Griffon Boulet, Pudelpointer and PWD

It doesn't take much for me to avoid housework and my list of jobs!, as looking in old books about dog history is far more interesting although you never get a concrete answer you do for a short space of time find yourself thinking about life back then.
Recently I met several pointer crosses, both move beautifully so that made me think about the pudel pointer, as some of these look like the Griffon Boulet, which has a connection to the Barbet and you can see from the video how similar.

Griffon Boulet 1934

The Griffon Boulet had  FCI Breed standard 174,and sadly the breed has died out one presumes  not because of ill health but because it was not a popular breed, the coat was probably its biggest problem as there are other similar breeds with easier coats, the pudelpointer being one of them.

So back to the Pudel pointer which was possibly one of the first poodle designer crosses for the shooting world, although I suspect the costs were less if you wanted one.
In 1860 in Germany a Mr Walther who wanted to make a versatile dog that had all the attributes ,hunting,pointing, and retrieving and being able to work the land and water  and his plan was a Barbet with a Pointer, English dogs for the field were highly sought after and then most breeds had very specific jobs. It must have been a mad time in the dog world and we should be forever grateful that all those involved picked simple names to identify the many breeds that were being formed. If you take a minute to think about it, it makes sense.....you have the breeds by County or Country and you have the breeds developed by a person, or there is honesty when they cross two breeds, like the pudel x pointer.
What I cannot find out is how much success Mr Walther had with his project, because a new man on the scene in 1880 Baron Von Zedlitz crossed the poodle and pointer and the breed developed from there using 7 poodles and 100 pointers, on that ratio it must have been hard to lose the poodle features so the good old poodle was quite a fixed breed in 1880.
If I could go back in time I would like to ask Mr Walther what went wrong with using the Barbet, or maybe it was simply that he didn't have the resources to expand the breed at that time, or was it a question of coat colour?
It is also a great shame that going back in time that no one took over the Barbet as a breed, it was used to make Griffons, so why didn't these important and significant people in the dog world want to make something new rather than establish what was already there.
Even in 2014 the Barbet lacks recognition and as a breed it is continually compared to other breeds which is probably history repeating itself, as the other waterdogs become more popular will the Barbet be lost again?
Am I comparing? No ! it saddens me as it is just a trend, the curly PWD is getting rarer so it figures that breeders of the Barbet are selecting for wavy rather than curly in litters or just maybe PWD dog breeders are selecting puppies that are more Barbetlike :)

Leao and sons 1930s

Leao

Leao, (photos from http://www.rysalka.co.uk/about.htm) 

 I have put the photos of the PWD as it shows very easily that when trimmed it is easy to identify.
There are differences between a Barbet and a PWD, the tail, hock, length of body, length of muzzle to name a few.

Goodbye to Novaforesta Iron Duke

Once known as red collar, then Novaforesta Iron Duke, now called Obi. He has joined a lovely family a long way from us, but I know I will get lots of updates and photos.

Bepop - Barbet Mum gets gold star

It is tiring being a Mum

I can play with you but  I am not going to feed you.

I can still reach you and play, but my milk bar is staying out of reach!

Bepop has been a lovely Mum to this litter, and at 5 weeks we are at a real transition time with me taking over the feeding. The pups are on numerous meals, which include raw chicken, tripe, minced beef, and some white fish. They are also loving the goats milk and diluted evaporated milk. Bepop is still in with the pups, but she has the settee than gives her space if needed, and also the whelping box is high sided which gives her another escape route, she is also leaving the pups to relax with Martha and Bobby in the garden. Last night she dropped me a big hint that her pups were hungry, as I had given her a jacket potato and a fried egg (treats because she is being so good!) well she obviously ate the egg, but I found the pups in a huddle devouring the potato!   

Barbet puppies at nearly 5 weeks

Mother and Daughter

fun times

Can we really go out !

Barbets meet and greet

Charamese Hermione (Hallie) and Charamese Hector, with Bonnie in the foreground. Brother and sister were so happy to see each other yesterday that it was hard to capture with a photo!. A big day yesterday as they were both having their hips and elbows graded, so we await the results.

Martha meets her Uncle Eton

Martha was very happy to meet her fun loving Uncle today, I thought I would  get a photo before he was groomed as he has had a Spring trim now. Martha is starting to understand the routine as we have quite a few dogs visit and so she likes to play and then she sleeps in the grooming room whilst I work

Bepops' son

Can you tell I am looking at puppy photos? I am preparing for more I hope!!
This is the lovely Doug now called Dougie from Bepops first litter. We had Dougie with us until about 5 months, although he used to go for mini holidays with his now owners during that time.So we sort of shared those early days.

Happy 7th Birthday

How time flies, here is a photo of Betsy at Nantes in France when we picked her up at 10 months old. A sad day for Nicole, but a happy day for us :). Betsy is 7 years old today, and she has produced some beautiful pups which have gone on to further the numbers of the breed not only in the UK but abroad.
So a big thank you to Nicole for trusting us with Betsy, and HAPPY 7th BIRTHDAY:)

Hallie the Waterdog

Hallie at nearly 6 months , not sure what she was waiting for, but she was in the water when we arrived. I have read recently that some Barbets do not swim, is that a concern? certainly the majority of Barbets in the UK like water and retrieve well in water so it is not an issue here. There are also owners who buy a waterdog for the reason that it does not shed its coat, and ofton those dogs are not taken to water so they do not get the opportunities that dogs like Hallie get from an early age.    

Hallie and dog training

Well, Hallie has now been enrolled in weekly dog training classes and after two weeks she has settled in nicely amongst the labradors which outnumber her by 5-1. I am helping out at the classes as I am very interested in not just the training but also the behaviour of pups and Hallie at not yet 6 months old has to lie down and watch the first class for an hour. To be honest I didn't think it would be possible that Hallie could be that good!.
The first week we sat together and watched the puppy class,  a group of 6 puppies ranging from 6 months to 8 months, it was very noisy, but  Hallie remained relatively calm throughout. Hallie then joined the older dog class and behaved extremely well and was much steadier than I could have hoped for as training with other dogs especially for a pup is very distracting.The second week she was tied to a piano on the stage, with my coat as her blanket and I sat near her whilst the first class was held, and after intently watching the class for awhile, she then lay on her side and slept. I woke her for her training session and once again she excelled, and her three dummy retrieves were all to hand :) So she is learning to chill amongst chaos, and she is learning to work with distractions and what is best of all for me is that when the classes are finished, she turns into a complete hooligan and wants to play and cause chaos with all the dogs. So she is not just a perfect puppy that is easy to train, she is learning what is expected of her in different situations.Fingers crossed for our third week, I will keep you posted.