The 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 people who originally fancied the GBGV had to form an official national parent club which is the Grand Basset Griffon Vendéen 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 register 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 generations 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 historical 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.
Once all requirements had been achieved, we were encouraged to make an application to the AKC requesting to be considered for full recognition. In January 2018, the Grand Basset Griffon Vendéen was admitted into the Hound Group where these noble, rough-coated hounds have made a place for themselves, not only as wonderful companions but also excelling in Conformation, Scent Work, Agility, Therapy Dog, and many more activities. In addition to being awarded over 30 Bests in Show, according to AKC reports, since January of 2018, GBGVs have attained the following number of AKC titles to date through the end of 2023: Conformation (91), Scent Work (77), Agility (29), Fast CAT (24), Canine Good Citizen (14), Rally (13), Trick Dog (9), Therapy Dog (6), Barn Hunt (10), Tracking (4), and Obedience (4).
The breed has also been embraced by the media and has been featured in many national publications, print ads, catalogs, and commercials such as Chewy, FedEx, Pro Plan, and In the Company of Dogs, to name a few.
We continue to look to the future and the Board of Directors has recently commissioned a Breed Preservation Committee in 2023 for the purpose of establishing the protocol for securing the health, prosperity, and welfare of this noble breed for future generations. As owners, breeders, competitors, and fanciers of the Grand Basset Griffon Vendéen, we sincerely thank those individuals, in the US and abroad, who have mentored, encouraged, and shared the legacy of this amazing, rustic, happy hound.
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