Berger Picard

The Picardy shepherd lived on farms in north-eastern France, the ground where the Somme battles were fought, and both world wars came close to finishing it. Numbers are still modest: roughly 3,500 in France and a few hundred across the United States and Canada, where the AKC recognised it in 2015. Film fans know the shaggy, upright-eared look from Because of Winn-Dixie, which needed dogs imported from Europe to play the title role. It remains a working herder with a wry, sensitive temperament, better suited to an active household than to anyone chasing the film-star look.