Fawn Brittany Griffon
Other names: Griffon fauve de Bretagne
This rather scruffy-looking lady has a good excuse for her appearance: her mind and energy are focused on other business. A hunting dog with a heritage in the tracking of wolves, bears, and boar, her brain is equal to her exquisite nose. She loves to solve problems, and to spend quality time with her human peers, with whom she will hardly tolerate lazy hours in front of the TV set unless play and fusses are also on the cards. Sandy-coloured and rough to the touch, her unkempt appearance doesn’t preclude her aesthetic desirability, and having been near-extinct in the mid-twentieth century the Griffon Fauve de Bretagne has enjoyed a stunning renaissance. A smaller edition, the Basset Fauve De Bretagne, is more popular still.
Key facts about the Fawn Brittany Griffon
Life expectancy :
Temperament :
HunterSize :
Origins and history
This happy hunter can be traced back at least as far as the 14th century, when a chap with the wonderful name of Huet des Ventes is on record as having a pack of the things. The Griffon Fauve de Bretagne was largely employed as a hunter of wolves until the latter approached extinction in the 19th century; thereafter it fell to a rare man, Marcel Pambrun, to preserve this rare dog, a vocation at which he succeeded chiefly as a result of establishing the Club de Fauve de Bretagne in 1949.
FCI breed nomenclature
FCI Group
Group 6 - Scent hounds and related breeds
Section
Section 1 : Scent hounds
Physical characteristics of the Fawn Brittany Griffon
Adult size
Female : Between 19 and 21 in
Male : Between 20 and 22 in
Weight
Female : Between 40 and 49 lb
Male : Between 40 and 49 lb
Coat colour
All shades of fawn, from golden wheat to brick red.
Type of coat
Rough and short.
Eye colour
Dark brown.
Description
Lean, muscular, her harsh fur suggesting her indifference towards tough environments, the Griffon Fauve de Bretagne is a cute medium-sized hunter with a long face and pleasantly flappy ears, which are an oasis of smoothness on that bristled body. Her fur, although short, is sprouty rather than woolly or curly, and tends towards the shade of 1980s casualwear or garden-room sofas. Her moustache, although modest, sets the tone with its quietly workmanlike seriousness.
Good to know
The Griffon Fauve de Bretagne remains common in France and reasonably well-known across the rest of Europe, but you may struggle to find a breeder beyond European shores.