"A Château That's Gone to the Dogs"

That's what Europe travel guru Rick Steves call the Château of Cheverny (in the Loire Valley in France) , and that was the sole reason for my visit in 2000: to see the dogs. More specifically, it's the mix of English foxhound and French Poitou. And there were a whole army of them.


Once bought the ticket, my friend went strait to see the Château; I simply went sideway to see the enclosure where the tourists were all fences out. It was before the meal time, i.e. show time, dogs were doing whatever they wanted, resting, sniffing. There were a couple of dogs that were not hound, like the one in the middle, obviously a Yellow Lab, likely came from the neighborhood for the training purpose.

I must say I've never seen so many dogs all in one space, with no partition. I worried the fighting among them; but no such thing in this place, everyone was in good term with each other.

When the meal time got closer, the dogs were sent to the roof to wait while the trainer put out the food. Some seemed eager and started to whine or bark, with all eyes on the food downstairs.

When the food was finally ready, and reach the exact show time, the stair gate was open, and everyone just rush. Now, here is the miracle: the trainers, each got a whip, hold all the dogs right in front of the food, and not a single dog moved to eat the food. As a dog owner, I knew how hard it is to even control one dog not to take food right in front of it, let alone so many of them together, with the competition of the food push the urge to the limit. They whine,they yelp, and yet, no one dare making a move!

Then, another command, the feeding frenzy just started. Many jumped right over the pile of food, took position, woof down without hesitation. Some dog even tried to eat with feet still on other's body. See below, 3rd (or 4th, or 5th) to the left.

All the good thing end too soon. Every scrap of food was consumed in minutes. 

After meal was the time for the trainers to get close with the dogs. They identified several dogs with wounds, maybe be fighting or got whipped, and applied ointment.

Some dogs obviously felt stressful in this situation of big group and fighting for food.  A couple of them somehow got on the concrete base of the iron fence, and simply walked along the fence back and forth. See the one right next to the trainer.

It has been 12 years since I saw those hounds, my camera has since turned digital, and Europe is now a far and away place.  I found a more recent video of feeding the hound (click here to experience the noise right before the meal), showed the number of trainer has been downsized to only one, and the food trays were gone, all the food (dry food, meat, and bones) is now simply placed on the ground. Still the whole troupe of hound, still yelping, whining, barking. The wonder of Cheverny.