Barbet

The Barbet dog breed exists for a lot of time, and the truth is that many dog breeds have Barbet in their ancestry. These dogs were mainly used as companion dogs and as working dogs. Nevertheless, throughout these years, the name Barbet became a generic name for dogs with curly, long woolly fur.

As a matter of fact, Barbet dogs are medium size French water dogs. This dog breed is rare. Their most usual colors are brown, white or black. The most common color combinations are white/black or white/brown where the chest and paws are white and the rest can be either black or brown. However, all shades of red-fawn or pale fawn are accepted. Grey and white are very rare. This prototypic water dog has a long fur, curly and woolly which has to be groomed regularly otherwise the fur will become matted and can lose small tufts of hair.

Male Barbet dogs can grow up to 21 to 25 inches and can weigh between 40 to 60 ponds, while the females can grow up to 20 to 23 inches and can weigh up to 50 pounds.

Barbet dogs are goofy, obedient, and very joyful. They are intelligent and learn very fast. They are very good with children and elderly therefore they make a perfect addition for any family. They bond very easily with their family, and like to spend all their time near humans. However, it is extremely important to perform daily exercises in order to keep them in a healthy state.

Since this dog breed is very rare, it is very little known about their possible health issues. However, some of the most commons are related to ear infections, hernias, epilepsy and undershot or overshot bites. Ear infections are very common in water dogs even though this is something that can be prevented with proper and regular ear care. The ears should always be clean of hair, and should be inspected regularly.