Gently draw a Gascogne-type French Pointing Dog’s ears forwards: under the FCI standard, the tips must reach the base of the nose. Add hanging lips, a folded lip corner and a slight dewlap. Behind that serious, slightly old-fashioned face is a powerful pointing dog whose males may reach 69 cm.
| FCI | Group 7 (Pointing Dogs), Section 1.1 Continental Pointing Dogs, Braque type, Standard No. 133, with working trial |
|---|---|
| Country of origin | France |
| Height at the withers | Males 60 to 69 cm, females 58 to 68 cm |
| Weight | Not specified in the FCI standard |
| Life expectancy | No reliable study figure found (N/A) |
| Coat | Rather coarse and abundant, finer on head and ears |
| Colours according to the standard | Chestnut brown; chestnut brown and white; chestnut brown heavily ticked with white; chestnut brown with tan above the eyes, on lips and limbs |
The larger of two types
The FCI lists two French Pointing Dog types under separate standard numbers: the large Gascogne type and the small Pyrenean type. Both come from southwest France and the central Pyrenees, where the standard says they remained pure. The FCI definitively recognised the Gascogne type in 1955. The concise standard provides no further history.
Built for long days in the field
The requirement is a robust, powerful dog with strong limbs, without excessive heaviness. Skin is soft and quite loose; females are lighter. Excessive weight and insufficient substance are both faults, as is a sighthound-like tuck-up. The dog should have substance without becoming cumbersome.
What the standard says about temperament
There is no separate temperament description. The standard states only that aggressive or excessively fearful dogs are disqualified, naming the role simply as pointing dog. To understand an individual dog, meet the parents and speak with people who work the breed in the field.
A hunting dog needs work
Breeding involves a working trial, so the purpose is searching and pointing in the field. Without hunting, provide a genuine substitute: thoughtful use of flirt poles and laid trails, dummy work, tracking and long runs in open ground where recall is reliable. Hunting instincts do not disappear because they are unused.
Short coat, long ears
The coarse short coat takes little work; a weekly rubber grooming mitt usually suffices. Long ears and folded lip corners deserve more attention: dry after wet days and check regularly. The standard says the tail is generally shortened, but expressly accepts a well-carried undocked tail. In Germany, docking is generally prohibited under Section 6 of the German Animal Welfare Act. Exceptions for dogs used in hunting apply only case by case.
Health: little data
We found no reliable study of disease or lifespan in this breed; it is absent from the analysed breeds in McMillan and colleagues’ large British study. The standard excludes dogs with entropion or ectropion, a split nose, no tail, or fused, extra or missing toes from breeding. Ask for both parents’ hip X-rays and eye examinations.
Does the breed fit your life?
The best home is with hunters seeking a calm, powerful pointing dog. For city households, first-time owners without a hunting background or people expecting an easily found dog with many breeders, this rare French breed is the wrong choice.
A related, slimmer breed is the Ariege Pointing Dog (Braque de l'Ariège). To see whether a pointing dog fits your everyday life at all, try the breed quiz, with more thorough help in our book “Welcher Hund passt WIRKLICH zu dir?” (book in German). If a puppy joins the home, the free Puppy Starter Pack guides you through the first weeks. Find a wall picture of your Braque among our dog portraits or as a poster in a wooden frame.
Further reading
- Weimaraner: the handsome hunting dog who never clocks off
- The first 30 days with a puppy: a plan for weeks 1 to 4
- Is my dog overweight? How to assess body condition and ideal weight
Sources, accessed on 20.10.2026: FCI-Standard Nr. 133 Braque Français, Type Gascogne (fci.be, German version dated 22.09.2023, valid standard published 01.08.2023); McMillan KM et al., Longevity of companion dog breeds: those at risk from early death, Scientific Reports 2024.
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