Grand Bleu de Gascogne

The breed descends from the old French hounds of the medieval period, sharing ancestry with the St Hubert Hound and the southern hounds of Gascony and the Pyrenees. Packs of blue hounds are recorded well back into the Middle Ages: Gaston Phebus, Count of Foix, kept them in the fourteenth century, and Henry IV of France maintained a famous pack in the late sixteenth and early seventeenth centuries.

The Gascony blues were hunted on wolf, boar and deer across the scrub and forest of the south-west, where a hound needed patience and a cold nose more than speed. As wolves disappeared from France the packs were increasingly turned to hare and boar, and numbers fell sharply, with the breed nearly lost around the turn of the twentieth century before French breeders rebuilt it.

The Grand Bleu also travelled. The Marquis de Lafayette sent seven of them to George Washington in 1785, and French blue hounds contributed to the development of American coonhound breeds, most obviously the Bluetick Coonhound, whose mottled coat is a direct inheritance. Today the Grand Bleu is recognised by the FCI in Group 6 and by the American Kennel Club's Foundation Stock Service, but it remains uncommon outside French hunting circles.

This is a large hound. Males stand roughly 26 to 28 inches at the shoulder and females 24 to 27 inches, with weights commonly between 80 and 120 pounds. The build is long, deep and substantial without being coarse, and the movement is a steady, ground-covering stride rather than anything quick.

The coat is short, thick and reasonably weatherproof. The base is white heavily ticked and mottled with black, producing the characteristic blue cast, with larger black patches usually on the sides of the head and two clear tan spots above the eyes that give the breed its watchful expression. Further tan markings appear on the cheeks, lips, inside the ears and on the legs.

The head is long and noble with a slightly domed skull and a pronounced occiput, plenty of loose skin, and very long, fine, low-set ears that curl inwards and often reach past the end of the nose. The eyes are brown and slightly oval with a gentle, somewhat sorrowful look. The tail is long and carried in a sabre curve when the dog is working.

The breed standard describes a hound of calm strength and nobility, and that is a good summary of the temperament. At rest a Grand Bleu is placid, quiet and affectionate, happy to lean against his people and to sleep for a large part of the day. He is rarely sharp or nervous, and aggression is entirely foreign to the type.

He is a pack hound to his core, which means he is nearly always good with other dogs and often unhappy on his own. Many owners keep more than one. With children he is gentle and tolerant, but his size and his complete unawareness of it are worth remembering around small ones.

The famous voice is the thing most likely to decide whether this breed fits your life. It is deep, sonorous and extremely loud, and he uses it freely. He is also a single-minded tracker: once his nose is down he becomes functionally deaf, and he will follow a line for miles with no interest at all in roads, boundaries or your plans for the afternoon. Strangers are usually greeted politely rather than challenged, so he is a poor guard dog despite his imposing appearance.

In France the Grand Bleu still works, most often in packs on hare and wild boar and sometimes on roe deer, using a slow, methodical style that suits difficult scenting conditions and heavy country. He is prized for holding a cold trail that faster hounds would abandon and for the clarity of his voice on the line, which allows hunters to follow the progress of a chase entirely by ear.

As a companion breed he needs that nose employed. Tracking, scent work, mantrailing and long walks over varied ground all give him something meaningful to do. He is too heavy and too deliberate for agility to be a natural fit, but he is a fine hiking partner for someone who walks at a steady pace and keeps him on a long line.