French Bouvier des Flandres Breeding Records
Copyright 1997 Jim Engel
For the student of Bouvier history, France is a frustration. The Dutch and Belgian breeding records are available and almost complete back to the beginning of registration, that is, about 1914 for the Belgian and about 1922 for the Dutch. French records prior to 1945 are very sparse, to the point that French origins are known to a very limited degree. As we shall see, records after the second world war are virtually complete, and what they show, combined with what we know of pre war French history, shows that the pre war French lines play a very small part in modern French lines, which are based almost entirely on Jusin Chastel's de la Thudinie line.
Consider this typical early French pedigree from 1938:
Prins de la Lys '24 LOSH.19883
Ch Asti de la Boheme LOF.44277
Babylone '27 LOSH.28532
Isidore de la Boheme LOF.159
Grisou de la Boheme LOF.157
Meg de la Boheme '38 LOF.1056
Prins de la Lys '24 LOSH.19883
Ch Asti de la Boheme LOF.44277
Babylone '27 LOSH.28532
Frangine de la Boheme LOF.55031
Crapouillot LOF.55027
Esmeralda de la Boheme LOF.55030
Yann de Loos '26 LOF.55024
As you can see, until 1934 the French LOF numbers were very large because they were apparently assigned to all breeds as registrations occurred. (LOF is "Livre des Origines Francais" or roughly Book of Origins for France.)
Beginning in 1934 the various breeds were separated into their own sequence, which provides insight into the number of dogs being registered. As can be seen in this pedigree of Meg de la Boheme, most of the dogs trace back to Belgian lines as indicated by the LOSH numbers. Notice that Grisou de la Boheme's number is 157, just two less than that of her son Isidore whose number is 159. This is very common, as people would apparently not bother registering a dog until they had progeny that they wanted to register. By 1945 the Bouvier numbers were up to about 1200, which would indicate that only a little over 100 Bouviers were registered per year in this era with LOF. It is possible that there were other registries, but I have never seen any indication that they existed or that such dogs play a part in modern Bouviers.
I have been able to obtain the 1934 Bouvier pages, which show 34 entries in four litters, with the rest individual dogs. Many of these entries show the grand parents as well as the parents, with a very high percentage showing Belgian LOSH numbers.
Prior to 1934, the French Bouvier registrations were just mixed in with all of the other breeds, which makes research and especially copying records very difficult. (The AKC and the Dutch, for instance, also have a single number sequence for all breeds, but from the very beginning the records for the breeds are segregated, which is enormously helpful for those of us interested in historical research.)
Most of this information has come into my hands from my good friend Valerie Volker, who worked at the AKC for many years and currently does pedigree research professionally.
I have been able to obtain no records after these few 1934 entries until after the war in 1946, a huge gap in our knowledge. It is possible that records were lost in the war, as was the case with a few records in the Netherlands.
After the war, some of the national breed clubs would produce a "Notre Bulletin" entitled "Chiens de France" with a section for each breed. Each breeder would provide a list of some of the dogs in his kennel, often with a photo. It is likely that there was a fee for this service, so many breeders no doubt only listed a few of their dogs and those breeders outside of the club or with limited financial resources were probably not included. (Limited finances and hardship was of course common throughout Europe, and Northern and Eastern France, where the Bouvier activity centered, was at the very focus of the German invasion of the French nation.)
I have a copy of the 1946 edition of this bulletin, which is helpful but frustrating because the information was used as provided, with common errors and erratic use of registration numbers.
Prominent kennel names included "de la Boheme", "des Trois Iles", "de la Planque" and "de Kortcha" among others.
In 1947 a registration book finally appears, with Bouviers numbered from LOF 2324 through LOF 3376, indicating that more than one thousand Bouviers were registered, perhaps representing a pent up demand. This listing usually includes the grand parents as well as the parents of the entered dogs, an effort to make up for the fact that so many records were missing.
The subsequent books are available and apparently quite accurate. In 1952 about 500 Bouviers were registered in France, a much higher number than in Belgium. The yearly number was several hundred through the fifties, gradually falling. Yet it is the Belgian lines from which today's Bouviers, in France as well as the rest of the world, evolve. The question is why.
One clue is in the advertisements of the era. "de la Planquee" for instance produced English and Irish setters and a couple of varieties of pointers in addition to the Bouviers; clearly a production attitude to breeding if not an outright commercial venture. Much of the other breeding appears, from the records, to be very casual, that is, one or two litters from isolated dogs.
The French kennels which became famous in the fifties and sixties, such as du Maine Giraud, were almost subsidiary to Justin Chastel's Thudinie line. Consider this pedigree:
Joris du Ble d'Or '35 LOSH.76351
B Ch Soprano de la Thudinie '44 LOSH.113156
Mirette de la Thudinie '38 LOSH.95153
F.Ch U'Felon de la Thudinie LOSH.137211
Hagard '33 LOSH.56825
Albi '39 LOSH.183982
Halbi '33 LOSH.60945
Ygor des Coudreaux LOF.6246
Jaf du Chateau de Villers LOF.1104
Samos des Trois Iles '45 LOF.1281
Rita de la Gueulardiere '43 LOF.1101
F Ch Wanda des Coudreaux '48 LOF.3735
Ravachol '43 LOSH.110805
B Ch U'Ada du Gratte-Saule LOSH.127972
Silane de la Thudinie LOSH.117337
This breeding, three quarters Thudinie since the proprietor at Gratte-Saule was a neighbor and associate of Chastel and Albi was his bitch, is typical. The pattern is consistent in many lines, progress was made by breeding a desirable female to a Thudinie stud, a daughter to another Thudinie stud and so forth until the French background from pre war days practically disappeared.