The Barbet is friendly, obedient, and intelligent. The Barbet loves to play in water.

The Barbet as it is known today is a fairly rare and recent breed development.

Over the centuries, the breed existed in various forms, at times serving simply as a companion or guardian dog, but more often utilised as an all-around flushing or working dog. The term barbet gradually became a generic name for any dog with a long, curly, and/or woolly coat. Barbets are perhaps best-known for being a retriever of hunters’ quarry, valued by duck, goose, and other fowl-hunters amongst the marshes, wetlands, estuaries and along the coastal areas of France. This wet and dirty job eventually spawned the term “muddy as a barbet”, popularised in the 19th century. Between the late 18th and early 19th centuries, the same type of dog was known as the barbet in France, the barbone in Italy, and the Pudel in Germany; additionally, for nearly 100 years, barbets and poodles were considered the same breed.