Barbet is a medium-sized French water dog. Barbet is an Obedient, Sociable, and most Intelligent Dog Breed. It is registered in Group 8 of Retrievers, Flushing Dogs, and Water Dogs at French Kennel Club (Société Centrale Canine). The breed name comes from the French word ‘Barbe’, which means 'beard'. Barbet dog is a prototypic water-dog, with a long, woolly, and wavy coat.
Weight and Height
The male Barbets are weighing to be 18 to 27 kg (40 to 60 lb) and 53 to 64 cm (21 to 25 inches) tall; whereas females are considered between 14 to 23 kg (30 to 50 lb) weight and 51 to 58 cm (20 to 23 inches) height.
Lifespan
An average lifespan of Barbet is 13 to 15 years, whereas one recorded lifespan is 19 years.
Coat and Colors
The coat of Barbet grows quickly, so it must be groomed regularly, otherwise, it can become matted and the dog may lose small tufts of hair like tumbleweeds. The Barbet is a rare breed. Many Barbets, especially those displayed in conformation shows, are completely black, black and white, or brown. Usually, white chest spots and white paws or legs can be seen on a black or brown coated Barbet. Besides, cream-colored, parti-colored, and pied variations are also being bred but in limited numbers.
The recognized colors of the breed are solid black, brown, grey, fawn, pale-fawn, white, and pied. All shades of red-fawn and pale-fawn are acceptable. Shade should be the same as the color of the body. Grey and white colors are very rare. The very common colors are black or brown with white patterns.
Barbet Temperament
Barbets are generally found to be friendly, obedient, and intelligent dogs. They are easily trainable but they need regular obedience training till life. They are sociable with families; especially the children and aged people. They prefer to stay with family in the same room at all times. Proper daily exercise is required to keep the dog in a healthy state of mind and body.
The Barbets are proficient retrievers for waterfowl hunting. In France, they can take a basic water-retrieving test ‘TAN’ and can participate in a general hunting-dog test ‘BCE’ containing field and water trials. In Germany, the Barbets participate in field trials.
Barbet History
The breed is a vital part of dog-history, and various familiar breeds have Barbet in their lineage. Depending on the topography and requirement, Barbets are connected through the centuries in different sizes; as companion dogs and mostly as multipurpose working dogs. The splendid Barbet represented in Count George Louis Buffon's book Histoire Naturelle (1750) is considered the original source of many water-dog breeds such as Poodles, Portuguese, and American Water Spaniel etc. The true beginning of Barbet is lost in ancient times but may stem from corded-coat herding dog stock, also familiar to the breeds like ‘Komondor’.
Like as Portuguese water dog, the Barbet has also worked as Sailor's companion. In France, it was best recognized for being a waterfowl retriever in marshes, wetlands, and estuaries. Between the late 18th to early 19th centuries, the ‘Muddy’ was renowned as ‘Barbet’ in France, ‘Barbone’ in Italy, and ‘Pudel’ in Germany for almost a century; when the barbets and poodles were thought to be the same breed.
With the start of dog-shows and selective breeding based purely on aesthetics, the poodles were produced much graceful in a solid color to differentiate them from their widespread ancestors. The multipurpose nature of the Barbets has meant its existence, and many present Barbets still have characteristics of their ancestral stock lost in poodle group. The origins and bloodlines of Barbets can be traced from the first standard written in 1891.
The breed is more famous in Scandinavian countries and North America, as more and more people are becoming a fan and adopting this multipurpose working dog.
Status in the United States
There are very few Barbets living in the United States. An estimated number in America was between 150 and 200 in 2013. Efforts are being put in to increase the number of Barbets in the United States through careful breeding and imports from Canada & Europe. Now Barbets are completely recorded in the United States with American Rare Breed Association (ARBA) and the United Kennel Club (UKC). Barbets have also been registered in the American Kennel Club (AKC) Foundation Stock Service Program. For a breed to obtain full AKC recognition, there must be at least 150 breeding specimens documented at the AKC's Foundation Stock Service, and there must be a vigorous breed-specific AKC-affiliated club stimulating the breed. For example, through competitions, exercises, and conformance shows.
The breeding in the United States is comparatively slow. In 2009, there was only one new litter of 6 purebred Barbets born in the United States. In 2011, two additional litters were added; two litters in 2010, and three in 2013.
Status in Great Britain (UK)
In modern times, the first male Barbet was brought into the United Kingdom in 2001, but he did not reproduce. In 2007, two dissimilar females were brought in from France. The majority of Barbets presently held in the United Kingdom are descendants of these. Since then, additional specimens of this breed have been imported from France, Canada, Netherlands, Sweden, and Poland. Numerous UK-born Barbets have been used in breeding programs of other countries; so their descendants can be found in Netherlands, Germany, Switzerland, Finland, Sweden, and Canada.
Since April 2018, the Barbet is the 220th breed documented at Kennel Club of United Kingdom. The Barbets produced in the United Kingdom before this date were registered in France by the Société Centrale Canine (SCC), a national associate of the FCI. Averagely, there are only one or two British-born litters born each year. As of 2018, there are about 140 Barbets living in the United Kingdom.
Most of the Barbets living in the United Kingdom are kept as pets, although a small number are used regularly as gun-dogs, agility-dogs, and for search-and-rescue work. They can also participate in conformation shows in FCI-member countries, with two British Barbets achieving French Champion status in 2014.