Here is the account of an outcross experiment by monsieur Dubut:
If before calling an animal pure breed it had to have no foreign blood in
none of his ancestors, one can say that nowhere exists such a dog. In this
case, there would be no pure subject, neither pure breed.
Especially, for our dog breeds, either English, either French, it is obvious
that none was able to live, maintain itself, improve, without the addition of
new blood, without an outcross.
This intransigence about the rigorously pure blood, is neither legitimate,
neither wise, neither even honest, because some purists allowed themselves to
use outcross in the shadow but never confessed it. This intransigence was then
more verbal than real.
In my opinion, and from the judgment of some experts who know a little bit
of animal science, the outcross is, in some case, not only advisable, but
necessary.
On the principle of outcross, almost everybody agrees today. One realizes
that, without it, all our domestic breeds would end up in too much and
unwanted inbreeding.
The knowledgeable and honest breeders totally admit that an animal can and
must be called pure breed when his pedigree has only a minor fraction of
foreign blood, insufficient to change the breed type fixed by the standard.
So, to be more precise with numbers, one generally admits that an animal
whose pedigree has only 1/8 foreign blood, can be considered pure breed.
There are even some which, despite 1/4 of foreign blood, don't show any
trace of outcross.
Before quitting the general discussion, let's say that every outcross trial
has two delicate steps:
The choice of the outcross sire, and the elimination of the out crossed products.
On those two points, if you allow me, I will explain with a personal case.
When I started breeding Bourbonnais, about thirty years ago, the absolute
purity of the breed dogma was the official and intangible law of dog breeding;
and the most fashionable was to marry together all the champions of the breed,
or at least their offspring. The royal families, with all due respect,
perpetuated themselves in the same way. This is perhaps not enough to generalize
the method.
The well explored path are not always the best, but they are the easiest: I
did like everybody.
First I gave my bitch Kate to Hercule du Bosc, grand son of the champion
Mascotte. Then I gave her to the champion Roi d'Ys. I gave Douce, daughter of
Kate, to Goliath. I found, at monsieur Godinot's,
Guêpe, grand grand daughter of the champion Yan. I obtained from
monsieur Canu, Gousse and Loustic from the champion Fanette. I was triumphing.
Imagine! In a few years, I had gathered in my kennel the blood of all the
kings and queens of the breed!
What a good work I was going to do! What a success was going to reward my
efforts!... Oh gullible and saint innocence of the man who has faith!
This method gave me a certain number of average dogs; not a crack, not one
dog really good, neither physically, neither mentally. The more I concentrated
my aristocratic melting, the more I could see some annoying deficiencies.
When one breeds English pointers or setters - numerous breeds with some
close breeds - one can, during quite a long time, find some livestock with
different blood that one can marry without danger.
But if you breed Bourbonnais, then a not numerous breed, the difficulty is
fast increasing and quickly becomes unbeatable. You have only a very small
number of genitors and you will for sure end up with an excessive inbreeding.
And what makes such an inbreeding soon dangerous, is that among those famous
subjects of the breed, some of them, despite being champions, have some
physical or mental defaults which make them dangerous for any inbreed
reproduction.
And those defaults, often you don't know them.
It appeared to me as an evidence, that only an outcross could revitalize my
braque du Bourbonnais.
What are the conditions that a judicious and efficient outcross must
meet?...
Where to go for this outcross?
Those are the two questions that I had to answer. Here is how. To try a
serious and rational outcross, whose traces, but not benefits, would disappear
quickly, it appeared to me that a few precautions were needed.
And first, what are the essential characteristics of the breed to outcross,
the braque du Bourbonnais.
Physically, strongly built dog, more squat than elegant, of medium
proportions, pear shape head, big, white coat ticked, short tail.
Mentally, a gifted fog, balanced, good temper, easy going, quest and stop in
a practical hunting style, but nevertheless sportive.
The problem then is to find a genitor who can have at the same time the
special capacities of his breed, the family characteristics which make it
close to the Bourbonnais.
From the coat and type point of view, I could have taken a braque, either
French or German. At this time the braque français almost didn't exist,
and the German braque was very rare in France.
I wrote off the braque d'Auvergne, because, if it is pure breed, his head is
too different from the Bourbonnais one; if it has been crossed with English
pointer, which id the most common case, then it's better to go directly to the
English pointer.
I did it with enthusiasm because I though it was possible, searching a
little bit, to find small pointers, dogs as close as possible to the
Bourbonnais, either physically, either mentally.
No need to say that I didn't think to choose a scent hound, even with short
hair, and that it never crossed my mind to take a long hair breed: spaniel,
setter or other.
To be really sure not to introduce in my Bourbonnais a bad element, I made
my outcross sire with dogs of my choice.
I bough a bitch in a quality pointer kennel. This bitch was sweet and as
good temper as one can be, and otherwise very gifted.
There was at one of my friend's, coming from another kennel a pointer whose
origin was the most
fashionable, perfect sire: big bones, muscles, class and temper, and a
passionate hunter.
I had several products, among them a sire that I judged particularly
interesting for his size and his coat. I raised him. I made a wonderful dog
out of him: he had, to a high degree, the physical and mental qualities which
make a very good dog.
Will you allow me to give you an evidence?
One day, I was going to hunt, I already had my gun on my shoulder, and my
dog was there, ready to go, happy. I realize that I forgot something at home.
I let my dog in the court closed by a fence, and I go inside. When I went out
a few minutes after, what do I see?... My dog had tried to join me by passing
through the fence. He had succeeded in passing his head, then a shoulder. Impossible
to pass a second shoulder, impossible to go back. To free him, I had to break
the fence.
Such was the hunting passion of this dog.
Do you know how one hunts hares, in my country, at the end of the
hunting season? With a dry and cold weather, the hares live in the ploughings.
When they have been found one or two times, they become extremely cautious. As
soon as a hunter and his dog appear at the limit of the field, the hares leave
their home. One can have a chance to shot them at a good distance only in the
first hours of the morning and on the condition to advance slowly, without a
sound, without useless gesture, the nose in the wind and your dog behind your
feet.
For those cases, I ordered to my doe: back! And my dog was staying
rigorously behind me, without ever letting his head going past my bulge. I
could have searched 20 acres of ploughings, without needing to reiterate my
order.
When we had finished exploring the ploughings, I said to him: Go! And
immediately he was running again, taking some long distance points.
I became convinced latter by a long experience, that this good dog enabled
me to maintain and increase the qualities of my Bourbonnais, temper and nose.
If I was not too much boring, let have a look at the outcross from a
different angle.
If you realize what I had to sacrify (in other words: give) all my half
blood dogs and a few three quarters dogs, that, for the outcross, as for the
return to the primitive type, I had to breed and maintain during several years
a great number of not sellable dogs, you will realize how much efforts and
money such an operation requires.
Like many passions, the dog passion is sometimes a little bit expensive. If
at least it could always bring you the wanted result, the success!...
In 1920, facing a livestock devastated by the war, pushed to too much
inbreeding, I tried a new outcross. I found, at a friend's, a dog that I knew
well and which was giving me the same guarantees than the English pointer I
made before the war, when using selection.
The products of this second outcross, Cob de la Bresle, Cube, Elga,
Fan, Fane, de la Bresle are typical Bourbonnais, vigorous, handy, and very
gifted.
After what I told you about inbreeding, perhaps do you think: "This is not
very clever. With a little bit of intuition and a few precautions, every body
can do the same."
If you are a beginner, without a great experience, be happy to breed with
pure breed stock.
Let the outcross and the inbreeding to breeders who have knowledge and a
long experience.
Those kind of things, be sure of that, imply many difficulties, risks,
failures, a lot of time and of money.
Do you know who is the dog enthusiast who has some satisfaction and even a
little bit of profit?... It is the one who has in his kennel a good bitch,
producing some good and nice puppies, having a litter every year, or even
every two years. This one can hope to sell a few puppies and to cover his
breeding and even hunting expenses.
But if you have a lot of dogs, be careful! Take care of the disease! Take
care of the problems of any sorts!
You can trust an old Bourbonnais enthusiast.
E. Dubut, de la Bresle kennel.