Dog Breed Guide

Papillon

Profile

Size

Extra Small

Country of origin

France, Belgium

Origin

Before the 16th century

Bred for

Companion

Height

20 - 28cm (8 - 11in)

Weight

2 - 4.5kg (4 - 10lb)

Life span

13 - 15 years

Its trademark is a pair of large, fringed, erect ears that look like a butterfly's spread wings, and the breed's name means "butterfly" in French. Dogs with drop ears are called Phalène ("moth") and are treated as the same breed. The coat is soft as silk, white with patches of color.

Bright, lively and very clever, the Papillon is one of the smartest small breeds and good at learning tricks. It loves its family and is affectionate, but it also has a healthy independence and can settle down calmly on its own.

With no undercoat, it sheds relatively little, and its coat is fairly easy to care for. Its bones are fine, so watch out for falls and jumps from high places.

Good to know

Its ancestors were small spaniels cherished by royalty and nobility in Renaissance Europe. Many great masters, including the 16th-century Italian painter Titian, portrayed them in the arms of noblewomen. The dogs of that time had drop ears, however, and the butterfly-wing erect ears of today became fashionable only toward the end of the 19th century.

Queen Marie Antoinette of France was among its admirers. The story that she carried her dog to the guillotine is considered a fiction, but the luxurious velvet-upholstered dog bed where her dog Coco is said to have slept is held by the Metropolitan Museum of Art in New York.

In 1999, at the Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show, the biggest dog show in the United States, a Papillon named Kirby became the first of his breed to win Best in Show.