Our Breeding Program
Although our primary focus is to produce a HUNTING Griffon, we never want to breed them in a manner where they lose their good citizenship. Always willing to please, incredibly trustworthy, intelligent, easy to train, very affectionate and occasionally mischievous in nature. With amazing drive our dogs are superb in the field, with the family and their companionship is extraordinary. The well-trained Griffon knows exactly what to do in the field, they “turn it on” and in the home they settle into the family routine by knowing “how to chill”.
All of our potential breeding dogs are hunt tested through the National Versatile HUNTING Dog Association (NAVHDA) and must earn a minimum score of 105 out of 112 total points. Upon completion of NAVHDA testing we utilize the PennHip method of health testing for hips. Our breeding dogs must qualify in the top 75th percentile.
After the testing we observe the dogs in the field extensively. Our aim is to determine if they possess the kind of drive, bird finding ability, predisposition to both point and retrieve and lastly, biddability!
Once we are satisfied that we have a “HUNTING machine” on our hands we then scrutinize their behavior in the house. They must prove their good citizenship as we mentioned above. No counter surfing, problem chewing, destructive behavior, inability to settle and nuisance barking is allowed
Once they pass all this scrutiny we move on to the remainder of their health screening. We test for eyes, thyroid, hips, elbows, heart and K-Locus or "Tan Point gene".
Since we are a HUNTING dog kennel, physical attributes such as tight feet, tail set, and chest structure are extremely important to us. We see many Girffons with a sloppy foot that result in irritated or torn pads and inflamed toe beds that keeps them from HUNTING. We hunt our dogs in the very unforgiving chukar coverts and never boot them. Our dogs are traveling 20+ miles per outing over Lava Rock and scree without foot problems.
We endeavor to continue on with the vision of our breed founder Eduard Korthal in creating the PERFECT gundog.
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The coat we breed for is tight, dense and harsh. Griffon tight, dual coats are well insulated (they are known to make snow angels in below zero temperatures) but do not overheat in mild HUNTING conditions. This field style coat, sheds cockleburs and protects them from all things that stick.
Due to the Griffons popularity explosion and indiscriminate breeding the esoteric Griffon breed is in peril. Most backyard breeders have one dog, many lack due diligence in health testing and/or field testing, and many are uneducated in genetics and breed dogs that are not a good match. This type of breeding can manifest a multitude of problems within the breed, ranging from health (structurally and mentally), soft fluffy coats and poor prey drive. Fear biting and submissive urination is also showing up. At Hun Hill Kennel it is obligation to breed dogs that better our beloved Wirehaired Pointing Griffons.
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