HISTORY 
The disappearance
The club recreated
Reading this, my father, with his brother, Gabriel Comte, and a few
friends from Lyon including the doctor Monavon, veterinary surgeon in Saint
Priest, decided to gather every information on the subject, reading all the
classified of his collection of “Le Chasseur Français” and other magazines
to find the address of former breeders. The last kennels of the Allier
department had shifted to more popular breeds like the German pointer.
They discovered that the last kennel having some Bourbonnais (Titre
Initial) had been the “de la Turne” kennel in Lyon. A bitch was still
living, but sterile,
Junon, born in 1960 and owned by Mrs. Martin from Le Donjon.
Doctor Monavon who saw many dogs in his practice
indicated them many Bourbonnais dogs originated from Lyon.
The numerous dogs founded were in fact bastards, which were called “braques de
pays” (country braques), in which Bourbonnais blood was apparent through a few
characteristics (short tail, size, color of the coat, shape of the head).
With this quite diverse livestock, it remained to produce and select to extract the ancient blood. Numerous are the benevolent peoples in Drôme, Ardèche, and Vaucluse who hunted with some products of those litters that my father gave them. He was only managing selection, waiting the moment when he would see some dogs deserving the name of braque du Bourbonnais.
Let's not go into details to come to the main fact: in 1973/74/75, this moment came, and my father registered his firsts Bourbonnais to the L.O.F. (French studbook). It hadn't happened since 10 years. Here are the papers of those first Bourbonnais:
Rasteau/Pyrrhus - Igor - Joan - Junior - Java - Quetty
We assisted to the birth of Igor, Joan, Junior and Java, but the case of Rasteau/Pyrrhus and Quetty was different: Quetty was a female found by doctor Monavon which was bourbonnais enough to be registered to the L.O.F. She was old and produced very few.
The story of Rasteau/Pyrrhus is worth telling in detail, this dog having been
so important in the breed:
Doctor Bazin, President of the south-east Société Canine discovered one day a
handsome "peach blossom"(fawn) Bourbonnais which was waiting for his master in
Lyon. Patient, doctor Bazin waited too, and it turned out that the master was a
mistress, Mrs. Barrier-Chauvin, who was working for the O.R.T.F. (French
television). The dog, Pyrrhus, had no paper, and was the offspring of Pierre
Perret's two dogs, Joséphine and Napoléon (the dog from the
song), the two of them being German pointers.
One have got to know that at this time the breeder did the pedigree of his
dogs himself, the Société Centrale Canine who was located in Mathurins street in
Paris made those pedigrees official with a stamp; this is a possible explanation
to this wonder (one braque du Bourbonnais borned from two german pointers).
Registered to the LOF under the name Rasteau, he was the first of a long line of
born again Bourbonnais.
There was also the braques de Mirepoix from Mr. and Mrs. Poma, looking for recognition, which came to us as Bourbonnais, registered in Registre Initial (1rst generation). Mr. Désiré Henri (breeder and former member of the 30s club) and Jean Castaing warned us about the excessive in breeding of this kennel, and they were right. They gave some crazy dogs, but also the first champion of spring field trial (Rocky de la Vallée de Canbière).
One day, crossing the bridge avec the Ardèche river in Vogüé, we saw on the bank a bitch with a ticked coat which appeared to my father very bourbonnais. After taking information, the bitch was called Gina, and was owned by Mr. Tahon, who latter registered her (Titre Initial) to the LOF under the name of Lina.
Latter, other dogs were registered (Titre Initial): Diane, a braque from Paris which were registered under the name of Piruit in 1980, so as Max, from Paris too...
It remained necessary to combine those new additions to the initial line in a
clever way, because the reduced number of dogs didn't put the breed safe from a
new extinction.
For that, my father was helped by breeders who begun to show interest into the
breed: M. Barbier (affix " des Bugadières "), an old acquaintance who was
breeding brittanies, but began breeding Bourbonnais with "Mousse du Rocher des
Jastres", M. Mercier who bought "Luron du Rocher des Jastres" and obtained the
first field trial awards with this dog; he began breeding Bourbonnais, and
brought to the breed his cousin Françoise Sarret, who latter bred under the
affix " de la Croix Saint Loup ". M. Jean Régis (affix "de Julius Forum") begun
his kennel after having bought "Pink du Rocher des Jastres".
It seemed then that a club gathering all the enthusiasts was needed.
HISTORY
The disappearance
The club recreated
©2004 Michaël Comte