Savvy and Cleo eagerly retrieve a South Dakota rooster. Braque Francais are natural retrievers, something rather unique among most of the pointing breeds.

Each of us has an ideal recipe for what makes a fine hunting dog. The ingredients include some combination of good companionship, natural hunting drive, and versatility.

While the French are known for their haute recipes and fine cuisine, they have also given us some fine gun dogs. The Brittany comes to mind. But another great pointing dog hails from France, and continues to gain a paw-hold in North America -- the Braque Francais, or French Pointer.

I met these wonderful dogs last fall on a pheasant hunt with Brad Boisen of South Dakota's Grand Ciel Lodge. I learned firsthand that Boisen's description of these lovely white-and-brown pointing dogs -- "calm, quiet and easy-going family dogs that become hunting demons in the field" -- was right on.

The Braque Francais combines a laid-back and loving disposition with an eagerness to please and a fierce drive to hunt. If you're looking for a versatile hunting dog that will love you, be part of the family, require minimal training and hunt up a storm, consider the Braque. It would be hard to cook up a better dog.

History
Gun Dog's Chad Mason put the Braque Francais on the North American sporting dog scene a decade ago with his landmark story, "Braque Francais -- the French Pointer in North America" (Gun Dog Magazine, December 1999, available at gundogmag.com).

The Braque's history is worth re-exploring.

Delivering a bird to hand is almost second nature for these eager-to-please dogs.

Like all short-haired pointing breeds, the Braque Francais originated in Europe. The ancestor of today's Braque -- a big, burly, hound-like canine known as oysel -- developed on the Mediterranean flanks of the Pyrenees Mountains in what is now France, Spain and Italy. This dog was more suited to "rough shooting," as hunting's goal was game on the table (feathered or furred), not elegant dog work.

Jacques Espee de Selincourt, a huntsman for the French royalty, wrote of the Braque in his 1683 book La Parfait Chasseur (The Perfect Hunter): "He is a quite tall dog, very strong, with a robust chest, big head, long ears, good-sized nose, loose lips, and a white coat with brown spots." This basic description serves any of today's short-haired pointing breeds, because they all originated from this stock.

After the French revolution in 1789, the landscape changed. With less wild land (and smaller parcels) to hunt, a big and wide-ranging dog was a liability. This is when the Braque Francais/Pyrenees -- a smaller, calmer and closer-working dog -- was bred.

Most peasant folk didn't own firearms. If you did, you might not want to shoot them while poaching on your lord's land. So a close-working Braque would point and hold the birds (often partridge), you'd cast a net to catch them, then skedaddle home. There, you had a smaller, calmer, affectionate and mild-mannered companion to share your cottage.

But the dog kept its innate hunting drive and desire. It was the perfect recipe, one that we can value today.

The old-style, larger dog survived in the Gascogne region of France, and is known as the Braque Francais / Gascony or Biscay. Dr. C. Castets, first president of the Club du Braque Francais, worked to preserve this dwindling variety. M.B. Senac-Lagrange, the club's second president, fancied the smaller Pyrenees type, which exists in better numbers today and is the dog we're discussing here.

Immigration
The first North American to bring Braques to these shores was Michel Gelinas of Quebec, in 1973. "Dogs I imported from France were carefully selected from top French breeders who [were] anxious to keep the integrity of the breed in all of its origins," says Gelinas.