BY COREY BENEDICT GRAND BASSET GRIFFON VENDÉEN Then & Now
The
T he journey to achieve the full recognition of the Grand Basset Griffon Vendéen, a noble French hound, by the American Kennel club took nearly fifteen years to attain the approval to enter the Hound Group. As many of you may already know, the peo- ple who originally fancied the GBGV had to form an official national parent club which is the Grand Basset Griffon Ven- déen Club of America, Inc. (GBGVCA). Luckily, the original Board of Directors were all veterans in the sport of showing and breeding purebred dogs and were also previous or current owners of the Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen. There were many steps along the way. The first was to regis- ter the breed into the Foundation Service Stock (FSS) program with the American Kennel Club (AKC.) As a portion of the requirements to make application for full recognition, the AKC required a minimum of 325 dogs registered as FSS, each with a minimum of a three-generation pedigree. This was, of course,
not an easy feat to accomplish and the GBGVCA Board of Directors, in association with the few breeders in the US, were committed to establishing the health and well-being of the breed for future genera- tions and to ensuring that no indiscriminate breeding was employed just to attain registration numbers. In addition to the registrations, the AKC required the GBGVCA to promote the breed nationally through educational opportunities in Judge’s Education, Open Shows, AKC B Matches, and Meet the Breeds, in addition to providing extensive data in regard to the his- torical purpose of the breed. The GBGV also had to have a reasonable distribution nationally across the US and not in just a region or two. Finally, after being acknowledged as a Miscellaneous breed, the GBGV competed for a little over five (5) years against other FSS breeds that were also working towards AKC recognition. Even though we could not compete in the Hound Group at that point, the GBGV was an amazing ambassador for the breed and received wonderful traction and acknowledgement from the judges and other breed enthusiasts.
SHOWSIGHT MAGAZINE, MARCH 2024 | 265
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