Chien d´Artois

This breed, formerly named Picard, was much appreciated in ancient hunting at the time of Henri IV and Louis XIII and much sought after. Selincourt already made much of it, wondering and amazed to see these dogs pulling in a hare which had passed by one hour ago in dry weather.

Le Couteulx de Canteleu, in Manuel de Vénerie Française (1890), (Manual of French Hunting (1890)), praises also the Artois Hound. He reports that the artesien breed of his time was crossbred and difficult to find pure but, in spite of that, it still remained one of the best breeds for hare hunting. He has taken care, however, of placing representatives of the breed in the big kennel of the Jardin d?Acclimatation, so that it would be know by the general public. At the end of the XIXth century and at the beginning of our century, M. Levoir in Picardy has attempted the re-establishment of the old Artois type without really succeeding. During that period and until the beginning of the First World War, it was another Picard breeder, M. Mallard, who dominated the raising of the breed. But if he produced very pretty dogs, as witnessed by his numerous awards in canine shows, they were not always in the type conformed with the description given by the old authors. After the second World War, it was believed that the Artois Hound was one of the breeds lost for ever. But at the beginning of the 1970s M. Audrechy, of Buigny les Gamaches in the Somme, has fixed as a task to reconstitue the kennel. It is thanks to his efforts and those of Mme Pilat that this breed regains its place amongst the scenthounds.