Briard.com.au
Title
The Australian Briard Home Page
Description
Briards are a medium to large breed (58-69cm / 23-27in) similar in size and weight to a Old English Sheepdog or German Shepherd Dog. They are strong, muscular, extremely agile and supple with a long shaggy coat. Usual colours are black (often with scattered white hairs through the coat), slate grey or various shades of fawn ranging from a pale cream to a deep rich gold. Fawn Briards may or may not have black muzzles and ear tips and often have varying amounts of black or grey shading across the neck and shoulders. The coat of an adult is 30cm or longer. Texture is slightly wavy and quite coarse (described as a goat like coat) with a medium undercoat. The tail is long with heavy feathering and hangs down low with an inverted 'J' shaped 'hook' at the end. The head is quite large and in all colours but the blues always with a black nose. The blue dogs are dilute blacks and as such have paler pigment and eye colouring. Eyes should be dark and have a gentle expression 'with a depth that is moving to the beholder'. Ears are medium sized, hang down (i.e. not 'cropped' as they often are in USA and some European countries) and very mobile and expressive. There should be ample beard and moustache hair and a long 'fringe' covering the eyes and ears - and yes - they can see through the gaps in the fringe!! A requirement for the breed ring is the presence of double dew-claws on the inside of each back foot, these should be as low to the ground as possible and in many dogs actually function as extra toes. Briards can be expected to live to 12-13 years of age with a significant number living to 14 and some until they are 15. With very few exceptions they remain active and healthy with few signs of ageing until a sudden final illness overtakes them.
Adult Briards are amiable, tolerant and enjoy children of all ages and puppies are fine with children over 4 years old. Boisterous puppies however, can become too overwhelming for some pre-schoolers to cope with. This applies particularly when parents are on the steep learning curve of first-time large-dog ownership. In their home country of France they are often referred to as the 'babysitter dog' or the 'doormat' dog. Because a Briard's greatest enjoyment in life is to be with you, sharing in the family activities, he needs to be largely an indoor dog. The greatest cruelty you can inflict on a Briard is to keep him shut outside 'missing out' when his family is at home. For such a boisterous dog they make excellent house dogs and are very quickly house trained.
Briards are not fussy eaters and can be fed a variety of foods including pet-roll, fresh mince, raw chicken necks or whole raw chicken carcasses, mixed with a good quality dog kibble - and they will gratefully accept any table scraps as well! It is not recommended that you feed them totally on dry food. Puppies will cost more to feed as they grow very fast and require larger quantities and a better quality food for the first year.
