Griffon Nivernais

The Griffon Nivernais may have descended from Gallic hounds (Canis Segusius) used by the Gauls, and from the grey Saint Louis dogs. This breed was much appreciated for 200 years, up to Louis XI?s reign, then was abandoned in the royal packs by Francis I who preferred white hounds. Nevertheless, certain Nivernais region noblemen conserved it up to the time of the French Revolution (1789) when the breed seemed to have disappeared. A century later, the Griffon Nivernais, often called ?dog of the region?, was recreated from subjects nevertheless conserved in that cradle of origin of the breed. At the end of the XIXe century and the beginning of the XXe, these dogs received new blood from the Griffon Vendeen, the Fox Hound and then from the Otterhound, establishing the hound breed unchanged ever since then. The club was founded in 1925.