Korthals Griffon

The breed is the work of one man. Eduard Karel Korthals, born in the Netherlands in 1851 to a family of cattle farmers, began in the early 1870s to assemble a rough-coated pointing dog that could handle marsh, bramble and cold water equally well. He started with a handful of griffon-type bitches and, from about 1873, pursued the project full time.

Korthals moved his breeding programme to Germany, settling at the Ipenwoud kennel at Biebesheim am Rhein under the patronage of Prince Albrecht zu Solms-Braunfels, and spent more than twenty years fixing type. A small group of foundation dogs, remembered in Griffon circles as the Korthals Patriarchs, stands behind the modern breed. The first club devoted to the dog was founded in 1888, with further clubs following in Bavaria, Belgium and France.

France adopted the breed with particular enthusiasm and is recognised by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale as its country of patronage, which is why the official name is the Griffon d'arrêt à poil dur Korthals. In the United States the American Kennel Club recorded its first griffon in 1887 and granted the breed formal recognition in 1916. Numbers have always stayed modest, and the breed remains largely in the hands of people who actually hunt over it.

One consequence of that history is a persistent naming tangle: the Korthals Griffon is unrelated to the French scenthound griffons, such as the Griffon Nivernais or the Griffon Fauve de Bretagne, despite sharing the word griffon, which simply means a wire-coated dog.

This is a medium to large gundog of square, workmanlike proportions. Males generally stand about 22 to 24 inches at the shoulder and weigh roughly 50 to 70 pounds; bitches run about 20 to 22 inches and 35 to 50 pounds. The build is strong without being heavy, made for a full day at a hunting trot rather than for sprinting.

The coat is the breed's signature. It is a harsh, straight double coat, coarse and slightly wiry to the touch, over a fine insulating undercoat, with pronounced eyebrows, a moustache and a beard that give the face its characteristic expression. Nothing about it should look sculpted or fluffy; a correct jacket feels dry and unkempt and sheds water and thorns.

Steel grey with brown markings is the classic and most prized colour. Chestnut brown, brown roan and brown-and-white are also seen, and white hairs scattered through the grey are normal. The eyes are large and round, in shades of yellow through brown, and the expression is notably soft and attentive.

Griffon people talk first about the breed's gentleness. This is a sensitive, biddable dog that reads its handler closely and wilts under harsh handling. Correction delivered in anger is counterproductive with a Griffon; quiet consistency, on the other hand, gets remarkable cooperation.

At home the breed is calm, undemanding and very attached to its people. Griffons follow their owners from room to room and are typically excellent with children, tolerant of the noise and mess of family life provided they get their exercise. With visitors most are friendly but a little reserved at first, and they will announce an arrival without being noisy or suspicious.

The flip side of that attachment is that Griffons genuinely dislike being left alone for long stretches. A dog that is bored and isolated will find its own entertainment, and a wire-coated gundog's idea of entertainment usually involves digging, chewing or roaming.

With other dogs the breed is generally sociable and easy. Prey drive is real but manageable, and most Griffons raised alongside cats and poultry learn to live with them; a bird in flight, however, will always get their attention.

The Korthals Griffon was designed as a foot-hunter's dog. It quarters methodically at a moderate pace, holds a staunch point, and is expected to retrieve to hand from land or water, which makes it a genuine all-rounder on woodcock, pheasant, grouse and duck. The dense coat and its willingness to enter cold water make it particularly useful late in the season.

Outside the field the same qualities suit the breed to organised dog sports. Griffons do well in hunt tests and versatile-gundog testing under NAVHDA-style formats, and their trainability and nose also carry them into tracking, scent work, agility, obedience and, in some cases, search and rescue. Whatever the outlet, it needs to involve the nose and the handler together, because this is not a dog that is content to work on its own.