History of Briards in New Zealand

Written by Linda Shove

In a series of articles from the French Letters Newsletter Linda Shove retraces the origins of Briards in New Zealand and reminds us of some of the important dogs that have brought the breed from 1974 to the present day.

The first Briard to come to New Zealand was a black bitch who arrived in late 1974 / early 1975. LULLINGSTONE TESS (known as 'Tess') was born in England on December 29th 1993 from two black parents (sire: DESAMME DOMINIQUE BEAR, dam: CLONERLAW ABEILLE. Breeder : Mrs S Chapman).

Tess's Welsh owner, Evie Oakes had married a New Zealander in Britain and they brought her with them when they came to live in Wanganui.

At the time Briards were still quite rare in Britian ( the first arrived in England in 1967) but Evie was quite surprised to find Tess was the first and only Briard in NZ. She wrote to Ruth Bumstead in England to find a suitable mate for Tess and before long BALDSLOW TOHU BOHU (known as Jacques) arrived in Wanganui. He was also black and also from two black parents (sire: Eng Ch VIRD' PASTRE OF BALDSLOW (imp France). dam : Eng Ch LULLINGSTONE MILLICENT OF BALDSLOW - Breeder : Mrs S Chapman) Lullingstone Millicent was a half sister to 'Tess' both being out of Clonderlaw Abeille.

BALDSLOW TOHU BOHU (known as Jacques)

February 26th 1976 was a momentous day for NZ Briards when 'Tess' whelped a litter of 11 black puppies. Unfortunately she became very ill and her milk dried up when the puppies were only three days old. This meant that Evie had to hand rear all the puppies - a mammoth task with such a big litter. By the time she fed them all, it was time to start at the beginging again with the next feed. 'Tess' recovered but infortunately was never bred from again.

Evie chose BALA as her kennel name - very apt as it's a place in Wales famous for its sheepdog trails. With Briards being completely unknown in NZ, Evie had problems selling the puppies - the last didn't go until they were nearly 6 months old. Three or four of the litter were shown a little, but only ABIGAIL OF BALA was shown with any great consistency or success, and she was the only one to be bred from (more about her later).

'Tess' had lost so much coat with her litter that she was unable to be shown again, but 'Jacques' went on to become the first NZ Briard Champion when he gained his final C.C. at the National Dog Show in August 1976.

From the first Briards in Wanganui the story now moves to Dunedin.