ORIGIN : France.
DATE OF PUBLICATION OF THE VALID ORIGINAL STANDARD : 28.12.1973.
UTILIZATION : Hound.
FCI'S CLASSIFICATION : Group 6 : Scent hounds and related breeds
Section 1.2.: Medium sized hounds
With working trial.
GENERAL APPEARANCE : A typically bushy-coated hunting dog in a distinctly rustic genre, shaggy und unkempt. Clean legs and muscles. A working hound built for endurance rather than speed. Of rather melancholic character, but never timid.
HEAD : Lean and light, without being small, fairly well eared, a little long.
NOSE : Black, very apparent, a little beard on the chin.
SKULL : Nearly flat, the forehead slightly sloping in to a straight muzzle; superciliary arches appearing even more accentuated because of the bristling hair standing off at eyebrows.
EYES : Preferably dark, sometimes hardly coloured, vivid and piercing expression.
EARS : Supple, set on level with the upper part of the eye, fairly hairy, of moderate width, well shaped, half-long and slightly turned in towards the tip.
NECK : Rather light, clean and without throatiness.
SHOULDERS : Shoulder slightly slanting, clean and close to the body.
FORELEGS : Looking fairly strong because of the hair, but actually leaner than very thick. Standing vertical, but generally and at rest the forelegs, seen in profile, appearing a little behind the vertical; the pasterns strong and never long.
FEET : Slightly elongated, but with solid toes.
CHEST : Descending as much as possible down to the elbows, brisket moderately developed in width, thoracic cage deep and broadening towards the last ribs.
RIBS : The first ones a little flat, the last ones more rounded.
BACK : Rather long.
LOIN : Well supported rather than arched.
FLANK : A little tucked up, but not Greyhound-like.
HAUNCHES : Fairly strong, the rump slanting.
THIGHS : Thighs lean and rather flat.
HOCKS : Hocks well let down and slightly angulated. At rest, the hindlegs may be slightly standing under the body, without exaggeration.
TAIL : Well set on, carried sabre tail fashion and not very long, more furnished towards its middle part, sometimes a little curved over the back at its tip.
COLOUR : Preferably wolf-grey or blue-grey, indication of the grey of the old "gris Saint-Louis" hound, or wild boar grey, or black badly tinged, black Marengo, with tan on the cheeks, above the eyes, on inner sides of the legs and on the feet, or fawn with mixing of black and white hairs, giving it a dark shading.
COAT : Long, shaggy and unkempt, fairly strong, wiry, in any case neither woolly nor frizzy.
SKIN : Pigmented, black spots on the body and mucous membranes.
SIZE : Between 55 to 60 cm for the Dogs
53 to 58 cm for the Bitches
Tolerance of 2 cm more for top quality dogs.
GAIT : Flexible and supple, neither jerky nor bouncing.
FAULTS : Any departure from the foregoing points should be considered as a fault and the seriousness with which the fault should be regarded should be in exact proportion to its degree.
ELIMINATORY FAULTS : Round skull, short head, too light or wall eyes, nose and skrotum pink or vivid brown. For the coat, jet black, wheaten or orange; tricolour with colours distinctly defined; dewclaws.
N.B. : Male animals should have two apparently normal testicles fully descended into the scrotum.