The dog’s country of origin is France. This was formerly known as Picard. The dog was esteemed as a hunter since historic times. The superior hare hunting skills of the Picards have been recorded in many a place. The Ardennes area of Belgium was the place from where some of the earliest of these hounds stemmed.

By the 17th century the d’Artois dogs had become popular. In 1609 Prince Alexandre de Gray (France) had expressed his desire to send a pack of little d’Artois dogs to the King of England. Thus, the bringing in of the d’Artois to England may well have subsequently led to the development of the Beagle breed of dogs.

There had developed a fashion among French hunters to secure the d’Artois dogs by the 19th century and the increasing demand called forth considerable crossbreeding. This led to a deterioration of the pure d’Artois. Finally the only ‘pure’ breeds of d’Artois remaining were the packs kept at Chantilly and those of the Prince de Conde.

Ernest Levair and M. Therouanne ventured on a twenty-year program to breed the original d’Artois in the 1880s. This resulted in great success though the war years that commenced soon after nearly destroyed the breed. However, the Briquet dogs did not become extinct altogether and since 1975 their numbers are on the rise. Now there are around 500 dogs registered in their studbooks.