In his remarkable Manuel de la verieerie française, published in 1890, Count Le Couteulx de Canteleu still spoke of "bastards of Haut-Poitou". It should be noted that these dogs, now called Poitevins, existed then at most only for about forty years. It is indeed from 1842 that Viscount Emile de La Besge created the race, and this, as a result of dramatic incidents.
This gentleman had started hunting in 1830, when he was eighteen. He had made the special military school of Saint-Cyr, but his father, an uncompromising royalist, preferred to see him run the wolf rather than let him serve in a revolutionary army. Viscount Émile therefore began breeding from descendants of the great White Dogs of the Roy, crossed with Laryes; the latter, according to some, being derived from Irish tricolor dogs (but this is not the opinion of Le Couteulx, the question remains to be elucidated).
Still, the pack prospered until 1842, when the rage began to devastate the kennels that M. de La Besge maintained in the Moulière forest, between Châtellerault and Poitiers. Only one dog and two bitches who had remained at the kennel of Persac, residence of the Viscount, were spared. M. de La Besge then sent for six English dogs, but it turned out that two of them did not want to rub the thorns, so he resolved to yield them to Monsieur de La Débutrie in the Vendee. At that moment, there remained to the Viscount two famous dogs, of English origin, Talbot and Rochester, as well as two French bitches, Tartane and Turbulente. Talbot and Turbulente gave birth, in particular, to Fringante, a dog who had a great reputation because of its fine nose and speed. It was she who was bred by Traveler, a beautiful English dog that La Besge had bought at Le Couteulx in exchange for a quarter-blood named Vaillant. Of this pair are supposed to be from all current Dogs of Haut-Poitou, which were homologated in 1957 like race Poitevine.
One of the most famous descendants of Fringante and Traveler was Faublas. La Besge says: "It was the complete expression of strength, of power, combined with lightness and an incomparable distinction. As a quality, he joined to a wonderful nose finesse a magnificent voice and conduct, and, as speed and as vigor, he never, I believe, was equaled. I saw him take a big wolf alone after six hours, after having received a very vigorous dog relay at the end of three hours, then to him also two big boys."
These origins Poitevins do not however unanimous. Thus, Count Henri de la Porte situates them in other places and at an earlier date since he states that, as early as 1835, his uncles Auguste and Paul had already fixed the race from two subjects: Tenor and Ravissant. He recognized, however, that there were already many races in Upper Poitou, a country where hunting for common dogs is prosperous: besides the Laryes, it was here that the Ceris, the Couhes and the Foudras had developed.
In the end, it is likely that these various dogs are at the origin of those whom M. de La Besge father gave to his son to persuade him to hunt rather than engage in a republican army, and that the current Poitevins descend bastards brought up by the Viscount, therefore of Fringante and Traveler.
The Poitevin is initially a crossing of French dog and English dog, with particularly distinguished silhouette. This silhouette is explained if one accepts the hypothesis according to which the Laryes had Greyhounds, in other words, Sighthounds, in their ancestry. Four English retreats in forty years have hardly changed the appearance of the dogs of M. de La Besge, and we find today their descendants in many crews. Dr. Guillet, who was the greatest dog specialist, had an exceptional lot at the Kéréol rally.
It was primarily to hunt the wolf that M. de La Besge had trained his dogs. His main concern was that they go well in the gorse, because it is true that the Moulière, which constituted the heart of its territory, included, at that time, a lot of very pungent heaths: they occupied the sites deforested for the exploitation the "millstone"; stone for the mills; hence the forest takes its name. But it was also necessary to make the dogs capable of taking large wolves, to which, according to the chroniclers of the time, only two great huntsmen arrived: Le Couteulx and, of course, Viscount Emile! The latter regularly exchanged dogs.
Large wolves sometimes led hunts for 100 kilometers, so it might be necessary to stop the pack in the middle of the night to put it back in the early morning. One can only marvel at the qualities that were then required of dogs, among which the delicacy of nose was paramount. As for the Poitevin, Henri de La Porte, the nephew of those who raised tenor and ravishing, says: "His nose, long and arched, announces by its conformation the power of his sense of smell; he fans at great distances, and makes galloping wolf-like tracks quite strong. And this author insists, like La Besge, on the obstinacy of the race, even when it has to pass through branches or gorse.
But to grasp all the qualities of Persac's dogs, it is necessary to repeat the stories of Viscount Emile. Persac was then the name of the property where his kennel was situated, on the banks of the Vienne, just south of Lussac. The forest of Gouex was at its door, and the Moulière, the Braconne, the forests of Rancon, Brigueuil or Mareuil were only a few leagues away. It was in these territories that, in 1863, La Besge was able to compare the value of his dogs with that of the Fox-Hounds of the Duke of Beaufort.
That year, in fact, the duke came from England to try to force some of our louvarts with a pack of sixty dogs. When the pack of badminton; that was his name; arrived in Poitou, all the great huntsmen of the region were there: the Baron de Champchevrier, MM. Roux de Reilhac, Montbron, etc. In short, they were between a hundred and a hundred and fifty horsemen to support the duke's dogs, but, in spite of the remarkable work of the MM's rappers. Guichard, English dogs would never take the wolf's way!
So, forty-eight hours later, Tenebro, Mauresque, etc., of the Persac london, were decoupled in the forest of Verrieres. At seven o'clock the huntsman set up a young boy, whom Stentor, Mauresque, and Talbot immediately took. The three dogs forced him to a hellish train until about ten o'clock, when the rest of the pack was put in the track. Around noon, all the dogs fell in default, at the edge of a small river. The viscount made his front, his rear, without result. But he missed the famous Tenebro. Suddenly, he was heard giving voice some 100 meters ahead: the dog had found himself alone in the way of the wolf, who was caught a few minutes later.
Such are the dogs of Poitou: very fine nose, able to resume a track after several hours of default, passing everywhere, including gorse that was the obsession of M. de La Besge. But Persac's dogs also stood out in the way of deer or deer. It is still the famous Moorish who, one day, revived alone a deer attacked in the forest of Mareuil and which had crouched in the "wood with the king", above Bonneuil-Matours, from where the animals were put to burst forth from all sides when the pack arrived. Immediately joined by her brother Tenebro, she forced with him the deer to jump the wall of the estate of Mariville, which bordered the village east of the Vienne. Tenebro also managed to pass the obstacle, which should not be less than 2 meters high, and forced the animal on the roof of a house on the hillside!
We leave the conclusion to Henri de La Porte: "I wish my enemies twenty-five good dogs of this race, and I am convinced that the reconciliation will soon be made!" |
Aggressive or overly shy.
English (United Kingdom) 
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