A Visit with J Chastel
From the Belgian Canine magazine WOUF, 1978
"Each generation should be better than the last" - breeder, J. Chastel has worked for half a century on his own line.
The weather was frightful and cold, the frozen ground covered with a fine layer of snow, the sky gray, the wind biting. It took us some time to find the de la Thudinie kennel. The streets were empty due to the cold, and the houses seemed uninhabited.
We pressed on, the Belgians are not generous with street signs. Then the moment came when we heard barking, and were further reassured by the sight of the first bouvier, dark against the snow, lunging menacingly at a gate.
We could not see, but we heard others. M. Chastel welcomed us to his home and we began to discuss bouviers. But we also wanted to see them, and together we braved the cold. The breeder headed for a central paddock and opened all the kennels.
The bouviers, in full cry, crossed the yard and hurled themselves at the enclosure in which we stood, leaping boisterously and comically in the snow. Fifteen, twenty, who could count? We wanted to enter the paddock to see them more closely, but we could not: on their own territory and all together, they would tear us to pieces. Since this was not an enticing prospect, I contented myself with putting my hand through the wire fencing. They sniffed eagerly, their damp beards slipping over my fingers.
The breeder pulled me back suddenly as a big dark dog threw himself against the wire of the enclosure, making it shake. "Not this one", he said, and firmly ordered the dog back. "This is the only one that I do not trust completely." I looked at those fiery eyes beneath the bristling eyebrows and found them quite frightening. Are they all like this? They have a unique head, powerful and rough with small alert ears, and shaded eyes. But however I looked at them, I could not be afraid of them, in spite of all the stories I have heard about bouviers with questionable temperaments. What fine eyes! I had to know the truth. Would he let one out into the garden so that I might have a picture too? We couldn't shoot through the fence, as in a zoo. It was possible, and before I knew it I found myself in the garden, with a bouvier on a lead, ruffling his coat and head. He allowed me to do this undisturbed, completely indifferent as to my attentions: only his master had his attention. I thought to myself: this is a well balanced temperament.
But the wind became colder and we could not remain outside. In the breeder's small office, he brought in a young male, just nine months old. He still had his puppy manners. He was easily distracted by any sort of game, a little surprised by strangers, but then, weren't they there to play with him? The breeder smiled. "The bouvier develops slowly", he said. "At a year, they are still babies. One must be careful with them, otherwise one risks ruining their character. They are completely different from the Belgian shepherds."
M. Chastel told us of his devotion to the bouvier, beginning about 1930. He told us how in 1933, he bought his first bitch from a breeder, and since then, scarcely interrupted by the war, he had worked to develop the ideal bouvier, had developed his own line, "True", I said to myself, "I have seldom seen a group of dogs so similar in appearance, a real family".
What the breeder should accomplish, he told me, by rigorous selection and a certain amount of inbreeding, is the creation of a good type, a good line, improving it constantly, each generation better than the last. This is something that can take almost an entire lifetime.
How do you select? "A good point", he replied. "One cannot always rate one dog superior. Sometimes it is necessary to make choices."
Now does one choose? "You should keep in mind that character is of primary importance, more than type, more than gait. It is only after considering these things in order of their importance that you can turn your attention to lesser specific factors. It is here that the public and the inexperienced always go wrong, first by being anxious about details, such as color and length of coat. Would you have a bouvier that does not act like one, who does not have all those moral characteristics for which the bouvier has been chosen for centuries? Obviously the bouvier no longer has to herd cattle, but does not the new owner want a dog that is courageous, bold, intelligent, and fond of work? It is up to the breeder to deliver such an animal."
We saw the work books of the bouviers of Thudinie; the consistently good results in the show ring, and in tracking. "I work with my dogs", the breeder said proudly. "I really know their character, and so can practice selective breeding. Extremes of temperament (fear and aggression) can readily be identified, but this alone is not enough, since character and temperament are extremely complex matters. For too long appearance was the sole criterion for selection, in the belief that correct character would perpetuate itself as a bonus, so to speak. Alas, nothing is further from the truth. Everything is in a constant state of evolution, and whatever is not used withers away, and before you know it you have a breed of dog fit only for languishing in an easy chair."
I was glad to hear this said by a reputable breeder! "You train your dogs", I remarked, that takes a great deal of time and energy, and you have a great many dogs ....." The response was icy, "You see to it that you do not have too many dogs. If breeding is your hobby, if you are a fanatic about your chosen breed, you must find the time needed. If you are not able to find the time, then find another hobby. Otherwise you are contributing to the degeneracy of the breed, in just the same way as the greedy breeders, traders and shopkeepers. If a Bouvier des Flandres does not have all of the moral qualities of a bouvier, he is not a Bouvier des Flandres. He must be nothing less than superb !
But that involves time and effort. And I think it is unfortunate for the breed that the bouvier is becoming popular. This is attracting people into breeding who see the chance to make money, people who do not take the exclusive view of the betterment of the breed.
"We should lay stress on character now, so that we may have a fine uniform type of bouvier, because there is no reserve of working bouviers on the farms. The peasant naturally practiced selective breeding of character, since none of them would keep a dog who did not work well. Today, breeders should pursue this selection of character. We should produce a bouvier who is neither shy nor aggressive, but who knows how to bite when he has to. And only when he has to: a great friend to children, and a ruthless guardian of house and property. If one of my bouviers ever bit a child without cause, I would get a gun and kill him, myself, at once, even if he were by best dog. Such a thing cannot be allowed to happen."
Let us move on. The breeder brings in another dog about two years old; a bouvier also an excellent nose. The dog is held in check while the breeder goes about 100 meters out to place a stick in a frozen field, then the dog retrieves it. We are able to observe from a small rise. On command, the bouvier, with his nose to the wind, follows the breeder's trail, runs, hesitates, lowers his nose, takes the stick and brings it to his master at a run.
"Hey", I said, astonished "he didn't even have his nose to the ground." "It's not necessary", said the breeder, smiling "when you have a very good nose. What you have just seen in nothing. You should see him work on an old, long track." And his working record showed, in fact, that this bouvier had scored close to the maximum points in tracking.
"Such skill does not just happen," said the breeder. "You have to train your dogs long and hard. It is only when you know their strengths and weaknesses that you can make effective choices about character. Preparing dogs for shows also requires a great deal of training. The dog must learn to conduct himself without hesitation in all circumstances, and to bear himself boldly and attentively. In addition, I set aside 15 minutes for each dog, each day to play, games with a ball, etc.
"A bouvier must be combed like all rough-coated dogs. Happily the bouvier coat, not like that of a terrier, has a different quality. But it also takes time. Taken together the quality of the coat and undercoat constitute a problem in breeding and selection, since they are never a constant."
We asked to see a puppy. He brought one in, barely three months old, who had never been in the house. He was a little shy, and for the first time I saw a suspicious, skittish expression in the eyes of a bouvier. "It is nothing", said the breeder, "give him 48 hours in the house and everything will be all right, he will look at you with new confidence."
"It is too bad", he said "that when you sell a puppy, you seldom have occasion to see him again. Few of those who buy ever come back to show you their dogs. You work so hard to produce good dogs and you have only the barest idea what becomes of them once they are sold."