Comments by Jean  DuMont on the Passing of Justin Chastel

Transcribed by Jim Engel

Even though the sun shone brightly, there was a certain melancholy as I sat down with Jean DuMont, well known Belgian Bouvier judge, at the working championships in Lansing.  The date was October 12th, 1995 and I had asked  him to comment on the passing of Justin Chastel.  Here are his words, transcribed to the best of my ability.  Jim Engel

It was on a Thursday in early September and we buried him two days later, on Saturday.  It was a painful sickness, but he did not complain.  We knew he had a heart condition.  It was so fast that almost nobody knew except a few persons who read it in the paper, having been warned by friends.  The Administrative Council of St. Hubert warned their board members.

As far as I know he was born in the same region.  It was his uncle who gave him a pup.  His uncle was a trainer of Ring Malinois. 

During the war (1914)  his family was starving and his father had to sell his well trained Malinois to a Farmer of a sack of wheat, 100 Kilo.  His father was very sad about it, but hunger for his family made him decide.

When he was a young boy he received a pup from this uncle, who owned a cafe in Anderlues.  There was a training field behind the cafe for Ring Malinois.

Later on he met Felix Verbanck who became his mentor.  From Mr. Verbanck he learned about genetics and breeding.  He always had respect for Mr. Verbanck and was proud to have been his pupil.  (This would have been about 1930.)

This was the time he started breeding.  Then came the war.  It was a bad time.  When he came back, I suppose he had a pup in Thuin for himself. He always groomed his dogs on a table from his uncle’s bar.

He married Palmyre who was a ladies hair dresser.  He learned the trade too, in Brussels with very good teachers.  No wonder he became an expert in grooming his dogs!  They had their business on the Rue du Pont (Bridge Street) near the center of town.

Shortly after the end of the war his first Champion, Soprano was born. Fifty years later, the day after he was buried, they presented a new Soprano.  I judged him.  In my point of view the new Soprano was even better than the original.  And still the same type of dog, one could pick out a Thudinie a half a century later.

Hion was the only dog I knew who would dive one and a half meters into the water, that is one and a half meters deep.  He would dive and recover a stone.

That same Hion was never put in a show in our country but was sent to the U.S. and became a champion.  He was a product of an injection of new blood, that of Cendrillo de l’Ile Monsin who was so ferocious he never could be shown. 

On the other hand Fricko de Belgique was another dog of good character.  Mr. Chastel was a very good trainer himself in the Belgian ring style.  Later he learned to know Dr. LeLann in Lanester in Brittany in France, who was not only a good doctor but a good dog trainer.  He became French ring champion with Uberty de la Thudinie.  Chastel was there that day and cried.  We could not believe our eyes!  I did not know that he could show his feelings.  He was a very hard person, merciless in certain occasions when he had to be. 

From that moment on he became really world famous.

He succeeded in keeping that quality almost to his last day.  Never before had we found a breeding line that kept the quality and the type in such a continuity that it seemed almost unbelievable.

He was a hard man, and when he had a goal in mind he would leave broken eggs behind to achieve his goal.  But he never was mean or unfair.  He kept his true friends who were there when we brought him to the cemetery in Thuin.

The president and vice president of St. Hubert and the Royal Belgian Canine Society were there, along with friends from over forty years and more, many from France and Belgium.  Andre LeLann was there.