Chien Français Tricolore

✨ Key Takeaways

Quick Facts

Common Names & Variants

Modern aliases

Historical names

⚖️ Pros & Cons

Physical Appearance

Recognized colors

Coat

Other

Ears: Drop, broad. Tail: Long, carried high with elegance.

🕰 History

The French answer to too much English blood

Of all the French pack hounds, the Chien Français Tricolore is the one born from a deliberate retreat. By the closing decades of the nineteenth century, French huntsmen who wanted speed and stamina for mounted hunting had crossed their old native hounds heavily with the English Foxhound, producing the fast, hard-driving Anglo-Français packs that came to dominate the kennels of the great hunts. The Chien Français breeds -- the Tricolore among them -- were the corrective: an effort to pull the type back toward a more purely French hound, retaining the size and pace the hunters had come to expect while reducing the visible English inheritance. The Tricolore is, in that sense, less an invention than a re-Frenchifying of a French dog that had drifted, and the breed standard makes the intention explicit by penalising any apparent trace of English hound blood in the modern dog.

A young breed with old foundations

The hound is among the youngest of all the recognised French breeds, even though every line of blood that runs in it is old. The three modern Chien Français pack hounds were given their present names and separate identities only in 1957, when French cynology reorganised a confused mass of regional and Anglo-French packs into three coat-defined breeds: the Tricolore (black, white and tan), the Blanc et Noir (white and black) and the Blanc et Orange (white and orange). A first standard for the Tricolore followed in 1965. The blood behind it, however, reaches back through the old large French chiens courants -- the Poitevin and the Gascon-Saintongeois prominent among them -- together with the very Anglo-Français and Billy lines the breeders were working to refine. The result is a hound that is genuinely new as a named breed and genuinely ancient as a type.

How the type was fixed

The practical recipe most often cited for the Tricolore is a blending of Grand Anglo-Français Tricolore stock with Billy and Poitevin blood, chosen to keep the height, drive and tricolour mantle while diluting the Foxhound stamp. The Grand Anglo-Français Tricolore -- its near twin and a separate FCI breed -- carries a heavier and openly acknowledged English inheritance; the Chien Français Tricolore is the lighter-English counterpart, and the two are easy to confuse on sight precisely because they share so much ancestry. Where the Anglo-Français standards treat Foxhound character as proper to the breed, the Chien Français Tricolore standard goes the other way, listing any clear English-hound trace -- and the smoky, blurred head colour that betrays a cross with the Blanc et Noir -- as a fault. The whole point of the breed is what it leaves out.

Built for the mounted hunt

From the first the Tricolore was a hound of the vénerie, the French tradition of hunting big game with a mounted field following a pack. It was bred to run roe deer, red deer and wild boar in organised packs of many couples, holding a line through forest and rough country for hours and giving tongue so the riders can follow the chase by ear across ground they cannot see into. Everything in the standard answers to that brief: the long, lean, well-boned frame of an all-day stayer, the deep chest for lung room, the broad eye-level ears and the high-carried tail of a dog working in cover. It is a specialist for a particular kind of hunting, and it has never been bred for anything else.

One of three coat-defined siblings

The Tricolore makes most sense seen alongside its two siblings, because the three were carved out of the same reorganisation and differ chiefly by coat. The Chien Français Blanc et Noir is the white-and-black hound, the Chien Français Blanc et Orange the white-and-orange, and the Tricolore the black-mantled, white-and-tan one; all three share the Anglo-Français and old French foundation blood and the same role as large pack hounds for big game. The standards police the boundaries between them: the Tricolore standard explicitly faults a smoky, blurred head colour because it betrays a cross with the Blanc et Noir, a reminder that the three are close enough to need active separation. Of the trio the Tricolore is generally reckoned the most numerous and the Blanc et Orange the rarest, though all three remain working hounds rather than household dogs, and the differences a casual observer notices are mainly differences of colour rather than of type or temperament.

Recognition and a working survival

The Fédération Cynologique Internationale lists the breed as Standard No. 219, placing it in Group 6 (Scenthounds and Related Breeds), Section 1.1 (Large-sized Hounds), with France as country of origin and a working-trial requirement; the current valid standard was published on 1 August 2023. Across the Atlantic the United Kennel Club admitted the breed to its Scenthound group on 1 January 1996. The American Kennel Club does not recognise it, and the dog has no AKC rank -- a reminder that this remains very much a working French hound rather than an international show or companion breed. Of the three Chien Français hounds the Tricolore is generally reckoned the most numerous, with the Blanc et Orange the rarest, yet "most numerous" is a relative term: the breed is kept almost entirely in hunting packs in France, is barely seen as a pet even there, and is practically unknown abroad. Its survival rests on the living vénerie tradition rather than on any popularity as a household dog.

Temperament & Personality

A pack hound to the core

The Chien Français Tricolore was shaped by one job -- running big game in an organised pack -- and its temperament cannot be understood apart from it. This is an energetic, hardy, single-minded scenthound with deep stamina and the independent cast of mind of a dog bred to work a line for hours with little moment-to-moment direction. Within its pack it is sociable, cooperative and steady, content in the company of other hounds and the rhythm of the hunt. The breed literature is consistent and blunt on the wider point: dogs bred to hunt in packs do not usually make good ordinary pets, and the Tricolore is a clear example. It is not an aggressive or unstable animal, but it is a working specialist, and treating it as a companion bred for the hearth misreads everything about it.

Gentle with people, driven by the nose

Toward humans the breed is even-tempered and friendly rather than sharp, with the trusting good nature common to the large French scenthounds; it makes a poor guard precisely because it has no suspicion of strangers. What dominates its behaviour is the nose and the voice. A Tricolore lives through scent, and on a hot line it is governed by instinct far more than by any command -- a dog that could be called off a running deer would have been useless in the pack it was bred for. The carrying, melodious bay that hunters prize as the hound gives tongue is the same voice that becomes a nuisance in a bored, under-worked animal kept without an outlet.

The mismatch of pack dog and pet

The honest summary is that the Tricolore's virtues and its drawbacks are the same traits seen from two directions. The stamina, the nose, the pack sociability and the ringing voice that make it superb in the vénerie are exactly what make it difficult in a quiet home: it needs enormous exercise, it follows its nose without regard for boundaries, it pines in isolation despite being so gentle, and it is vocal by design. Owners who can give it real work and the company of other dogs find a hardy, affectionate, willing hound; those who expect a calm house companion find a restless, baying, escape-minded animal that is unhappy through no fault of its own. The breed thrives in the setting it was made for and struggles almost everywhere else. A Tricolore raised among other hounds, given numbers to run with and a real outlet for its nose, is a settled and biddable member of a pack; the same dog kept singly in a quiet home is restless, vocal and prone to wandering, and the contrast says everything about where the breed belongs.

🏡 Living With a Chien Français Tricolore

A working life, not a domestic one

More than most breeds, the Chien Français Tricolore is defined by where it lives rather than how it is trained, and the truthful starting point is that this is a kennel-and-pack hound far more than a house dog. In its homeland it is kept in numbers by hunts, housed in kennels as part of a working meute and exercised through the hunt itself across large tracts of country. That arrangement suits the breed exactly: it is a hardy, weatherproof dog that takes outdoor life in its stride, and it is a thoroughgoing pack animal that does badly alone. A single Tricolore kept as a solitary pet in a small space is the unhappy version of the breed, however affectionate it is indoors.

Space, company and serious exercise

The exercise requirement is not negotiable. This is a large hound bred to gallop and trot all day, and a couple of lead walks will not touch it. It needs long daily activity at a real working pace, off-lead running in securely enclosed ground, and ideally genuine scent-work, tracking or hunting that occupies its outstanding nose as well as its legs. Equally important is company: a Tricolore raised among other dogs and given canine companionship settles far better than one kept alone, because pack life is written into it. An active rural home with land, other dogs and the time to give the hound a real job is the realistic minimum; a town flat is the wrong environment in every respect.

Fencing, prey drive and the household

Secure, substantial fencing is essential. A Tricolore that strikes a deer, hare or boar line near a gap will be gone, and a large scenthound in pursuit covers ground fast and far; the breed's whole history is one of following a scent wherever it leads. The same prey drive makes cats and small pets a real consideration -- a hound raised with a household cat may tolerate it, but the instinct toward outdoor wildlife never switches off. With its own people, including children it has grown up among, the breed is gentle and good-natured, but it is best understood as a dog for an experienced, dog-keeping household with the space and the inclination to give it the work and company it was bred to expect. A prospective owner who cannot offer at least the equivalent of that working life -- the land, the canine company and the genuine occupation -- is better steered toward a breed designed for the home, because no amount of affection compensates a pack hound for the absence of the pack and the chase.

🎓 Training & Exercise

Cooperative within the pack, independent on the line

The Chien Français Tricolore carries the productive tension of every driving pack hound: it is intelligent and willing with handlers it trusts, yet it was selected for generations to work a line on its own judgement rather than to take instruction. For the hunt that independence is the whole value of the dog; for the pet owner it is the central training challenge. Basic house manners, lead work and reliable behaviour around the kennel are achievable with patient, consistent, reward-based handling, to which the breed's gentle nature responds well. Heavy correction, by contrast, tends to make a fundamentally soft hound shut down rather than comply, and it sours the relationship without improving the behaviour.

Recall and the limits of obedience

Recall in the presence of live scent is the honest ceiling of Tricolore training, as it is for the whole big-game hound type. A dog that returns perfectly in the garden may become effectively deaf the instant it strikes a hot line in open country, and reading that as disobedience misunderstands the breed -- it is the precise behaviour centuries of pack hunting selected for. The workable approach is the standard one for a powerful scenthound: build recall gradually in steadily more distracting settings, reward it generously every time, and treat a long line or securely enclosed ground as the default wherever scenting conditions are good. Hunters manage the pack by keeping it within working contact and reading the country, not by expecting gun-dog precision the breed was never built to give.

Socialisation and the pack temperament

Because the breed is so deeply a pack animal, early and wide socialisation matters as much as formal obedience. A puppy that meets a broad range of people, dogs, environments and -- where relevant -- household animals in its first months matures into a more settled, manageable adult, while one raised in isolation can become both over-attached to its handler and awkward around other dogs. The Tricolore is generally good with its own kind, having been bred to cooperate in numbers, but unstructured social mixing still benefits from sensible introductions and calm, consistent leadership from the start.

Channelling the drive

The kindest training an owner can offer a Tricolore is a real outlet for what it was made to do. Where hunting is legal and appropriate, the breed excels in the vénerie on deer and boar, and nothing else uses the dog so completely. For owners who do not hunt, tracking, mantrailing and structured nose-work turn the hound's strongest instinct into cooperative engagement and give it a genuine job. The breed is poorly suited to the instant-compliance sports -- competitive obedience or high-level agility -- where its independent, scent-led nature works against the split-second responses those disciplines reward. Match the activity to the dog's real talents and the Tricolore is a willing partner; fight its nature and both dog and handler are frustrated.

✂️ Grooming & Coat Care

A short working coat that asks little

The Chien Français Tricolore wears one of the most practical coats in the large-hound world. The standard calls for short, rather fine hair lying close to a quite fine skin -- a functional jacket built to shed brambles and the wet of the field rather than to draw a show judge's eye -- and it needs no clipping, stripping or professional grooming at all. A weekly going-over with a firm-bristle brush or a rubber curry comb lifts dead hair, spreads the skin's natural oils and keeps the tricolour coat looking clean. During the spring and autumn moults the dog sheds more heavily, and brushing every second or third day through those weeks keeps loose hair under control in the home. Bathing is occasional -- when the dog is genuinely dirty or smells of the field rather than on any fixed schedule -- using a mild dog shampoo that does not strip the coat's weather resistance.

Ears first, every week

The long drop ears are the real grooming priority, far more than the coat. Their broad, hanging, close-fitting conformation invites the warmth and moisture in which ear infections begin, and a working or water-crossing Tricolore is exposed to that risk often. Inspect both ears weekly for redness, discharge or odour, clean the outer canal gently with a veterinarian-approved cleaner on a cotton pad -- never pushing anything down into the canal itself -- and dry the ears carefully after swimming, bathing or wet field work. Catching the early signs of trouble and acting on them is what keeps a minor irritation from becoming a chronic, painful condition, and for a pack-worked dog it is simply part of the daily round.

Nails, teeth and the post-work check

Nails should be checked monthly. A Tricolore worked or walked on hard ground may wear them naturally, but a dog exercised mostly on soft going will need trimming before the nails grow long enough to alter its gait. Dental care matters as much in this breed as in any large dog: regular tooth-brushing with a canine toothpaste is the most effective preventive against the periodontal disease that is otherwise near-universal, supported by appropriate dental chews. Because the breed works in rough cover, a hands-on check after every outing -- running the hands over the skin and coat, feeling between the toes and under the earflaps for grass seeds, ticks or thorns, and glancing at the eyes -- belongs in the routine alongside the brush and the nail clippers.

🍖 Diet & Nutrition

Feeding a hard-running pack hound

The Chien Français Tricolore is a large, athletic, energetic working dog, and its diet has to track both its real energy output and the way that output swings with the hunting season. A good-quality complete dog food matched to the dog's life stage -- puppy, adult or senior -- and to its activity level is the sensible baseline. A Tricolore worked regularly in the field will burn far more than the same dog resting out of season, and the amount fed should rise and fall with the workload rather than sit at a single year-round ration. The feeding guide on the bag is a starting point, not a prescription; hands-on body-condition scoring is the more reliable everyday measure. A hound in good condition has ribs that are easily felt under a thin covering, a waist visible from above and a clear tuck-up behind the ribs when seen from the side.

Feeding the working season and the quiet one

The commonest nutritional mistake with any working hound is to keep feeding at the working rate once the work has stopped, and the Tricolore's seasonal life makes this trap especially easy to fall into. During the hunting months a hard-driven pack dog needs a generous, high-energy intake to sustain long days in the field; out of season, when the same dog is doing a fraction of the work, the ration must come down to match or the weight creeps on before anyone notices. Overweight is more than a cosmetic issue in a large, hard-working breed: excess load accelerates joint wear and shortens the working career the dog was bred for. Measured meals rather than free-choice feeding, restraint with table scraps, and counting any training treats inside the daily ration -- not on top of it -- are the habits that keep a Tricolore in trim.

Schedule, water and field practice

Adult Tricolores are normally fed twice a day, morning and evening, rather than in one large meal; splitting the ration steadies the dog and, in a deep-chested large breed, is a sensible precaution against digestive upset. Fresh water must always be available, and demand rises sharply on working days and in warm weather. As a matter of routine field practice, a hard-running hound should not be fed a heavy meal immediately before vigorous work -- a gap of roughly two hours between a full meal and the off is the standard, widely-followed precaution, particularly in a deep-chested dog. On a long hunting day a light meal well before the start, water through the day, and the main feed given after the dog has cooled and rested suit the breed better than a single large pre-work meal. Puppies need more frequent, smaller meals appropriate to their age, transitioning to the adult pattern as they mature.

🐶 Buying & Adopting a Chien Français Tricolore

A working breed kept by hunters, not a pet on the market

The Chien Français Tricolore presents one of the more difficult buying pictures of any recognised breed, and a prospective owner should grasp how the breed is actually kept before getting attached to the idea. It is held overwhelmingly in working hunting packs in France, bred by hunts for the hunts, and the great majority of dogs produced each year are destined for the pack rather than for sale as companions. Even in France it is rarely a pet; outside France it is practically unknown, and the United Kennel Club recognition in North America has not produced any meaningful pet population there. A would-be owner anywhere else should set realistic expectations from the outset: finding a dog will mean approaching French breeders and the national kennel club directly, accepting a substantial wait, and budgeting for the veterinary checks, paperwork and transport an international placement requires. Any source advertising ready availability of a Tricolore at an ordinary pet-dog price deserves scepticism rather than enthusiasm.

Where to begin: the SCC and the French packs

The right first contacts are the official French bodies and the breed's working community. The Société Centrale Canine is the national keeper of the breed in its homeland and the natural starting point for finding ethical breeders, and the FCI nomenclature entry for Standard No. 219 connects enquirers to national cynological organisations on the rare occasion a dog turns up elsewhere. Because the breed is so concentrated in working packs, much of the real expertise lives with the hunters who run them, and a serious enquirer will end up talking to people whose first concern is whether a dog will get the work and pack life it needs. A responsible breeder will want to discuss the parents' hip results and the temperament of the line, and will ask searching questions about the buyer's space, fencing, dog-handling experience and ability to provide real exercise and canine company. A breeder who asks none of this and offers a puppy on demand is a warning sign, not a convenience.

A sober assessment of fit -- and of adoption

Breed-specific rescue is effectively non-existent outside France simply because the breed is so scarce as a pet, though Tricolores and Tricolore-type hounds occasionally appear in general hound rescue in their home region, usually as dogs that proved unsuited to a home that could not meet their needs -- precisely the mismatch this guide aims to prevent. Whether buying or adopting, the honest question is the same one the breed has always posed: can you provide a large, energetic pack hound with the space, the secure fencing, the canine company, the work and the experienced handling it requires? For an active rural home with the room and the inclination to give the dog a real job -- ideally one that hunts -- the Tricolore is a sound, hardy and affectionate partner. For a town household wanting an easy companion, it is the wrong dog, and recognising that before the purchase is a kindness to everyone, the dog most of all.

📜 Breed Name Etymology — iDogNames original research

A name that simply describes the dog

Unlike the Billy, named for a château, or the Gascon-Saintongeois, named for two old provinces, the Chien Français Tricolore carries a name that is purely descriptive: chien français means "French hound," and tricolore means "three-coloured." The name says exactly what the dog is -- the French (rather than Anglo-French) hound in its three-coloured form -- and it was assigned, with its two siblings, in the 1957 reorganisation that sorted the country's large pack hounds into three coat-defined breeds. The plainness of the name is itself a piece of history: where older French breeds took their names from places, founders or coat textures, these three were named by a committee imposing order, and the result reads almost like a classification label rather than a traditional breed name.

Chien, français and tricolore

Each word is transparent. Chien is the ordinary French word for "dog," from the Latin canis, and in the hound context it carries the implied sense of chien courant, a "running dog" or scenthound. Français -- "French" -- is doing real work in the name: it marks the breed as the French-blooded hound deliberately set apart from the Anglo-Français packs built on English Foxhound crosses, so the word is not merely a statement of nationality but a claim about ancestry and type. Tricolore, "three-coloured," names the black, white and tan coat that distinguishes this breed from its white-and-black and white-and-orange siblings. Read together, the three words form a near-complete short description of the animal.

The French name in English use

English-language usage generally keeps the French name unchanged, since the obvious translation -- "French Tricolour Hound," used by the FCI as the breed's English name -- is simply a word-for-word rendering of the original. There is no separate traditional English name because the breed has no history outside France; it travels under its French label wherever it is recorded. The pronunciation in French runs roughly "shyan frahn-SEH tree-koh-LOR," and the breed is spoken of as le Chien Français Tricolore, the article marking it as one named type among the family of French chiens courants.

Name forms at a glance

🏛 Naming Traditions — iDogNames original research

French vénerie names for a French pack hound

Because the Chien Français Tricolore is so completely a creature of the French hunt, owners who want a fitting name reach naturally for France -- and, more specifically, for the vénerie tradition that produced the dog. French pack-hunting has its own deep well of hound names, often short, vowel-rich and chosen to carry across country when a houndsman calls the pack: names like Vaillant (valiant), Tambour (drum, for a deep voice), Fanfare, Clairon (bugle) and Tayaut -- the French hunting cry, the equivalent of "tally-ho" -- all belong to that living tradition. Traditional French given names such as Gaston, Aimé, Margot or Colette sit equally well on a dog whose whole identity is rooted in the French countryside.

The breed's tricolour coat offers a second rich vein. French colour words -- Noir for the black mantle, Cuivre for the copper-bright tan, Fauve for the warm fawn, and the descriptive Tricolore itself -- tie a name directly to the dog's defining markings. And the breed's purpose gives a third: names drawn from the quarry it runs (Cerf for deer, Sanglier for boar), from the carrying voice that hunters prize, or from the chase itself. Whichever direction an owner takes, the strongest names for this hound are the ones that reflect what it actually is -- a large French pack hound of the vénerie, bred for the big chase and built to be heard.

🐾 Themed Names for Your Chien Français Tricolore — iDogNames original research

French vénerie and hound-tradition names

• Tayaut -- the French hunting cry, the equivalent of "tally-ho"; pure vénerie tradition
• Vaillant -- French for "valiant"; a classic French pack-hound name
• Tambour -- French for "drum", honouring the deep, carrying voice
• Clairon -- French for "bugle", for the ringing bay of a pack hound
• Fanfare -- the flourish of horns at the hunt; spirited and French
• Trompette -- French for "trumpet", another nod to the carrying voice
• Rapide -- French for "swift", for a ground-covering hound
• Marquise -- a noble French name for an elegant pack hound

Tricolour coat and colour names

• Noir -- French for "black", for the breed's black mantle
• Cuivre -- French for "copper", for the bright copper-tan markings
• Fauve -- French for "fawn" or "tawny", for the warm tan
• Manteau -- French for "mantle", naming the black saddle the breed wears
• Charbon -- French for "coal", a name for the deep black
• Ambre -- French for "amber", for the warm tan tones
• Domino -- a playful nod to the black-and-white contrast
• Tricolore -- the breed's own descriptive name, worn as a dog name

French heritage and place names

• Gaston -- a classic French male name, warm and traditional
• Margot -- a warm, traditional French female name
• Aimé -- French for "beloved", a fond name for a devoted hound
• Colette -- a classic French female name with literary depth
• Poitou -- the western French country of the breed's hound ancestors
• Gascogne -- the old southern province behind the Gascon hound blood
• Loire -- the great river of west-central France
• Sologne -- the forested hunting country of central France

Hunt, quarry and voice names

• Chasse -- French for "the hunt", the breed's reason for being
• Meute -- French for the hunting "pack", the Tricolore's natural unit
• Cerf -- French for "deer"/stag, evoking the quarry the breed runs
• Sanglier -- French for "wild boar", the Tricolore's other quarry
• Piste -- French for "track" or "scent trail"
• Echo -- for the carrying, melodious voice in cover
• Chasseur -- French for "hunter", for a born pack worker
• Ranger -- plain English for a dog built to cover ground all day
• Scout -- for the methodical scenting work of the hound
• Tracker -- plain English for the breed's defining skill

More French heritage names

• French Trail - best for a Chien Français Tricolore name rooted in France rather than generic style
• France; bred from old French chiens courants of Poitou and Gascony via Anglo-Français packs Ridge - best for a regional landscape cue tied to the Chien Français Tricolore story
• Local Line - best for a name that respects local breed history
• Old Route - best for migration, trade, field or pastoral routes behind the breed
• Heritage Note - best for a page where origin should be treated as context, not decoration
• Village Path - best for rustic, local or landrace-style background
• Working Home - best for a dog whose name should remember large French pack scenthound bred to hunt deer and wild boar in organised packs in the mounted vénerie, workin
• Country Mark - best for a concise country-of-origin cue

More work and purpose names

• Cold Nose - best for a Chien Français Tricolore tied to older scent trails
• Track Bell - best for a hound whose voice marks the trail
• Scent Check - best for a dog that confirms track direction
• Long Trail - best for endurance over rough or wooded country
• Forest Cast - best for methodical search through cover
• Leash Rule - best for wildlife and road-safety management
• Checkback - best for a trail dog who learns to return to the handler
• Settle - best for calm at home after scent work

More coat and build names

• Tricolour -- Black - best for a Chien Français Tricolore whose color or markings deserve a simple call name
• Short, Rather Fine, Close-lying Coat - best for the short, rather fine, close-lying coat type on this breed
• White Blaze - best for a clear face or chest marking
• Dark Mask - best for a dog with a strong muzzle or face marking
• Weather Coat - best for outdoor or working-dog coat context
• Strong Frame - best for a dog whose build is part of its function
• Bright Eye - best for an alert expression
• Ground Step - best for a name tied to movement and body type

📋 Breed Standard at a Glance

FCI Standard No. 219 -- general appearance and size

The Chien Français Tricolore is classified by the FCI in Group 6 (Scenthounds and Related Breeds), Section 1.1 (Large-sized Hounds), and is subject to a working trial; the current valid standard was published on 1 August 2023. It describes a large pack hound -- elegant, sufficiently well boned and well muscled, built for the all-day work of big game in the vénerie. Males stand from 62 to 72 cm at the withers and bitches from 60 to 68 cm, making this a genuinely tall hound that nonetheless carries its size with the lean, athletic construction of a stayer rather than a heavyweight. The overall impression is of a powerful, balanced pack dog made for endurance over rough French country.

Head, coat and colour

The head is not too imposing but quite elongated, with a marked occipital protuberance and a stop more accentuated than in the Poitevin; the eyes are big and brown, sometimes circled with black, and the expression is intelligent. The ears are a defining point -- their leathers broader than the Poitevin's, set at eye level, slightly curled and reaching toward the set-on of the nose. The coat is short and rather fine over a quite fine skin. Colour gives the breed its name: tricolour, with a black mantle more or less spread out and the tan preferably bright or even copper, while the grizzled "wolf colour" is also admitted. Tellingly, the standard faults any smoky head colour indicating a cross with the White and Black Hound -- a built-in guard of the breed's distinct identity.

Body, movement and the English-blood fault

The body is that of an endurance hound: a sustained, solid back, a deep chest reaching at least to the elbows with long, not-too-flat ribs, and a long, high-carried tail borne with elegance in the action of the hunt. The limbs are well positioned and straight, the thighs long and sufficiently muscled, and the movement easy and light. The single most revealing line in the standard is among the faults: any apparent trace of English hound blood, especially in the head, is to be penalised. That clause is the breed's reason for being written into its own description -- the Chien Français Tricolore is precisely the French hound from which the Foxhound stamp was meant to be removed, and the standard polices the boundary that separates it from its more English Anglo-Français cousins.

🏆 Recognition

FCI standard No. 219 (Section 1.1 -- Large-sized Hounds), recognized in 1965.

Other registries

Breed clubs

❓ Frequently Asked Questions

What is a Chien Français Tricolore's temperament like?

The Chien Français Tricolore is an energetic, hardy, single-minded pack scenthound. With people it is even-tempered and friendly rather than sharp -- a gentle hound that makes a poor guard precisely because it has no suspicion of strangers -- and it is strongly sociable with other dogs, having been bred to cooperate in large hunting packs. What governs its behaviour is the nose and the carrying voice: on a hot line it follows instinct far more than command, and it bays by design. The breed literature is blunt that dogs bred to hunt in packs do not usually make good ordinary pets; the Tricolore needs space, serious work and canine company, and does badly kept alone.

How big does a Chien Français Tricolore get?

It is a large French scenthound. Under FCI Standard No. 219 males stand 62 to 72 cm at the withers and bitches 60 to 68 cm, making this a genuinely tall hound. It is elegant and well boned rather than heavy -- the lean, athletic construction of an endurance stayer built to cover ground all day across rough country rather than a bulky, powerful build.

What health problems do Chien Français Tricolores have?

The breed is generally regarded as a hardy, sound large hound, but it is kept almost entirely in working hunting packs in France and almost no formal, breed-specific health data exists for it, so claims of precise prevalence figures should be treated with caution. Generations of selection strictly for working soundness tend to keep the type free of the exaggerated conformation that drives disease in some breeds. The predictable practical concerns are otitis externa in the long drop ears -- managed by weekly inspection, gentle cleaning and careful drying -- and hip dysplasia, for which radiographic screening of breeding stock is advised; the everyday risks of a field dog (thorns, foxtails, ticks, the occasional injury from boar) matter as much as inherited disease. This is general educational information, not veterinary advice.

Are Chien Français Tricolores good family dogs?

For most households, no -- and the breed itself is the reason. It is a working pack hound bred for the vénerie, gentle with its own people and good with children it has grown up among, but it needs serious daily exercise, a real scent-work or hunting outlet, secure fencing against its strong prey drive, and the company of other dogs. It is vocal by design and pines kept alone. The standard sources are candid that pack-bred dogs do not usually make good pets, and outside France the Tricolore is practically unknown as a companion. Only an active rural home with space, other dogs, dog-handling experience and ideally real work can give the breed what it needs.

How much grooming does a Chien Français Tricolore need?

Very little, where the coat is concerned. The short, rather fine, close-lying coat needs only a weekly brush with a firm-bristle brush or rubber curry comb, with more frequent brushing during the spring and autumn moults and occasional bathing when the dog is genuinely dirty -- it needs no clipping or stripping. The real grooming priority is the long drop ears, which trap warmth and moisture and are prone to infection: weekly inspection, gentle cleaning of the outer canal with a veterinarian-approved product and careful drying after wet work are essential. Nails need monthly checking and teeth benefit from regular brushing; a hands-on check for ticks, thorns and grass seeds after work in cover is sensible for this rough-country breed.

How much exercise does a Chien Français Tricolore need?

A Chien Français Tricolore needs exercise that matches its history and build. Plan for daily movement, training and mental work connected to large French pack scenthound bred to hunt deer and wild boar in organised packs in the mounted vénerie, workin. The right amount depends on age, health and individual temperament, so owners should balance activity with rest rather than relying on a one-size routine.

📚 Sources & Further Reading

Every load-bearing factual claim on this page is anchored to one of the sources below. iDogNames does not synthesize from secondary aggregators.

• fci standard pdf FCI Standard No. 219 -- Français Tricolore (French Tricolour Hound) — Fédération Cynologique Internationale (2023)
• breed club official Français Tricolore FCI Nomenclature Entry -- Standard No. 219 — Fédération Cynologique Internationale (2024)
• breed club official Société Centrale Canine -- national kennel club of France — Société Centrale Canine (2024)
• breed club official Chien Francais Tricolore -- UKC Breed Standard — United Kennel Club (2024)
• wikipedia Chien Français Tricolore -- Wikipedia — Wikipedia
• wikipedia Anglo-Français and Français (hound) -- Wikipedia — Wikipedia
• book The New Encyclopedia of the Dog — Dorling Kindersley (2000)
• veterinary org Otitis Externa in Animals -- overview and management — Merck Veterinary Manual (2024)
• veterinary org Hip Dysplasia -- evaluation and screening — Orthopedic Foundation for Animals (2024)

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