First you must know that the most inbreeded subject married to a non related subject will give absolutely non inbreeded puppies. To be able to bring back our F coefficient to zero with one marriage, this is good news. And if the 2 subjects are very inbreeded but not related, their puppies will also have an F coefficient equal to 0.
The bad news is that in the Bourbonnais, this subject doesn't exist. As I told you, dogs in a breed are all more or less related. But in small breed like ours, this relationship is not very far. At best, it goes back to the 70s, when Michel Comte was trying to extract Bourbonnais blood doing high inbreeding. If you want to be convinced about that, send me your dog's pedigrees, I will trace their genealogy until Rasteau/Pyrrhus.
If you are foreseeing, you will have spotted a friend breeder who produces nice dogs not too related to yours.
And if you realize that all the kennels, having breed with the same sire, are closely related? Where are you going to look for this outcross? We have seen this situation in the beginning of the 90s, when "Uno du Rocher des Jastres" and "Extra du Pontelle de Maicou" could be found in every pedigree.
We are going to see by which ways one tried to solve the problem:
The puppies you have kept perhaps look like Bourbonnais, but they are only one generation away from Braque Français. It is then very possible that at the next generation, your puppies look like Braques Français.
The proximity of the two breeds is a problem. One takes the risk with this method to be unable one day to distinguish a Braque Français from a Braque du Bourbonnais. It surely means the dead of the smaller breed, meaning ours. To illustrate that, here is what happened in the 1952 Paris dog show: a Braque du Bourbonnais had been given the Braque Français CAC (Championship Aptitude Certificat) by the judge, M. Baumas; M. Bisson, general secretary of the CBB at this time, asked some sanction to the SCC, and, when he didn't obtain this, resigned. This episode marked the beginning of the Bourbonnais decline.
This is totally illegal, and a swindled customer could sue you. And with the advances of genetic science, it is easy today to prove you wrong.
First, there is the fast, dishonest and dangerous method: fast for the breeder, dishonest for the customer and dangerous for the breed. Take a good in a close breed, let's say a Braque Français, have a litter between him and a Bourbonnais female, put a real Bourbonnais on the pedigree, and that's it. The proximity of the two breeds will even give you some puppies that will quite look like Bourbonnais, and the nice pedigree will enable you to sell the remaining puppies at a good price to entrusting peoples.
All this seems very seducing, and the method is used by some, however, there are some drawbacks:
In fact, this method was used in the Bourbonnais in 1993. The two most prolific breeders of the time, members of the CBB committee,
did an illegal outcross with a Braque Français.
When it became clear that they intended to sell the puppies with fake pedigree, the CBB committee dismissed them without excluding them from the club.
This lack of severity could be explained by the fact that the principle of an outcross was agreed, and Michel Comte was already doing one.
It just had to be done legally.
It is to be highlighted that the two breeders, even if lightly sanctioned, developed a tough hate against the CBB committee.
This was because this kind of practice is admitted among many professional breeders who deserve well their bad reputation.
First, choose a breed that is not to close to ours, but not too far either (we are not going to choose a poodle!). We'll have real bastards, identified as such, and one will be able to reintroduce the products of the outcross only after a difficult selection, when they really look like Bourbonnais. If this breed can bring a real plus, because it has qualities that we want to see in our dogs (low incidence of dysplasia, exceptional nose), it's even better. This reasoning led us to choose an English pointer, as did before us ancient Bourbonnais breeders. The head of the English pointer, so characteristic and different of the Bourbonnais one, is a selection criterion effective from the birth.
Tell everybody, via the club, that we are doing an outcross. By doing official outcross, one can take a dog from a well known kennel, without being afraid to be denounced, and then bring quality to the breed.
Then, do a first litter. In this litter, keep a subject with the good type, and cross it again with a Bourbonnais. If the result is not satisfying, redo the litter. When at last one has one or two good dogs, register them to the LOF Titre Initial.
It costs a lot: numerous bastards from this outcross make the hunters to whom they have been given happy, but they have cost a lot to us.
The puppies from a Titre Initial bitch have only half a pedigree, they are more difficult to sell.
It enables other breeders to use the productswith full knowledge of the situation.
It is honest!!
Here is the second method:
It is the work we did patiently with my father in the 90's.
The pointer bitch we used came from M. Condado and was called "Donna de la Mazorra". Here is her pedigree: click here.
She was married to several Bourbonnais, but only one bitch she produced with "I'Gribouille du Rocher des Jastres" was kept.
My father, having broad and easy forgiveness, proposed to one of the 1993 faulty breeders to use one of his sires for the next generation. Then, "Extra du Pontelle de Maicou" was the father of the two bitch latter registered (Titre Initial) to be born in our home: Olokine and Oubi. We kept the first one, and the second one went to M. Mallet's kennel.
Those two bitches have since then brought some new and good blood which regenerated the breed, giving some good and balanced Bourbonnais.
Here is the offspring of this outcross:Lola's offspring
Of course, the method has some drawbacks:
But it has big advantages:
So, if you want to make an outcross, use the right method.