Beauceron

About the Beauceron

The Beauceron is the plains sheepdog of the Beauce, the corn country around Paris, a big smooth-coated dog that both moved flocks and guarded them, and it served the French army as a messenger and mine-detection dog through two world wars. It is a demanding breed, closer in outlook to a working shepherd than to a pet.

Dogs stand 65 to 70 cm, short-coated, usually black with rich tan markings that earn the breed its nickname of bas rouge, the red stockings. A harlequin pattern also exists, and that pattern is a merle. Double dewclaws on each hind leg are required by the standard, and a stud without them is incorrect. Two harlequins should never be put together, because a puppy inheriting the gene twice may be born deaf, with malformed eyes, or both.

Start with hip scores and a current eye certificate under the BVA/KC schemes. The Beauceron is large and deep through the chest, so gastric torsion is a real risk; ask what has happened in the line and whether relatives have needed surgery for it. Temperament deserves the closest look of all, because an under-socialised Beauceron is a great deal of dog to manage, and a stud assessed in a working or obedience discipline tells you something the pedigree cannot.

Health & breeding

We check every hip, elbow, eye and DNA result you give us against the Royal Kennel Club’s public records by hand, and we record who checked it and when. The Royal Kennel Club’s public records may not include all the screening a dog has had, so a dog with no Royal Kennel Club record showing is not necessarily untested.