Gascon Saintongeois

After the French Revolution there were only three Saintogeois Hounds remaining, one female and two males. During the mid-19^th century, Count Joseph de Carayon-Latour of Chateau Virelade began to cross the remaining Saintongeois Hounds with the remaining Griffon Bleu de Gascogne from the Baron de Ruble’s kennel. The results were hounds that were white in color with black ticking. Any puppies born that were not white were not used in the foundation stock to create the new breed called Gascon Saintongeois. It was not until the mid-20^th century that the breed began being split into two sizes. Hunters in southwest France needed smaller hounds to hunt hare and other small game. They began breeding smaller Gascon Saintongeois and eventually began calling them Petit Gascon Saintongeois. The original sized Gascon Saintongeois were then called the Grand Gascon Saintongeois and were used to hunt big game such as roe deer, wild boar and gray wolf. The Saintongeois Hound is now considered extinct, but many of his traits have been passed on to the Gascon Saintongeois. The Federation Cynologique Internationale (FC) accepted the Gascon Saintongeois on August 10, 1963. However, the official breed standard was not published until March of 2007. Since there was no published standard, breeders were unable to breed to standard. There were too many discrepancies within the breed and fanciers began asking for an official breed standard to be published. Once the standard was published, breeders were able to begin breeding to standard and making the breed much more uniform in appearance and personality. The United Kennel Club accepted the Gascon Saintongeois on January 1, 1993.