Blue Picardy Spaniel

Ten year's after Mr. Larivière's ad for puppies appeared in the papers, a Dutchman —Henri, count of Bylandt— also wrote about a northern black spaniel in his book, "Dogs of all Nations". Despite that, and a number of other references clearly establishing the existence of black and white épagneuls in northern France, black was not allowed for the various offshoots of the French Spaniel by any of the official standards drawn up in the early 1900s.

 

The reasons for this are not entirely clear but it is reasonable to assume that, like in other areas of Europe, black was considered “proof ” of crosses to English dogs and was seen as an impediment to establishing a truly homegrown breed. In any case, despite being out of standard, épagneuls with black and white coats were still bred by the hunters, mainly in the northern French regions of Picardie and Pas de Calais. Jean Castaing wrote that they were found “almost always” in the hands of snipe hunters in the valleys of the Somme, Canche and Authie, and that they probably came about by crossing French Spaniels to English and Gordon Setters.

 

In the 1920s efforts got underway to organize the black and white dogs into an officially recognized breed. A number of well-known personalities including Eugène Cuvellier and Léon Verrier, one of the country’s top dog trainers and a friend of Emmanuel Boulet, helped to stabilize and promote the black and white dogs from the north. But when a club for the brown, white and tan Picardy Spaniel was established in 1921, Blue Picardy Spaniels (as they were by then called) were not accepted. It wasn’t until 1938 that a standard was drawn up and the breed officially recognized. The issue that caused the delay seems to have been a disagreement among breeders concerning just how much of an English style the breed should have. 

 

Eventually, it was decided that the Blue Picardy should remain “Continental” in its look and performance and the standard was, according to the website for the current club, “corrected to eliminate all English character”. As we shall see, however, while the English character may have been eliminated from the standard, in reality the breed would eventually become the most Britannic of all the épagneuls.

 

With the outbreak of the Second World War, efforts to promote the Blue Picardy faltered. After the war, the breed almost disappeared. While the Brittany and to a certain extent some of the other varieties of épagneul managed to make progress, by the time Jean Castaing’s masterwork Les Chiens d’Arrêt was published in 1960, the breed was in dire straits. 

As for the Blue Picardy Spaniel, if it is still as it was intended to be, that is to say Continental in its form and character...after an effort by some breeders to maintain or reconstitute this variety during the first years that followed 1945 [it is] almost on the way to extinction.

Fortunately, the Blue Picardy survived due mainly to the efforts of Mr. Piras from Crotoy, who was virtually the only breeder still active after the war. Another breeder, Mr. Lemoing from central France, developed his own line of Blues and in 1973 participated in the first field trial for the breed, held at Malauzat. Until the 1990s, the Blue Picardy was more or less confined to northern France where it was mainly in the hands of hunters. It was essentially unknown in the rest of the world and consistently fell behind its cousin, the Picardy, in terms of the number of pups whelped each year. But the situation soon began to change. 

 

Beginning in the mid-1990s, the number of Blue Picardy pups whelped each year began to rise. This trend continued through the late 1990s and early 2000s. By 2003, for the first time ever, Blues outnumbered Picardies. In 2008 a record 296 Blue Picardy pups were whelped, nearly three times as many as were whelped just the year before and ten times as many as were whelped in the difficult years after the Second World War. Today, the breed continues to grow and seems to be on sound footing. But it is becoming increasing clear that much of the demand for Blue Picardies is from the pet/companion animal market. 

 

Some people are now concerned that the breed’s new found popularity may even threaten it as a gundog. Judging by the numbers of Blues entered in field events there does seem to be a trend developing: despite a much larger and growing population, far fewer Blues participate in field trials and hunt tests than Picardies. Nevertheless, there are still good numbers of talented, hard-hunting Blue Picardy Spaniels in France and there are now breeders in Canada and the Netherlands.

​Copyright - Craig Koshyk