About the Barbet
The Barbet is a French water dog, the name Barbet comes from the word Barbe, which means beard.
The Barbet was bred to flush out and retrieve game from marshes. This means they have quite a lot of momentum when they decide to rush towards something!
There is a general misconception that Barbets are natural swimmers, but although some would also retrieve birds from the water, they have not been bred to swim in open water, so not all Barbets swim, or like being in water.
The Barbet is a happy, friendly breed that gets on with both dogs and people. Their nature is generally calm rather than hyper, but they do have their moments. They love to be with their people, and don’t like being left alone.
You can read about our Barbets, Remy and Willow here.
Living with a Barbet
A perfectly clean and tidy home? Not a chance!
Water and Mud
They collect water and mud wherever they go. They are water dogs, and so will find whatever type of water suits them, and get right in. This is often muddy too, and so your Barbet is likely to be rather bedraggled whenever you go out for a walk. They take ages to dry, so be prepared for them to still be wet when you get home. Mud does not come out of their hair very easily, so you’ll also have muddy paw prints on the floor, and a fine coating of dried mud everywhere else. You are still not safe when you are at home, as their beard will drip water for quite a distance every time they have a drink, and their journey from the water bowl is usually to you for a cuddle, which means their wet beard will end up on you! Keeping the house clean is definitely more time consuming with a Barbet around.
Vegetation
They are often called Velcro dogs, and this is one of the reasons. Whatever they do, any vegetation that is not attached to something else will get stuck in their hair! You will find twigs, thistles, leaves, parts of plants, and the occasional surprising thing in their hair. Having a pair of gloves and a pair of scissors on you when you go out is very helpful for when you have to ‘release’ your Barbet from brambles or whatever gets attached to them that you can’t get out! This is ongoing, and you will be checking what has gathered in their hair during and after every walk.
Hair
Barbets are a non-shedding breed. This means that their hair does not fall out in the same way as Golden Retrievers or other similar long-haired breeds. This is great for hugging your Barbet and not having a ton of hair on your clothes. Also, you will not be sweeping up great volumes of hair that is no longer on your dog. However, small tufts of hair do come out, so this is probably the least messy aspect of the Barbet!
Toys
If your Barbet is a shredder, constantly replacing toys can be expensive, so having several empty boxes around is a good alternative. Unfortunately, this means that you will also have bits of cardboard all over the place too. Note; your Barbet will be unimpressed if you take a partly destroyed box away to stop any further mess!
Barbet Personality – The Velcro aspect
Now, this is not just about their hair behaving like Velcro as everything sticks to it. It is also about them.
Barbets want to be with you. If you go into another room, they follow you. If you come back out again, they are still following you! As puppies they even get up and follow you around the same room. They are not loners; they want and need your company. Barbets are generally confident, independent, and happy to do their own thing, or something with you. They know their own mind and are very happy to tell you what they think! They just want to be with you.
Exercise
Do you like lots of exercise? If you don’t, then a Barbet is not the breed for you.
I have to follow this with another question – are you happy for your exercise to be when your Barbet wants it, even if you don’t?
Like any dog, Barbets have their lazy days when all they want to do is sit on the sofa and snooze. But, if you think this is the norm, then you have another thing coming!
This does happen, but not that often. They like to do things, they are enthusiastic and energetic, and ignoring that only makes them ask you to get up and do something with them more frequently. However, Barbets are not like those breeds that have to be on the go all the time, they just need a happy medium.
Grooming
So, we know the Barbet don’t shed, but does that make it easier or more difficult?
With a dog that sheds, you need to brush regularly so all the dead hair comes out. For breeds that shed, dead hair detaches from the hair follicle and falls out of the coat as you brush the dog. Plenty of hair also falls out without brushing – ending up all over your clothes and home. You definitely need to keep on top of this and brush a dog that sheds, otherwise the hair can get stuck in the coat and cause matting and skin issues, which also means the dog cannot regulate their temperature properly. With some breeds you may also want to trim them a little shorter than their natural length so their hair doesn’t get matted and difficult to brush.
For the Barbet, and other breeds that do not shed, most of the dead hairs do not detach, instead they remain in the hair follicle and so, apart from occasional small tufts, it does not fall out of the coat – meaning you and your home are not covered in hair. For those hairs that do detach from the hair follicle, they are more likely to remain tangled in the curly hair than fall out. However, this leads to a coat that becomes too thick and wooly, and will get matted. Some coats are easy to brush through, some are not. The hair continues to grow until it reaches its longest length. This means that you will need to trim every 4-6 weeks around the eyes to ensure your Barbet can see properly, and around the bum, so that there are no toileting mishaps. The Barbet hair ranges from super curly, which will form dreadlocks, to loose curls, and there are advantages and disadvantages with each. Some are easier to brush through, some are harder. Some mat more quickly than others. Vegetation gets stuck more in some than others. Some Barbets will be too hot in the summer with long hair, and all of them will get muddy and wet in the winter regardless of the length.
Grooming is a combination of brushing and haircuts, with the occasional bath. This is ongoing throughout a Barbet’s life, so needs to be approached carefully to ensure there is no anxiety.
Frequently Asked Questions
Males are 58-65cms (22¾-25½ ins); Females are 53-61cms (20¾-24 ins). Different lines (heritage) means that some breeding will produce Barbets more towards the minimum height, some in the middle, and some towards the maximum height. The size of the parents is an indication of what size you might expect a puppy to grow to, but this is a very basic guide, as there are more factors involved than just the parents of the puppy. To put size into perspective, they are similar in size range to the Dalmatian, Vizsla, and the Pointer.
Generally, yes, they are a friendly breed that likes to meet dogs. However, as with any puppy, teaching social manners is part of every parent’s job. Barbets are generally happy to meet new people as long as it is at their own pace.
Barbets are a working breed, so they do like to have enough to do. They are not content to spend most of their time sitting around, they need to be active and do things. They like different activities that engage their minds as well as their physical needs. They are not a breed that needs to be on the go all the time, but they will not be satisfied with a minimal amount of exercise.
There is no such thing as a hypoallergenic dog. Some people with allergies react less to non-shedding breeds than shedding breeds, but there is no guarantee that the reaction you get when meeting a dog will be the same as when living with a dog.
Their hair needs frequent attention. The combination of brushing, haircutting, and removing vegetation is ongoing, but not overly time consuming.
Without a doubt, keeping the hair shorter is easier and less time consuming than when it is long. A sensible approach is to keep it longer in the cold months, and shorter in the warm months. Having long, thick hair in the summer can result in some Barbets being too hot and not coping well.
Generally, yes. They would rather be within a proximity to you on a walk than go off completely on their own. However, as with all dogs, if they find an interesting scent, or if they see a deer, rabbit, or pheasant run, they are very likely to chase the scent or the animal and then you will not have any recall! There are also certain stages in every dogs’ development where recall is completely forgotten.
As with other breeds, some do and some don’t, it depends on the individual. They are a large dog and can be strong, which means if your Barbet pulls, you will know about it!
The breed is not known for persistent barking, but all dogs are different and some bark a lot, some only bark a little.
The addition of other breeds is common to most domesticated species. Many modern breeds were initially derived from groups of dogs with similar instincts and traits. Breeders selected those to breed from by focusing on instincts and traits that represented future aspirations for the breed they were developing. Following the first incarnation of a breed, there were often further combinations of breeds to achieve our modern-day dogs. In more recent years, breeds that experienced potential extinction or a limited gene pool were further outcrossed with other breeds to ensure their survival. There is a small number of one or more breeds (Poodles, Spanish Water Dogs, Portuguese Water Dogs, and Irish Water Spaniels) in the ancestry of the Barbet race.