It all started with the Hound of Saintonge. The Hound of Saintonge, or Saintongeois, was a specialist at hunting wolves. They were created by crossing the black St.Hubert bloodhound, the white St.Hubert bloodhound (Talbot?),(White Hound of Kings?) and the Saintonge greyhound. Some were crossed on wolves to increase conformation, jaw power and teeth. The Saintongeios had great stamina. One account states that a pack of Saintongeois started a wolf and trailed it for 4 days until they caught and killed it. Multiple accounts were found of wolf races that lasted in the 3-4 day range. Saintongeois owners were known to be very jealous, to the point of being stingy. These hounds ran 24 – 28 inches tall, which was considered very large at that time. Because of the great amount of hunt drive, their extreme cold trailing ability and fine nose, their glued to the track nature, their ease of discipline and packing up, their noble way of carrying themselves and their tremendous ability to pass on their high quality traits, they were very valuable in making crosses. After the French revolution, there was only three remaining Saintongeois hounds in existence, a bitch and two dogs. In the mid 1800’s, Baron Joseph Latour, bred these three to the Grand Bleus of Baron Von Ruble. the first -generation offspring were of such magnificent quality that the two men continued to breed in such manner, and the resulting descendants were given the name "Grand Gascon-Saintongeois".
This is from an old article: ”we find in the Universal Sports Illustrated, 14 January 1906, this description Saintonge dog, which differs little from those given above: "The construction was impeccable, built like greyhounds, they were chest deep, slightly kidney harp, members strong, the feet strong and well made, their very expressive head was elongated and adorned with pendants bypassed and medium length. He is very disciplined and easy to pack. " "The Saintongeois resembles the greyhound" with its distinction, its deep chest, his back slightly curved and narrow ... and its gallop, which places it plain to the forefront after many hours of hunting ".
Also, this: A pack of Gascon Saintongeois of Baron de CARAYON-LATOUR had the honors of the Exposition of 1863 in the "Jardin des Tuileries." She not only won the Grand Prix of Honor packs, but the congratulations of all Veneurs and fit one of the major journals of the time. This was their first public unveiling.
And this: The race can boast of having a Grand Gascon Saintongeois ranked best subject in''Festival VICHY "to 123 packs of Grande and Petite VĂ©nerie.
And this: The former hunting companions of M. de Saint-LĂ©gier cite extraordinary examples: "An old wolf attacked between Saintes and Blaye was taken three days in the mountains of Limousin. Nothing was more beautiful than to see the pack of M. de Saint-LĂ©gier approximate at noonday on limestone plains and barren tract of old wolf, it would sometimes run five or six leagues of decoupling. " To take an old wolf after three consecutive days of racing, it was real hard and these dogs rough dogs in a few years, were not a shadow of themselves.
By the 1980’s, there were less than 10 breeders of the Gascon Saintongeois. At present, there are less than 2,000 Gascon Saintongeois in the whole world.
