The Revival of the Dogue de Bordeaux Breed
Prof. Raymond Triquet
is considered to be the father
and the reviver of the breed that stood on the brink of
extinction in 60-es of the 20th century. His devotion to this
beautiful breed “began” in an unusual way. At that time Mr.
Triquet was teaching grammar in a local school and one of the
pupils, fascinated, came and told about the dog he saw. After that
Prof. Triquet came to see his first Dogue de Bordeaux which made a
great impression on him. He says the dog was “like a lion”.
From that time Prof. Triquet felt it his duty to help reviving the
breed.
There were only two Dogue de Bordeaux breeders in France and they
were rivals. Mr. Triquet managed to get his bitch bought from one
kennel served by an old male from the other one. The owner of the
male had a right for “the first choice” and, of course, he chose
the best puppy from the litter planning to sale him abroad. Still
he was a real gentleman, as Professor Triquet states, and when he
learn professor’s intention to help reviving the breed, he agreed
to choose another puppy.
That best puppy helped to popularize the breed. He was shown by
Mr. Triquet on shows, people gazing at him with enthusiasm and
inquiring if that dog was a representative of some breed. Once an
old man who was a whipper-in in the forest and before the WWII
worked for an Englishman came and thanked Mr.Triquet for
preserving the breed. That old man said he worked with Dogues de
Bordeaux before Germans invaded France. Before leaving to the
island the Englishman shot all his dogs and the former whipper-in
believed there were no Dogues de Bordeaux left at all. The truth
is that many Dogues repeated the fate of those shot before the
Germans’ invasion. Some people say there was also a special order
from Hitler to shot the Dogues at sight because of their strong
protective instinct and genuine devotion to their Masters.
In 1971 Prof. Triquet and
Dr. Maurice Luquet completed the creation of the 3d standard of
the breed.
In 1982 the breed was
“officially” introduced to American breeders in the article
contributed by Carl Semencic for the “Dog World” magazine.
In 1989 Dogue de Bordeaux
named Beasley starred in a famous movie Turner & Hooch, that
became very popular with American audience. Of course, the
attention was drawn to the beautiful stocky mastiff whose breed
was not so familiar to people. The questions about what kind of
dog was Hooch preceded climbing numbers of the Dogues in the
USA and a complete
recognition of this breed by the American Kennel Club in 2008.