01/12/2025
The Bulgarian gonche according to the FCI classification belongs to Group VI, section 1.2 – Gonches of medium height. In the past, it was mainly specialized for hunting rabbit, and in the last 40-50 years in the hunting of wild boars, but it can also be used to hunt any furry game. It has magnificent physical qualities combined with excellent sense of smell, agility in searching and tracking game, sense of orientation, inexhaustible energy and endurance. Medium in height, with a strong, harmonious and elegant body with a slightly elongated format.
The Bulgarian beagle is one of the oldest hunting breeds on the Balkan Peninsula. This is evidenced by the preserved to the present day written and cultural monuments of antiquity, paintings, etc. Information about the Bulgarian gonche is found in the works of Xenophon and Arion, who lived and worked in the period around the 7th - 6th century BC. These dogs were used for hunting by Thracians, Celts and Illyrians. According to the Slovenian cynologist Dr. Locar, already in the period around 2000 BC, the ancient Elini hunted with gonches of this type. The researcher Hegedorf shows that our gonches have Asian origins. The spread of these dogs on the Balkan Peninsula, as well as elsewhere, was helped by wars that caused them to be transported from one country to another. Another major reason is that dogs often became a bargaining chip or were given by a ruler of a ruler in a sign of benevolence.
Proof of the Bulgarian origin of the gonche are the paintings of the Czech artist Yaroslav Veshin, who lived and worked in Bulgaria from November 1897 to 1915. Credit to -The Bulgarian Gonche National Club (NKBG) Which brings together a large part of the breeders, users and ordinary lovers of the breed
