At the moment my mother saw the Grand Basset Griffon Vendéen for the first time, she was in love immediately and so the first GBGV came to our family in1988. She would be followed by many more.... The first two came from the Netherlands, but soon we imported a bitch from France. In 1992 our first litter Grands was born. Hièr Après Midi van Tum-Tum's Vriendjes stayed with us and you can find her far away in some of the pedigrees of the dogs we have now. Après is elas not living anymore, but some of her sisters and brothers are!
Since 2004 we have also a Petit Basset Griffon Vendéen from the UK.
We are a member since a long time of the official Dutch, French and Belgium breed club.

this is me with our Fauves, our latets Dachshund and our first Grand in 1989

Who are we?

We are the family Huikeshoven and we live in Oostvoorne, the Netherlands. Here we have a garden and paddocks at 1 hectare, so the dogs have a lot of space! The beach is 10 minutes driving, so we often take some of the dogs to the beach for a walk! Official is it me (Gwen, the youngest daughter) who is the breeder, but in practice I'm doing it together with my parents.

the paddocks

some of the prices won in France at the kennel house
 

My mother Hansje does all the daily work with/for the dogs. She is busy with it all day, but she's most of the time home all the day so the dogs come nothing short!  When we have puppies, she's taking care of them. And she's the one who is always there for all the people who are visiting us or calling us!

My father Frans is gynaecoloog and helps also with the dogs.  Because of his job, he's the one who is always helping with the delivery of the puppies. When me and my mother goes to a show, he takes care for the dogs who are staying home, so we can go quiet to the shows! And he makes the trips to France together with my mother (most of the time it's only driving.....) for a new puppy or a mating.  In January 2005 they made a trip to South-France (1,5 day driving) for a mating....

My father Frans in South France for a mating in 2005

I'm studying to become a veterinary surgeon, I'm in the 4th year now. But apart from this, I have enough time to do things with the dogs! Particularly I'm doing all the grooming of the dogs. Also preparing the dogs for the many shows is a part of this. I'm giving our puppies show training, so they are good prepared for the show world when they are older!  I'm also going often together with my mother to the village with the puppies ot socialise them. And of course it's always fun when we have a litter to play with the puppies! I'm also playing a lot with the other dogs, and therfore they are always very happy when they see me..........

Me and one of the Dachshunds....

To the shows I'm going most of the time with my mother.  Sometimes together with a friend of the dogs or with my father when we go abroad. I'm always handling the dogs at the shows. And with excellent results, but you can read that at another part of this site.

Farandole at the beach

The hunting part is more something of my father. We are not really hunting, but we are taking part in the hunting tests (Brevet de Chasse) in France. Of course we have to practice this, and my parents are doing that. Last winter it went very well, two young dogs obtained their 'Brevet de Chasse'

me with Pays, Pourquoi and Puzzle at the beach

Together we make the decision who will be the parents of our next litter.  We aim to breed a litter that is good in health, character and beauty. We have documented a lot of pedigrees, and this is also a help to choose the right combination. We have and are using a lot of different blood lines, so we have a very big genepool. We make also the decision which puppy we will keep of a litter togheter, and this is not always easy!

Me with our first GBGV at the Specialty of the Dutch Clubshow
 

Our dogs

As you can see at this web site we have quite a lot of dogs. But this doesn't mean that they will not have enough attention! And also not that the older dogs have to go away to make room for the younger ones, the older ones will stay most of the time with us forever! Our oldest dog now is Jina, she's almost 11 now. Very rare we ar rehoming a adult dog, but only when we know for sure that the new home is a very good one!
At these sites you can see the dogs who are showing now and/or used in our breeding program. As you can see we have dog from many different countries, this is one of the reasons we have a very wide genepool!
That people appreciate our kennel is very clear, as we have many enquieries of breeders and other people from all around the world! Our dogs are now all around Europe and in the USA dogs from our kennel will be the beginning of the recognition of the breed in the USA.