I agree that the Poodle would make a great dog for a French officer, but the Colonel's German.
In my backstory for the Mercenaries, they are not actually the FFL, but a similar ragtag bunch of international cutthroats, revolutionaries and ne'er do wells hired by an eccentric aristocrat/professor type to raid the Lost Plateau of Ftang for ancient secrets, massive wealth and rare specimens.
Some of them may even survive.
