Berger Picard

The Berger Picard is a solid, muscular breed with harmonious proportions and no signs of bulkiness. These are alert, confident dogs with tireless, efficient movements and observant, confident, spirited gaze.

The Berger Picard is a double-coated breed with a short, soft, dense undercoat and an outer coat that is harsh and crisp to the touch. The hairs on its outercoat are two to three inches all over their bodies and should have a slight wave but must never be flat, curly, woolly, soft, or so profuse that it hides the outline of their bodies. The Berger Picard is shown in its natural state; their coats must not be sculpted, shaped, or scissored.

Accents on the head and neck include moderate-length hair that contributes to rough eyebrows, moderate beard, and moustache, and a slight ruff on the front and sides of the neck—a distinct look known as griffonage—lend the breed its distinct appearance.

The Berger Picard comes in two colors: fawn and brindle. Fawn dogs may be clear or true fawn with no dark markings or fawn charbonné (fawn with dark charcoal trim on the outer edges of the ears and a gray underlay on their heads and bodies). Brindle dogs can be any shade of base color from black to light grey or fawn with stripes, of black, brown, red, grey, or fawn distributed throughout their coats.

Berger Picards are powerful dogs with strong, level backs; muscular shoulders and hindquarters; strong loins; and deep chests. Their tails are strong at the base and taper to the tip; at rest, the tail hangs straight and reaches to the point of the hock, ending in a slight “J” or crook without falling to the right or left.

These dogs have ears that are high-set, broad at the base and taper to a slightly rounded tip and medium-sized, oval-shaped eyes that are medium to dark brown and convey an alert, observant, confident expression.

The Berger Picard is believed to be one of the oldest herding dogs in the world, with origins dating back to the 9th century. The breed, which comes from the region of Picardy, France, has close ties to other French herding dogs like the Briard and Beauceron; it was not awarded its own breed designation until 1925.

Although French farmers loved the indigenous sheepdog, the Berger Picard almost became extinct during both World War I and World War II. Even though it has made somewhat of a comeback—and gained acclaim for its title role in the movie “Because of Winn Dixie”—the Berger Picard is still rare, even in its native France.