Berger Picard

Lively and close to family; sensitive to harsh handling.
A Berger Picard
Photo: Shana
Adult weight
23–32 kg
51–71 lb
Lifespan
12–13 yrs
Class · Working
also Sport, Companion

What it's like

In temperament the Picard is lively, alert and closely attached to its family, though often reserved with strangers. It is sensitive to harsh handling and can be independent-minded, traits in keeping with its herding past. Outside France, the breed reached a wider audience when Picards played the title dog in the American film Because of Winn-Dixie.

Day to day
Activity
Needs lots of exercise
Intelligence
Needs daily brain work
Handler demand
Needs steady training
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Chases; needs managing
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
Is a Berger Picard right for you?
Take the breed matcher

Living with one

It has a wire or harsh coat. Loose hair stays caught in the coat until it is brushed, stripped or clipped out. Plan on a brush once a week, plus hand-stripping two or three times a year. It needs plenty of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Berger Picard is a medium dog, about the weight of a grown Golden Retriever. It is one of the heaviest medium breeds.

It is a lean, rustic-looking dog, slightly longer than tall, with fairly large, naturally upright ears and a tail that hangs to the hock and ends in a slight hook, often likened to a J. The coat is harsh and crisp to the touch, of moderate length, with shaggy eyebrows and a short beard; it comes in fawn or brindle shades.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 5 months, a male Berger Picard puppy is already as heavy as a grown Staffordshire Bull Terrier. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old. The biggest males grow into the size large-breed puppy foods are made for.
Fully grown
11 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight8
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
0102030402m4m6m9m12m18m
0102030402m3m4m6m9m12m18m
Age
Male
Female
2 months
5.0–7.0 kg 11.0–15.4 lb
5.6–7.7 kg 12.3–17.0 lb
3 months
7.4–10.3 kg 16.3–22.7 lb
7.9–11.0 kg 17.4–24.3 lb
4 months
10.7–15.0 kg 23.6–33.1 lb
11.2–15.7 kg 24.7–34.6 lb
5 months
13.8–19.3 kg 30.4–42.5 lb
14.2–19.8 kg 31.3–43.7 lb
6 months
16.5–23.0 kg 36.4–50.7 lb
16.7–23.2 kg 36.8–51.1 lb
7 months
18.5–25.8 kg 40.8–56.9 lb
18.5–25.8 kg 40.8–56.9 lb
8 months
19.9–27.8 kg 43.9–61.3 lb
19.8–27.5 kg 43.7–60.6 lb
9 months
20.9–29.2 kg 46.1–64.4 lb
20.7–28.8 kg 45.6–63.5 lb
10 months
21.6–30.1 kg 47.6–66.4 lb
21.3–29.7 kg 47.0–65.5 lb
11 months
22.1–30.8 kg 48.7–67.9 lb
21.8–30.4 kg 48.1–67.0 lb
12 months
22.4–31.2 kg 49.4–68.8 lb
22.1–30.8 kg 48.7–67.9 lb
15 months
22.9–32.0 kg 50.5–70.5 lb
22.8–31.8 kg 50.3–70.1 lb

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long Berger Picards live yet. The 12–13 years shown is a general figure without a published source.

Where it comes from

The Berger Picard is a French sheepdog named for Picardy, though its FCI standard thinks it was probably once found well beyond that region, since harsh-coated herding dogs were typical of north-west Europe. Most of the dogs lived on farms in north-eastern France, and the First World War, with its trench fighting on the Somme, left the breed close to extinction4,9.

The Berger Picard owes its survival largely to a small group of French enthusiasts who, after the Second World War caused a further decline, gathered the remaining dogs and rebuilt the breed. It had been shown at French dog shows since the nineteenth century, but numbers stayed small, and it remains uncommon even in its homeland. The breed was developed as a working shepherd for the farms of northern France, moving and guarding flocks and sometimes driving cattle.

Breed standard

The Berger Picard is judged against standard no. 176, in group 1, Sheepdogs and Cattledogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Berger Picard figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a medium-sized breed is most likely somewhere in the middle.

Compare with related

Briard
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Large
Dutch Shepherd
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Medium
Belgian Malinois
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Medium
Australian Shepherd
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Medium
Or compare the Berger Picard with any breed you choose
Track your own Berger Picard
Log a minute a day and watch them sit on these curves. Free.

Sources

Uncited on this page: Lifespan — no reviewed source yet, so it is a general reference figure rather than a published one.
Something wrong on this page?
Parts of this page were written by AI ·