Papillon breed guide

Papillons are intelligent and eager to please the humans they bond with. AKC says housetraining goes more easily than for some small breeds. Early socialization is very important and obedience classes are a good idea.

They are little dogs for all seasons and reasons, more robust than they look.

Papillons live 14 to 16 years. AKC says they are tough and gutsy but very small, so owners must be careful around stairs, furniture and larger animals and a small child can accidentally hurt a young one very easily.

Breeders screen for a fontanel in the top of the skull, similar to a human baby's soft spot and for patellar luxation.

For a breed with long silky hair, Papillons need surprisingly little grooming, mostly because they have no undercoat. A full grooming every month or so is fine, with a few minutes of comb or soft slicker brush through the hair inside the hind legs and behind the ears in between.

Small size makes Papillons excellent indoor pets, but they are active, smart dogs that want their people to play with them. Indoors they enjoy retrieving a small ball or toy and quickly learn to bring it back to be thrown again.

Papillons were bred as charming, attentive companions for noblewomen and for hundreds of years were favorites in the royal courts of Europe. Rubens, Rembrandt, Goya and Toulouse-Lautrec are among the masters who included them in paintings.

They were developed in Renaissance times by crossing existing toy breeds with spaniels and the breed's early ancestors were known as dwarf spaniels.