MISCELLANEOUS BREEDS
The Grand ’ s long ears serve to funnel scent toward his nose . The ears should be set below the line of the eye , are supple and fine , and fold in a corkscrew on the side of the dog ’ s head when he is relaxed . The corkscrew is a signature trademark of the breed . Unique are his moustache and beard , giving him a rustic , loveable and endearing expression . The personality of the Grand Basset is laid-back and willing to please . He is said to have good recall when hunted .
The Grand should have basic clean , steady , canine movement with good reach and drive , enabled by his good layback of shoulder balancing with matching angles behind . He carries his head proudly and his tail curved saber-like , thick at the base , slightly tapering to the end with furnishings . The double coat should be rough and harsh , never silky or wooly .
Other very important features of type are the eyebrows , which do not obscure the eyes and are never bluntly scissored , never resembling a terrier . Grooming the breed should simply accentuate his noble Grand features .
There are currently 304 GBGVs registered with AKC . In closing , we repeat that if there is one thing a judge should know about the breed : The Grand is NOT a larger version of a PBGV .
THE NEDERLANDSE KOOIKERHONDJE
BY SHERYL FULLER , JUDGES ’ EDUCATION COORDINATOR , WITH DEBORAH BEAN AND CAROL BROWN
The first question always asked : “ How do you pronounce the name ?”
It is pronounced : Ne (“ nay ”) – DER – ( like “ her ” with a D ) – lan – ( like “ lawn ”) – dse ( tsuh ) Kooi ( like the Japanese fish ) – KER ( like “ her ” with a K ) – hond (“ hun ” like Attila the Hun with a “ d ”) – je ( as in “ just ” without the “ st ”).
Just say “ Kooiker ” for short – Kooi ( like the fish ) KER ( like “ her ” with a K ), neither like Quaker nor cookie nor kooky .
What do all those syllables mean ? First , Nederlandse means “ Dutch ” in the Dutch language . Kooi is a cage or a trap and kooiker is the man who runs the trap . Hond means dog ( not hound ) and hondje means small or little dog . So the literal English translation is : “ The Dutch Duck Trapper ’ s Little Dog .”
History
This is an old breed , depicted in paintings from the Netherlands back to the early days of the Renaissance . They were used to lure ducks into elaborate man-made pond trapping systems called Eendenkooi — the origin of the English word “ decoy .” Eendenkooien are still in use today primarily for ornithological research , but some continue harvesting ducks for the table , as they were before the invention of accurate fowling weapons .
Prince Willem van Oranje , or William “ the Silent ,” founder of the Dutch monarchy , is believed to have owned a Kooikerhondje , called Kunze ( or Pompey according to various sources ). Kunze is credited with saving Prince Willem ’ s life in 1572 , during the Eighty Years ’ War . Thanks to the little dog ’ s alert barking , the
Prince escaped a sudden attack by the Spanish Army .
Dutch painters like Jan Steen and Rembrandt frequently included them in their works , reflecting the breed ’ s popularity during their lifetimes .
Once shotguns became the norm for duck hunting , the effort needed to maintain the trapping system was largely abandoned , and the breed fell from popularity . A few were kept in the countryside , but even in their native Netherlands , they were and are a very rare breed .
Skip forward to the 20th century : In 1939 , as part of her silent resistance to the Occupation of her homeland , a Dutch lady of nobility , the Baroness van Hardenbroek van Ammerstol , undertook the preservation of the breed long associated with the House of Orange . She sent peddlers who visited her estate off with a clipping of fur the right color and a photograph of the dog . When a peddler spotted a dog that looked similar , he would write to the Baroness . She would then travel to look at the animal . In this manner , the Baroness found Tommy , an orange-red and white female in the province of Friesland , in the northern part of the Netherlands . Tommy had a litter in 1942 of four puppies , one dog and three bitches . Those dogs became the foundation for the breed ’ s recovery .
The Baroness bred 57 litters of Kooikerhondjes from 1942 to 1967 under the kennel name “ Walhalla .” She kept meticulous records , a habit continued today by the Dutch parent club .
There are fewer than 9,000 Kooikerhondjes worldwide with just over 400 registered in the United States at this time .
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