Linda falls for Fawns

Written by Linda Shove

Both our first two Briards were black, this was partly because that was all that was available but mostly because the only colour photo I'd ever seen of a fawn was on the cover of a little American book called "How to Raise and Train a Briard". He was a very unattractive colour - very heavily shaded and with quite light "flat" base colour. This had the effect of making him quite a nondescript "pepper and salt" shade - not at all appealing.

How ever, with the arrival of Micheele and Abi we started to expand our knowledge base and saw some photos of really lovely fawn Briards and very soon I WANTED A FAWN BRIARD - almost as much as i wanted my first Briard! We'd known allalong that we would eventually need to import a male to go with Abi and Michelle - so it seemed obvious that he should be a fawn. When the two girls were nearing their first birthday, I wrote to nancy Tomlin in England. nancy had started Briards in UK and had one of the biggest and most successful kennels there. I'd been corresponding with her since Michelle's arrival because she was (strictly speaking) Michelle's Breeder. (Michelle's dam had been bred, owned and mated by Nancy before coming to Australia to whelp her puppies.)

One night there was another exciting phone call. This was from Nancy to say that there had been a litter from a bitch she had bred _ (DESAMEE MORAG BEAR) - mated to Nancy's recent import from Holland (but bred in France) - DUTCH CH. VALENTIN DE LA PETITE SUISSE DU NORD AT DESAMEE.

Desamee Solange de Vasouy

(Kaid's grandmother)

She was very pleased with one of the fawn males and thought he would suit me very well. So it was quite easy to make the decision for "Kaid" (BELLESME ALKAID) to come to NZ as the first fawn Briard in the country

CH Bellesme Alkaid

"Kaid"

In June 1977 "Kaid" finally arrived in Christchurch from England to start 4 weeks in quarantine kennels. At his first show the day after he came out of quarantine, Kaid took Baby Puppy of Group (form a big line up of breeds) under top Australian judge Roy Burrell. This was the first Championship Show Group win for a Briard in NZ By the end of that year, Kaid had gained his title and was N.Z.'s First Fawn Briard Champion. Kaids's arrival on the show scene caused quite a stir. People had become accustomed to seeing black Briards, so Kaids beautiful fawn colouring was real eye-opener.