American Blue Gascon Hound

The history of the American Blue Gascon Hound is somewhat vague, and records of this dog's development are somewhat sparse. The ancestor to the American Blue Gascon Hound, the Grand Bleu de Gascon, was developed in France, presumably in the Gascony region. They were developed at some point prior to the 14^th century as a hunting dog capable of tracking and hunting larger game such as deer, boar, and even wolves and tended to be more agile than other dogs their size with better scenting abilities. Seven of the first of these ancestral dogs to be recorded in the United States were brought to the country by a French nobleman who went by General Lafayette as a gift for George Washington in 1785. In France, the breed began to diminish, but it became a foundation stock for several new breeds in France as well as in other countries, including the Basset Bleu de Gascogne in France, the Dumfriesshire Hound in the United Kingdom, and the Bluetick Coonhound in the United States. The American Blue Gascon Hound also began development during that time, but there was no association or registry, their ancestry was typically unrecorded, and they didn’t fit into any official breed standards at the time, often due to their size. Fortunately, fanciers of this unique breed formed the American Blue Gascon Hound Association in 1976 and developed a clear standard to define this breed, allowing the American Blue Gascon Hound to be recognized by the Dog Registry of America and by the Continental Kennel Club.