P/S studdog is AMERICAN, LUXEMBOURG, & DUTCH CH. SKANSEN'S PARK AVENUE, a beautiful grandson of Faust. We also have a male import from Mexico, AM. CH. TANGAMANGAS REY GODO, and of course PARK'S sire, CH. SKANSEN'S MAGNA CUM LAUDE, top studdog, as well as CH. SKANSEN’S UNION JACK-a big beautiful male with an excellent character. Our most recent Champion is CH. SKANSEN’S U.S. SILVER DOLLAR, a carbon copy of Faust. “Dollar” is a top producer. One of his best sons is SKANSEN’S WASHINGTON –another top producer who will need only one more win to become a Champion. Another new Champion is CH. SKANSEN’S SIMPLY CINDERELLA, a beautiful female who has a great future ahead of her. CH. SKANSEN’S TRENDSETTER has been the number 1 P/S in Europe for several years—he holds International, Denmark, and American Championships.

To make the P/S Giant a little more in type with the blacks we bred a few blacks to P/S, and it turned out to be even more successful than I had anticipated. We not only improved 100% on their hindquarters and tailsets, the P/S used to be quite cowhocked, and you still see that fault in the European dogs. I am, myself, quite convinced that the P/S Giant got his long legs and more gangly looks from the Irish Wolfhound. There are quite a few resembling characteristics including the same long clean heads, some P/S easily pace just like the Irish wolfhound, and of course, their easy going character and reduced assertiveness. The P/S also has extremely good eyesight, and will watch things move far off on the horizon, much as a Wolfhound would hunt. The giant schnauzer is a fairly new breed--not more than 100 years old, and I believe the breeders back in the early 1900s felt a Wolfhound could bring up the size of the standard schnauzer, and yet keep his gray or P/S color. This is, of course, only my own speculation, something impossible to prove one way or another.

I now feel we have improved the P/S in style, soundness and type enough that the American judge should accept him as competitive with the blacks. However, unfortunately, there still are only a few token P/S shown, and the judges seem to feel uncomfortable with this color, thus no blue ribbons. After a while even the hardiest competitor stops showing. I am of divided opinion if the European system of judging the two colors as two separate breeds is the way to go, or if the American way of mixing them together is better. There are, of course, pros and cons to both. I only wish that the P/S could get a little more recognition before the color variant completely dies out. Almost all breeders of P/S worldwide eventually give up because they find it so hard to compete with them. There are a few diehards spread around the world, and I myself will try to hang in there a little longer, even if it is disheartening sometimes.

So it’s been a long road with obstacles, but having used the blacks, I can now see a tremendous improvement in this color, as well as overall structure. We have lost some of the excellent P/S coloring, as is prevalent in standard P/S, and now our P/S giants have more the coat and color of miniature schnauzers, some with a fair amount of tan. A sacrifice I felt worth doing. In character, the P/S is now almost identical to the blacks, even if they are more submissive as pups and youngsters. If handled correctly, they grow up to be superb personal protectors, good SCHH, great companions to children and quite long lived. I have even managed to get some furnishings with the breed, making them more attractive to the American judge and puppy buyer. I hope that the P/S will grow in popularity so we will see them at our shows with more frequency and more recognition. At our last National in 1999, there were 5 P/S represented in an entry of 150. I hope that this will change and this unique color variant will survive and do well. Our Mexican import “Mexico” is a classic American-style dog. He is, of course, an American Champion, as well as Ch. Skansen’s Woolsweater, our newest Champion with the classic American-style coat.