Barbet
An old French water dog and an ancestor of the poodle, curly right down to the beard on its muzzle. It works marshes and is happiest wet.
Photo by Pleple2000, CC BY-SA 4.0
Overview
The Barbet is a French water dog, one of the older European gundog types, bred to retrieve out of marshes. The name comes from barbe, meaning beard, and the whole dog is covered in a dense woolly curly coat that keeps it warm in cold water.
It is an ancestor of several other breeds including the Poodle, and it nearly disappeared in the twentieth century before being rebuilt from a small number of dogs.
Temperament
Cheerful, sociable and eager to please. Barbets are notably good tempered, friendly with strangers and other dogs, and they bond closely to their families.
They are sensitive and biddable, which makes training straightforward, and they do badly with harsh handling. They are also velcro dogs that follow their people from room to room and dislike being left alone.
Care and grooming
The dense curly coat mats readily and needs combing right down to the skin two or three times a week, plus professional grooming every couple of months.
It sheds very little, which is why the breed is often suggested to allergy sufferers, and no dog is genuinely hypoallergenic. Hip dysplasia and progressive retinal atrophy occur, and PRA has a DNA test.
Living and exercise
An hour or more a day, with swimming if it can be arranged, because this is a water dog and it is happiest wet.
They are good at dog sports and they enjoy training. The breed is rare, so a breeder search takes time and the gene pool is narrow enough to be worth asking about.
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