Origin And History
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is the youngest of the French epagneul breeds to receive formal recognition, a medium-sized, versatile pointing spaniel whose distinctive blue-grey roan coat and gentle, adaptable character have made it one of the most appealing of the rare French gun dog breeds for both hunters and companion dog owners. Its origin story is a genuinely international one, the product of a collision between the established French spaniel tradition of the Picardy region and the English sporting dog culture that arrived on the north coast of France in the late 19th century and left behind a genetic legacy of lasting consequence.
The Picardy region of northern France, centered on the valley of the River Somme, is one of the most historically bird-rich sporting regions in Europe. Its wetlands, fertile plains, lush woodlands, and the waterfowl-rich estuary of the Somme at its heart provided ideal conditions for both game birds and the working spaniels that hunters developed to pursue them. The Picardy Spaniel, the older sibling breed to the Blue Picardy, is one of the oldest continental spaniel breeds, with roots stretching several centuries into the French noble hunting tradition. It was the established local working dog of this region when the events that created the Blue Picardy Spaniel began to unfold.
At the end of the 19th century, British hunters came to northwestern France along with their setter dogs to hunt wildfowl at the mouth of the Somme River. However, due to a quarantine restriction that prevented dogs from re-entering the United Kingdom, the hunters were compelled to leave their dogs in the Picardy area rather than return them to Britain. The English Setters that were boarded in this way, particularly those carrying the Belton blue marking, a type of blue ticking with no patches, came into contact with and bred with local Picardy Spaniels over the following years and decades. From 1875, the first black and blue-grey coated spaniels began appearing in the local spaniel population, the first visible evidence of the English Setter genetic contribution that would eventually produce the Blue Picardy Spaniel.
By 1904, what would become the Blue Picardy was appearing at the Paris Canine Exhibition alongside the traditional Picardy Spaniel. The Club de l’Épagneul Picard was founded in 1921, and the separation of the blue-coated variety into its own breed club became formalized when the Club de l’Épagneul Bleu de Picardie merged with the parent club in 1937 specifically to distinguish the blue-coated dogs from the traditional brown and white Picardy. In 1938, the Société Centrale Canine formally recognized the Blue Picardy Spaniel as a distinct breed, establishing the Épagneul Bleu de Picardie as a versatile gun dog with its own standard.
World War II was devastating for the breed. The fighting across northern France was particularly intense, and by 1960 the Blue Picardy had come very close to disappearing entirely. A handful of dedicated French hunters and breeders preserved the breed through its most vulnerable period, but it remained essentially unknown outside a small hunting community in northern France for decades afterward.
The mid-1990s brought a turnaround. More puppies were bred, international interest developed, and in 2003 the Blue Picardy Spaniels outnumbered their previously more popular cousins the brown and white Picardy Spaniels for the first time in recorded history. Ronald Meunier of Saint-Julien, Quebec, imported the first Blue Picardy Spaniel to Canada around 1987, and the Canadian Kennel Club recognized the breed effective June 1, 1995. The UKC recognized the breed in 1996. The FCI recognizes the breed in Group 7 as a continental pointing dog. The breed is not recognized by the AKC.
Breed Overview
| Trait | Details |
|---|---|
| Breed Group | Sporting / Pointing (FCI Group 7) |
| Height | Males 57–60 cm (22–24 inches) / Females 55–58 cm (21–23 inches) |
| Weight | 20–27 kg (44–60 pounds) |
| Lifespan | 12–14 years |
| Coat | Flat or slightly wavy; feathering on ears, legs, belly, tail |
| Colors | Blue-grey roan with black patches and speckles |
| Temperament | Calm, gentle, affectionate, intelligent, energetic in the field |
| FCI Recognition | 1938 |
| UKC Recognition | 1996 |
| CKC Recognition | 1995 |
Appearance And Size
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is a medium to medium-large, elegantly proportioned pointing spaniel that presents with the refined, balanced appearance of a dog built for all-day work in the field and genuine warmth in the home. Males stand 57 to 60 centimeters at the shoulder and weigh between 20 and 27 kilograms. Females are slightly smaller. The overall impression is of a well-muscled, athletic dog of good substance that carries its frame with the flowing, graceful movement of a field dog with genuine working capability.
The head is moderately large and slightly rounded at the skull, with a defined stop and a muzzle of good length. The eyes are large and dark, carrying the gentle, intelligent expression that is one of the breed’s most consistently noted and most appealing physical qualities. The ears are long, set at eye level, and covered with wavy feathering that blends into the facial furnishings and gives the breed the characteristic soft, spaniel-type appearance.
The body is well-balanced and slightly longer than it is tall, with a broad, deep chest, a level topline, and well-muscled hindquarters built for sustained field work. The tail is of medium length and covered with feathering, typically carried horizontally or with a slight upward curve when the dog is active.
The coat is the breed’s most immediately distinctive and celebrated feature. It is flat or slightly wavy in texture, lying close to the body but with distinctive feathering on the ears, the backs of the legs, the belly, and the tail. The color is a blue-grey roan, produced by the intermixing of black and white hairs, that creates the overall blue-grey impression from a distance. Large black or dark blue patches overlay this roan base on various parts of the body, typically on the head and in irregular patterns across the body. The coat produces one of the most visually striking and distinctive appearances of any gun dog breed, and the combination of roan ground color and dark patches gives the Blue Picardy a visual character completely unlike the traditional brown and white Picardy Spaniel from which it descended.
Housing And Living Requirements
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is a more genuinely adaptable breed in terms of living environment than many other gun dog breeds of comparable size, combining the working energy of a pointing and retrieving spaniel with a calm, settled indoor temperament that makes it more flexible across different domestic situations.
The breed is described by enthusiasts as having an off switch, capable of settling contentedly in the home when its outdoor needs have been met, which makes it more manageable in suburban or semi-rural settings than some more intensely driven sporting breeds. A home with access to a garden of meaningful size is the most appropriate domestic setting, with rural and semi-rural environments providing the most naturally satisfying context for a breed with genuine working instincts. Urban apartment living is a poor match for a breed with this level of outdoor drive and this requirement for daily vigorous exercise.
A securely fenced garden is important. The Blue Picardy’s pointing and hunting instincts are genuine and present, and a dog that has identified interesting scent or bird activity beyond its perimeter will be motivated to investigate. A secure fence prevents this from becoming a management problem.
Inside the home, a well-exercised Blue Picardy is one of the most pleasant gun dog companions available: calm, affectionate, gentle with the family, and naturally well-behaved. A comfortable dog bed in a social position suits the breed’s people-oriented nature during the rest periods between active outdoor sessions. The breed’s wavy, feathered coat provides reasonable weather resistance for the cool, wet conditions of the northern French climate it was developed for.
Exercise Requirements
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is an active sporting breed with genuine daily exercise needs that reflect its heritage as a versatile gun dog built for sustained field work across the marshes, forests, and farmland of northern France. Aim for 60 to 90 minutes of daily exercise, including walks, jogs, or play sessions. The breed’s retrieving instinct and love of water make swimming one of the most naturally satisfying and most genuinely enjoyed exercise forms available to it.
Activities that engage the breed’s working instincts alongside its physical capability are the most naturally satisfying. Scent work and nose activities directly engage the pointing and tracking capability that is central to the breed’s identity and provide the combination of physical and cognitive engagement that keeps a working gun dog genuinely content. Dog agility suits the breed’s athleticism and handler-focused responsiveness, and interactive games like fetch and retrieving play channel the breed’s natural retrieve drive productively.
Puzzle toys and enrichment activities provide meaningful cognitive engagement between outdoor sessions. A GPS tracker is a practical safety investment for outdoor exercise management in any open or unfenced area.
Grooming Requirements
The Blue Picardy Spaniel’s flat or slightly wavy coat with its distinctive feathering requires a consistent grooming commitment that is moderate rather than demanding, reflecting a working field dog coat that is practical and weather-resistant rather than decorative.
Brushing two to three times a week is appropriate under normal conditions to prevent the tangles and mats that develop in the feathering on the ears, legs, belly, and tail when maintenance is inconsistent. After field work in heavy cover, brushing should be prompt to remove burrs, seeds, and debris before they become embedded in the feathering. A metal comb used after brushing catches any remaining tangles in the feathered areas before they become established mats.
Bathing every six to eight weeks with a quality shampoo appropriate for wavy or slightly oily field dog coats keeps the coat in good condition without stripping the natural oils that contribute to its weather resistance. After swimming or extended exposure to water during field work, the coat should be dried thoroughly to prevent the skin issues that can develop under persistently damp feathering.
The ears are the most important grooming consideration from a health perspective. The long, feathered ears that hang close to the cheeks significantly reduce airflow to the ear canal, and the breed’s love of water and wet field environments creates additional moisture accumulation risk. Weekly inspection and cleaning with a veterinarian-recommended ear cleaner, with particular attention after any water exposure or field work, prevents the chronic ear infections that are the most consistently managed health concern in the breed. Dental care should be established as a consistent routine from puppyhood. Nails should be trimmed monthly.
Diet And Nutrition
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is a medium to medium-large, active sporting breed with significant daily caloric needs that should be calibrated to its actual size and activity level. A high-quality medium or large breed formula with a named protein source as the first ingredient provides the nutritional foundation this athletic breed requires. Active and sporting breed formulas are appropriate given the Blue Picardy’s genuine daily energy output.
Most adults do well on two measured meals per day. Portion control is genuinely important throughout the dog’s life. The breed has a documented tendency toward weight gain when food quantities are not matched to actual exercise levels, and extra weight in a breed with documented joint predispositions directly worsens those conditions over time. Maintaining lean body condition throughout the dog’s life is one of the most practically meaningful ongoing health investments an owner can make.
Training treats are highly effective motivators given the breed’s food motivation and eagerness to engage with its handler, and should be counted into the daily calorie total. Discussing joint supplements with your veterinarian as the dog reaches middle age is worthwhile given the sporting breed predispositions to hip and elbow dysplasia.
Compatibility
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is one of the most genuinely family-compatible sporting breeds available, combining the athletic capability and working drive of a versatile gun dog with a warmth, gentleness, and patience with family members that makes it an outstanding companion for active households.
With its own family, the Blue Picardy is demonstrably affectionate and deeply devoted. The breed bonds closely with all household members and expresses those bonds with the cheerful, engaged warmth of a dog that genuinely delights in its people. The calm, gentle domestic temperament that is so consistently noted across sources reflects a breed that brings genuine ease and warmth to home life when its working needs are being met outdoors.
With children, the breed is exceptional. The Blue Picardy Spaniel is especially good with children, and this assessment is consistent across every source. The combination of patience, gentleness, playfulness, and the settled, unhurried manner that characterizes the breed indoors makes it one of the most reliably appropriate sporting breeds for family households with children of various ages.
With strangers, the breed is typically friendly and approachable, reflecting the cooperative, sociable character of a dog developed for working alongside varied hunting parties rather than for guarding or territorial defense. It is not a natural guardian breed.
With other dogs, the breed’s cooperative, pack-oriented spaniel character makes it consistently sociable and adaptable in multi-dog households. With birds and small wildlife, the pointing and hunting instinct is genuine and should be acknowledged when managing interactions in environments where game birds are present.
A dog crate is useful during puppyhood and the settling-in period.
Behavior And Temperament
The Blue Picardy Spaniel’s temperament is one of the most consistently described and most appealing in the gun dog world. The breed is described as a quiet dog with calm and even-tempered qualities indoors while remaining an energetic and capable working partner in the field. This combination of field capability and domestic ease is one of the most valuable qualities in any sporting breed, and the Blue Picardy expresses it with a consistency that makes it one of the more genuinely balanced gun dogs available.
The quietness that is so frequently noted is genuine and distinctive. The Blue Picardy does not tend toward the constant activity and demand for engagement that some more intensely driven sporting breeds express indoors. A well-exercised individual settles contentedly in the home, positions itself close to its people, and brings a warm, unhurried presence to household life that is entirely at odds with its energetic field capabilities. The off switch is real.
The field capability is equally genuine. In hunting contexts, the Blue Picardy is a methodical, serious worker with strong pointing, tracking, and retrieving capabilities. Its love of water makes it particularly effective in the marsh and waterfowl hunting contexts for which it was originally developed, and its stamina allows it to work across extended hunting days without losing intensity.
The sensitivity that characterizes this breed, like most spaniels, means it reads its handler’s emotional state and responds to tone and quality of relationship in ways that more independent working breeds do not. This quality makes it exceptionally responsive to positive training and emotionally attuned to its household.
Training And Handling
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is an intelligent, eager-to-please breed that takes to training with the genuine enthusiasm and handler-focused responsiveness that make spaniels among the most rewarding gun dogs to work with. Blue spaniel dogs are easy to train due to their intelligent and responsive nature. They like to please their owners and are quick learners.
Positive reinforcement methods are the approach that works most reliably and most completely. The Blue Picardy responds to reward, to enthusiastic engagement from its handler, and to training that feels collaborative and varied. Its emotional sensitivity means it performs best with calm, consistent, positive handling, and harsh corrections or confrontational approaches produce avoidance and anxiety in a breed this attuned to its handler’s emotional register.
A gentle way of training should be adopted with these dogs. This assessment, consistent across all sources on the breed, reflects a genuine character requirement rather than an optional preference. The same sensitivity that makes the Blue Picardy so responsive to positive handling makes it particularly negatively affected by harsh approaches.
Early socialization from puppyhood is important, exposing the young dog to a wide range of people, environments, sounds, and situations during the critical developmental window. The breed’s naturally sociable and outgoing character means it typically takes well to broad early socialization. Training treats are highly effective motivators.
Health And Lifespan
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is a generally healthy breed with a lifespan of 12 to 14 years. The Blue Picardy Spaniel has no known major health issue, which is one of the most positive health assessments available for any breed in this series, though the honest caveat is that the breed’s small global population means comprehensive health data is limited and the absence of documented major hereditary conditions reflects both genuine robustness and limited epidemiological study.
Ear Infections The most consistently documented day-to-day health concern in the breed, arising from the long, feathered pendant ears that significantly reduce airflow to the ear canal combined with the breed’s love of water and wet field conditions. Weekly inspection and cleaning is the most effective preventive measure, with particular diligence after any water exposure or field work in wet conditions.
Hip and Elbow Dysplasia Abnormal joint development is documented at low rates consistent with medium to large sporting breeds generally. Sourcing puppies from breeders who conduct OFA hip and elbow screening on their breeding animals reduces inherited risk. Maintaining appropriate weight throughout the dog’s life and discussing joint supplements with your vet as the dog reaches middle age are meaningful protective measures.
Eye Conditions Hereditary eye conditions are documented at low rates in the breed. Regular annual veterinary eye examinations allow for early detection and appropriate management.
Weight Management The breed’s documented tendency toward weight gain when exercise is insufficient makes consistent portion control and regular exercise genuine ongoing health responsibilities rather than optional preferences.
Skin and Coat Conditions Skin conditions associated with the feathered coat areas, including moisture-related irritation under persistently wet feathering, are managed most effectively through thorough drying after water exposure and regular coat maintenance that prevents debris accumulation.
Routine preventive care, including regular vet check-ups, consistent dental hygiene, up-to-date vaccinations, and parasite prevention, provides the foundation for a healthy Blue Picardy Spaniel throughout its impressive lifespan.
Price And Availability
The Blue Picardy Spaniel is a genuinely rare breed outside France, with very limited availability in the United States and more established breeding populations in Canada, particularly Quebec, where the breed was first imported in 1987 and where the Canadian Kennel Club’s 1995 recognition provided an institutional framework for the breed’s development.
Within North America, prices from reputable breeders typically range from $800 to $1,500, reflecting the breed’s rarity and the limited number of active breeders producing puppies outside France. Wait times from established breeders are common given the small number of litters produced annually. In France, where the breed is most established, prices from hunting dog breeders reflect the working dog rather than companion market context.
The North American Picardy Spaniel Alliance and the Canadian Kennel Club’s breed records are the most reliable starting points for locating breeders in North America who breed to the established standard. Responsible breeders will conduct OFA hip and elbow evaluations on their breeding animals, conduct eye certification, and be transparent about all health testing results.
Adoption is not a realistic option outside France given the breed’s very small international population. The breed does not appear in shelter populations with any regularity and essentially does not exist in North American rescue channels.
Conclusion
The Blue Picardy Spaniel arrived at its distinctive appearance through one of the most historically interesting origin stories in French gun dog history: English hunters leaving their setters behind due to a quarantine restriction, those setters breeding with local Picardy Spaniels over a generation, and the resulting blue-grey roan puppies so captivating the local hunting community that they became the foundation of an entirely new breed, recognized formally in 1938, nearly lost in the Second World War, saved by dedicated hunters, and now growing slowly in popularity both as a working gun dog and as a companion breed whose gentle temperament and striking appearance are winning admirers well beyond its northern French homeland. For the active household in an appropriate setting who can provide the daily exercise, the water access, the consistent ear care, and the genuine outdoor engagement this breed genuinely requires, the Blue Picardy Spaniel offers field-dog capability alongside one of the gentlest, most child-appropriate, and most naturally settled domestic temperaments in the sporting group. Get properly set up before bringing one home. Our Best Dog Products page has everything you need for blue-roan, gently feathered, whole-heartedly devoted French sporting dogs that bring the working heritage of the Somme marshes into every home they grace.
