One of the great rustic dogs of Europe was the Grey St. Luis Dog, a hardy French scenthound with an incomparable eagerness to hunt, and then hunt some more. Some historians think the dogs were introduced to France through King Louis IX who encountered the hounds as a prisoner during the Crusades, then subsequently received some as a gift. During Louis’ reign, hunts involved uniformed beaters, trumpeters in full regalia, and hundreds of the hounds. It must have been quite a sight.
You won’t find this breed listed in any modern dog books because “Grey St. Luis Dog” is extinct. Louis’ royal packs were abandoned when his rule ended, his successor preferring white hounds. Interest in the dogs was resurrected with Louis XlV, but by the 19th century, it was impossible to find any of the dogs, in part because of inter-breeding with other hounds, but more probably because of the impact of the French Revolution on hunting in France. The breed, however, is not entirely lost to us.
The “Grey St. Luis Dog” is thought to be an ancestor of the modern French rough-coated Griffon breeds, and specifically, the Griffon Nivernais, one source stating that the “Grey St. Luis Dog” is simply a now obscure name for the Griffon Nivernais. The United Kennel Club, however, maintains that the breed was developed after the French Revolution when a renewed interest in this type of dog was sparked. A group of enthusiasts came together and collected the last remaining Nivernais hounds, and to rebuild breed numbers, included the Griffon Vendéen, Otterhound, and French Foxhounds.
Photo by Alephalpha – Own work, CC BY-SA 3.0, https://commons.wikimedia.org/w/index.php?curid=5042201
When the breed was restored, it was renamed the “Chien de Pays” which means a local breed. In sites we visited, however, the same breed appears as as the Griffon Nivernais. Its fans, however, affectionately call the dogs “barbouitlards” which means “dirty and besmirched,” because of its rustic and unkempt appearance.
Hunters love their “dirty” dog. A passion for hunting courses through the veins of these dogs, and breed enthusiasts maintain that a handful of Griffon Nivernais are better than a dozen of any other breed of hunting hound. Little known outside of France, the dog is hunted over in France, of course, and exported to other countries. In Canada, the Griffon Nivernais is used to hunt bears.
Image: Griffon Nivernais by Pablo Romero
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