History of the Breeds

The Griffon Vendéen family can be traced back to 16th century France. It is the only one to exist now in four distinct sizes. It was not until the 19th century that the Basset Griffon Vendéen increased in popularity and numbers in France.

Originally there was only one size of BGV that nowadays would look like a mixture between a PBGV and GBGV. They appeared with the height of a Petit but with a long head, a long, heavy body and with mostly crooked or half-crooked front legs, looking like rough-coated Basset Hounds without the extra skin or wrinkle.

It had been common practice to interbreed the Grand and the Petit, therefore it was not uncommon to find Grands in Petit litters and vice versa, or at least significant characteristics. In theory this practice stopped in France in 1972 and was officially banned by the French club in 1977. Breeders today put great importance on size and type.

It was the Comte Christian d'Elva who attempted to improve the soundness of these hounds. His hounds were taller and straight-legged and the forerunners of the Grand Basset of today. His famous dog "Royal Combattant" is a good example of the quality of his hounds at the turn of the century, where he won the Prix d'Honneur de la République.

Beginning in the late 1890s and then flourishing in next century, the breed made enormous strides under the Dézamy family where the nature and type of the varieties "Grand" and "Petit" were firmly defined and established. The name Dézamy (also Desamy) is virtually synonymous with BGVs in France, where the one family over three generations established the breed(s), formed the Club du Griffon Vendéen, wrote the definitive standards and continuously served as Presidents of the club from 1907 until 1985. At this time M. Renaud Buche took over the Presidency.