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Grand Basset griffon vendéen

Grand Basset griffon vendéen

FCI standard Nº 33
Origin
 France
Translation
 John Miller and Raymond Triquet
Group
 Group 6 Scenthounds and related breeds
Section
 Section 1.3 Small-sized Hounds
Working
 With working trial
Acceptance on a definitive basis by the FCI
 Tuesday 17 January 1967
Publication of the official valid standard
 Saturday 09 January 1999
Last update
 Wednesday 14 February 2001
En français, cette race se dit
 Grand Basset griffon vendéen
Diese Norm ist in deutscher Sprache sichtbar
 Grosser Basset Griffon Vendéen
En español, esta raza se dice
 Gran Basset Grifón vendeano
In het Nederlands, wordt dit ras gezegd
 Grand Basset griffon vendéen

Usage
It is the perfect assistant for the hunter with a gun in territories of moderate size. Fastest of all the scenthound bassets, tenacious, courageous, and a little stubborn. It must, from an early age, be accustomed to obeying; its training implies will and punishment, for which he will bear no grudge.

Brief historical summary
The Grand Basset Griffon Vendéen is derived, like all bassets, from hounds of superior size, in this case the Grand Griffon. The first selections were made at the end of the 19th century by the Comte d’Elva who was looking for subjects with « straight legs ». But it was Paul Dezamy who was especially responsible for fixing the type. He understood that in order to catch a hare, dogs of a certain size were needed. He fixed that size at about 43 cm. Today used primarily when hunting with a gun, it is capable of hunting all furry game, from the rabbit to wild boar. A team of Grand Bassets won the 5th edition of the European Cup for hare.

General appearance
Slightly elongated overall, it has straight forelegs, the structure of a basset, and must not resemble a small Briquet. It is balanced and elegant.

Behaviour / temperament
Behaviour : Fast, well voiced, a passionate hunter; courageous, loves bramble and scrub.
Temperament : A little stubborn but nevertheless well behaved. It is up to the master to take command.

Head

Cranial region
Skull
 Without heaviness, convex, elongated and not too wide, well chiselled below the eyes. Occipital bone well developed. 
Stop
 Frontal indentation well defined.

Facial region
Nose
 Prominent. Nostrils well open. Black and developed, except for white and orange coats where a brown nose is tolerated.
Muzzle
 Square at its extremity, noticeably longer than the skull, very slightly convex.
Lips
 Quite pendulous, covering well the lower jaw and giving the front of the muzzle a square profile. They are well covered with moustaches.
Jaws and teeth
 Jaws strongly developed, scissor bite.
Eyes
 Of oval shape, large, dark, not showing white; friendly and intelligent expression. The conjunctiva must not be apparent.
Ears
 Supple, narrow and fine, covered with long hair and ending in an elongated oval, well turned inwards. Low set, below the eye. They must be able to reach beyond the end of the nose.

Neck
Long, robust and well muscled. Strong at set-on. Without dewlap.

Body
Body
 Really that of a basset but avoiding an exaggerated length.
Back
 Long, broad and really straight, never saddle-backed, and starting to arch its junction with the loin; withers very slightly protruding.
Loin
 Solid, well muscled, slightly arched.
Chest
 Quite broad and well let down to elbow level.
Ribs
 Rounded, never flat nor cylindrical. Thorax slightly less broad at elbow level to facilitate the movement.
Side
 Rather full, belly never tucked up.

Tail
Thick at the base, tapering progressively, set quite high, carried saber fashion or slightly curved but never on the back or bent at the tip. Rather long.

Limbs
Bone structure developed but lean. It should be understood that bone quality is not a question of volume but of density.

Forequarters
Generality
 They must be straight with a thick forearm and a very slightly defined but very solid carpal joint (wrist).
Shoulders
 Long, clean and oblique.
Elbows
 Should be neither too close to body nor loose.
Forearm
 Thick, wrists (carpus) should never touch.

Hindquarters
Generality
 Solid and well directed in the axis of the body. Hip (Iliac crest) : Apparent.
Upper thigh
 Strongly muscled but not too rounded, bone structure and articulations very solid.
Hock
 Wide and angulated, must never be straight. Seen from the rear, it should not appear turned outwards or inwards.

Feet
Strong and tight with hard pads and solid nails; good pigmentation of pads and nails is desirable.

Gait and movement
The dog in action must give an impression of resistance and ease; the movement must be free and harmonious.

Skin
Quite thick, often marbled in the tricoloured subjects. No dewlap.

Coat
Hair
 Hard, not too long and flat, never silky or woolly. The fringes should not be too abundant; the belly and inside of the thighs must not be bare; eyebrows well pronounced but not covering the eye.
Colour
 Black with white spotting (white and black). Black with tan markings (black and tan). Black with light tan markings. Fawn with white spotting (white and orange). Fawn with black mantle and white spotting (tricolour). Fawn with black overlay. Pale fawn with black overlay and white spotting. Pale fawn with black overlay. Traditional names : hare colour, wolf colour, badger colour or wild boar colour.

Size and weight
Height at withers
 Males from 40 to 44 cm, females from 39 to 43 cm. With a tolerance of 1cm more or less.

Faults
• Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree and its effect upon the health and welfare of the dog and its ability to perform its traditional work.
• Faults listed should be in degree of seriousness.

General faults
Head :
 Too short.
 Flat skull.
 Short muzzle.
 Depigmentation of the nose, lips or eyelids.
 Pincer bite.
 Light eye.
 Leathers set high, short, insufficiently turned in or lacking hair.
Body :
 Too long or too short.
 Lacking harmony.
 Topline insufficiently firm.
 Slanting rump.
Tail :
 Deviated stern.
Limbs :
 Insufficient bone structure.
 Angulation too straight.
 Hocks too close.
 Slack in pasterns.
Coat :
 Insufficiently dense, fine hair.
Behaviour :
 Timid subject.

Disqualifying faults
 Aggresive or overly shy.
 Lack of type.
 Prognathism (overshot or undershot mouth).
 Wall eye.
 Eyes of different colours (Heterochromia).
 Lack of room in the sternal region; ribs narrow towards the lower part.
 Kinky tail.
 Crooked or half-crooked forelegs.
 Woolly coat.
 Self-coloured coat black or white.
 Important depigmentation.
 Size outside the standard.
 Noticeable invalidating fault.
 Anatomical malformation.

NB :
• Any dog clearly showing physical or behavioural abnormalities shall be disqualified.
• The above mentioned faults when occurring to a highly marked degree or frequently are disqualifying.
• Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.
• Only functionally and clinically healthy dogs, with breed typical conformation should be used for breeding.

Bibliography
http://www.fci.be/

 

Detailed history
If the standards of these three breeds (there is a Petit and a Grand Basset) established by the Central Canine Society and the FCI, are not at all open to challenge, it is not the same for their origins.

The only names of these dogs are sources of uncertainty. As for the term "lighter", it can be said that it is derived from "braque", but ... there is Braque and Bracke, who, on each side of the Rhine, do not apply to the same dogs. And Briquet was also the name of one of the favorite dogs of the Duke of Orleans, in the fifteenth century. It is only from the 16th century that one finds serious documents on the current dogs. In fact, in the old treaties, the terms "lighter" or "barbet" meant indifferently dogs whose hair is long and curly all over the body. Nowadays, specialists in cynology have defined very different standards for each other.

As for the name "basset", it is sufficiently clear. However, we will refer to the standards to understand why we speak of the Grand Basset, which is of intermediate size between the Lighter and the Petit Basset.

One thing seems certain, however, is that the three breeds come from the Grand Griffon Vendéen, a dog trained in this region of hedgerow where venery is an old tradition.
Where does the word "griffon" come from?
All the etymological works derive the name of these very friendly dogs from that of that species of mythical monster which the Romans called gryphus and the Grecs grups, but the report is difficult to establish; also, more satisfying is the hypothesis put forward by Dr. Guillet according to which the Vendée Griffons would be for ancestors the dogs registrars of Louis XI. And, if K. Reille is to be believed, the Vendée Griffins (today classified into four races) are descended from the "White Dogs of the King" that François 1st maintained in Evreux. We must also mention the opinion of Desmarest, who was a professor at the Veterinary School of Alfort and who specifies, in the Dictionary of Natural History published in 1817, that "the Griffons are a breed of dogs that comes from England and which is remarkable for the hairs which are hard, black and not numerous, as well as those of the head, which are long and mingled in a singular way ". A few long-haired English dogs may have been crossed with Vendee Griffons or with their ancestors before the soldiers from across the Channel were driven out of La Rochelle or Aquitaine, but this would not be enough to explain the situation. the appearance of the Nivernais Griffon, very close to the Vendéen, or the Griffon de Grip, a race that the Count d'Andigné was able to maintain from 1850 to 1914 on his Durtal estate: now extinct, it was then called the French Grip Griffon.

To come back to less conjectural facts, we can say that the Griffon Lighter Vendéen was created by the Earl of Elva, who mounted his breeding in 1871 at the castle Ricoudet in Mayenne, from the old dogs of Vendée - such as those of MM. Baudry d'Asson and Bailly du Pont, who were probably close to the current Great Griffons.

Hunting in the path of the hare, or the shooting dogs, the Count of Elva did not need dogs as fast as those of these crews who hunted deer, wild boar or deer. It was by a very strict selection, without any contribution of external blood, that he formed his packs. In 1885, he beat the other packs of his category in all exhibitions, but it was in 1894 that he presented his best dog lots: 30 lighters white and orange and 20 Bassets of the same color. He used the first to run the hare, the second to hunt all game. According to the chroniclers of the time, these dogs were more homogeneous, both in size and dress, than those who had won President Jules Grevy's cup nine years earlier.

When the First World War came, which was fatal to so many crews, the count raised a hundred dogs a year, which had allowed many other crews to get lighters. First of all that of Leon Gourraud, who, after having disputed the prizes to the Count of Elva in 1898 and 1900, disappeared from the annals before 1914.

Count Ernest de Ferrier de Montal was to keep the race longer. With Carita's crew, he hunted wild boar and hare in the Vaucluse (Carita's castle is located near Orange), and especially at L'Epine, in the Hautes-Alpes, where the relief would make the race particularly sporty. But it is especially Paul Dezamy, who was installed in Vendée, in La Chaize-le-Vicomte, who did the most for the maintenance of Lighters and Bassets Griffons Vendéens. Founded in 1898, the Levraudière rally was to be transformed after the 1914-1918 war into a Bocage rally. Composed of about fifteen Bassets and taken over by Hubert, son of Paul, he still took hares in the forests of Detroit, Bougrières and Poirons.

Nowadays, the Rally Bocage has disassembled (it is dissolved), and Hubert Dezamy has been replaced at the presidency of the Griffon Vendéen Club by Renaud Buche, who is the louvetier in the Eure. He uses Little Bassets to hunt rabbits. Another crew, ridden by Jean-Michel Duperrey, hunts the hare with Grands Bassets. But, above all, countless shooting fighters use Lighters and Bassets today, and if each of them generally only has two or three dogs, it is in the hundreds that the Vendée Griffons are presented in large dog shows.

The interest of these dogs is above all the delicacy of the nose, which makes them excellent matchers and allows them to lead their hunting animals as well in streams and ponds as in the driest terrain. In addition, very demanding and enterprising, Lighter and Grand Basset are perfect dogs to hunt hares. If we quote Le Verrier de La Couterie, we learn that the animal is expert in the art of beating while holding his feeling (shave on the ground while retaining its smell). And yet, in this case, "the hare, in a word, is somewhere and is not melted (gone). It is therefore necessary to look for it without being put off: the way to have good dogs is to be enterprising oneself to teach them how to become good. There is no doubt that in this area the Vendée Griffons are excellent pupils ...

But they have the flaws of their qualities: their enterprising mind makes them difficult to stab in the change, or even to credit in the way of a single animal. This is one of the reasons that have undoubtedly pushed the breeders to create smaller breeds than the Grand Griffon Vendéen, which hunts with so much enthusiasm that it often happens to run out of breath after one hour or two. Another reason is that the Vendee, the Mayenne (where the Earl of Elva hunted) and most of the departments of the West were; before the consolidation operations are involved; country of hedgerow. For the huntsmen, who usually have problems with passing through the hedges, the dogs had to be slowed, which was done by selecting the shorter ones. The origin of Lighters, then Bassets, from the Great Griffons Vendéens seems confirmed by the fact that even the Petit Basset has straight legs, unlike most other breeds of Bassets who have twisted legs. The Petit Basset is also not fast enough to hunt another animal than the rabbit.

In addition, the small Griffons have the hair hard and tough enough to pass without damage in the bushes more thorny. In Vendée, the Petit Basset is also called "piagru", which means "badly combed". But this is one of the qualities that make him appreciate those who use it in regions where the canopy is dense and thorny.

This is not a pet that wanted to create all those who contributed to the selection of Lighters, Large and Small Bassets Griffons Vendéens. Nevertheless, these dogs are playful and affectionate: at the present president of the Club, it is often the children who take care of the kennel ... Moreover, many shooting hunters keep their Griffons at home, and in this case, it is the Petit Basset which is the most appreciated, because of its pretty expressive head.
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