I am researching my next dog and am gravitating toward Bouviers. I have considered Reisenchnauzers and BRT's but neither of these three breeds are very common (with working lines) in the US.
I am soaking up all the info I can about any of these breeds.

If was independently wealthy I would obviously look into importing a dog but since I do have a limited budget but still want a dog that can possibly work, Im sticking to my prospects in the US
My main requirement is that the dog have a solid temperament. I dont mind if they are a challenge to train- I am willing to learn and thanks to this site- have access to the right information.

Any information or advice is appreciated.

If you are talking about working dogs in sport work (SchH, Ring, PSA, IPO etc) It is much more difficult to find a good dog on the more 'off' breeds.

Often hard enough to find an exceptionally good one in the more common 'sport' breeds ie: GSD, Mals, Dutchies. At least as pups prospects. Although there are many good breeders here breeding solid Europien working lines.

It's even hard to find a healthy Dobe or good Rott or schnauzers these days.

I don't know much about terriers but I suspect they might be a bit easier to find some good breeders in the US. As the earth dog sports seem to be pretty popular. Maybe Bob Scott will comment, as he was a terrier guy for many, many years before going to GSDs.

Bouvs are not all that common here. And even less common finding a good working one from what I have seen & head in the last few years when I have heard them discussed.

If you are interested in a particular line of dogs you need to follow the pedigree & contact European kennels,if needed & find some referrals for people(kennels) here that have imported those lines & bred them & go from there.

Alot depends on your deciding what 'work' you want to do & then deciding on a breed of dog you want & that is suitable for that 'work'.

Once you narrow down to your breed you can start to search for a breeder stateside.

There was a guy on another board that was breeding & working Bouvs. Don't know if he still is, but I can try to find out if that is what you are interested in. PM me if you are. Haven't heard of any Schnauzer breeders on any of the working dog boards. Someone else may know of someone.

Good luck on your search.

Mary,
there are still a few handlers that work Bouvs in DVG, that might be the best way to get a line on a decent breeder.

I would *strongly* advise against the BRT, *every* one that I've seen in the U.S. have had horrible nerve issues.

"I would *strongly* advise against the BRT, *every* one that I've seen in the U.S. have had horrible nerve issues. smiley for "

I would agree. There's a breeder near me who imports all of her stock from Russia because she can't stand what the US breeders produce. She was quite open about the issues in the breed which was a novelty. She was straight-forward about being extremely careful about picking a dog since frequently the breeders themselves don't know the lines and what they need to look for in the imports because rather than a whole dog, they're looking for 'pretty'. You can get anything from nervy to an oversized bench labrador.