Organise around a pointing dog's working life
A Braque d'Auvergne is a French pointing dog — athletic, close-working and deeply attached to its people — and a complete record file for this breed should mirror that life rather than imitate a generic pet wallet. Use clear sections: identity and microchip, vet and vaccination history, weight and condition, training and field notes, diet, and travel and ownership documents. Because the Braque is less common outside France, good records carry extra weight: a new vet, trainer or border official may meet the breed for the first time through your file, so the identity page should state breed, sex, colouring — typically black with white ticking — and date of birth without ambiguity.
Identity and health history, kept current
Open the file with the identity page: registration papers if you have them, microchip number and registry, your contacts, and a clear recent photograph showing the dog's markings. The health section follows in date order: vaccination record with booster dates repeated on the section front, every visit summary, any imaging or test results, and notes of injuries — for an active gundog, log strains, cut pads and ear or eye irritations from cover and water with the date and outcome, because patterns of recurring minor injury are exactly what a vet needs to see whole. Keep a short list of anything currently being given and any known sensitivities on one page at the front of this section.
Condition, diet and the working season
A Braque d'Auvergne's condition swings with the season — working hard in the shooting season, quieter in summer — so a monthly weight and condition log, paired with the food amounts being fed at the time, is one of the most useful pages in the file. Note appetite, coat condition and stamina changes in a line or two each month; a pointing dog that tires early or goes off food is showing you something, and dated notes beat recollection. When you change food, write the change and the reason into the log so later entries make sense to anyone else feeding the dog, including kennels during the season.
Training, travel and handover papers
Keep a training section that a Braque genuinely benefits from: current commands and whistle signals as actually used, steadiness and retrieving progress, and any behaviour notes a trainer, sitter or fellow handler should know. Behind it, file travel and ownership documents together — for a French breed, cross-border trips are plausible, so keep vaccination proof, any travel documents, insurance schedule and purchase or transfer papers in one place, with expiry and renewal dates noted on the divider. Anyone taking this dog over, temporarily or permanently, should be able to run its life from this file alone.
The cadence: file fast, review on a rhythm
Completeness comes from a simple update system: papers filed the day they arrive, weight logged on a fixed date monthly, a quarterly check that contacts, insurance and chip registry details are still current, and one annual full read-through where superseded pages come out. Set the annual review just before the working season if your Braque works, so the file is at its best when the dog is busiest. In KinsLe, the Pet Passport does that organising for a Braque d'Auvergne digitally, drawing identity, records and key details into one portable packet that is ready for the vet, for travel or for a handover at any point in the season.