Tony,

I have sent her an email a long time ago, but she never replies. I'm meeting Debbie from Les Ombres Valureux and she breeds malinois and beauceron. I will find out more about her dogs when I meet her in May. I'm pretty excited.

dont forget to tell us what their like when you come back, Ive always admired the breed from afar-but just their looks and reputation; I dont officially know anything about them

Lindsay
Yep she's the one.....I was really impressed with her, her whole set-up there and the way she handled the dogs. It was clear she was the pack leader and also that she knew each one individually very well. I fell in love with the Beaucerons and she had a litter of them at the time we were there.......little alligators! Boy did I want one! Good luck with your visit! I'm sure you'll learn a lot whether you decide on them or not.

Mr. Epstein, I mean no disrespect to you, but I think you are unfairly making an assumption about the Beauceron. The Beauceron is very rare outside of France (where it is one of the most popular police and service dog). It's registration numbers are estimated to be around 25,000 total dogs...ever. The GSD had nearly 44,000 registered dogs with the AKC in 2006 alone. That is a lot of GSD's. For the most part, the more popular the dog, the more it strays from it's genetic herritage because some peope just want to make a buck and aren't concerned with quality. There is just not enough demand for the Beauceron for this to happen to that degree. Now I'm not saying there aren't well bred GSD's out there, because certainly there are. But there are also very badly bred ones. It is no wonder you don't see more working Beauceron's in the U.S. when they are so rare here. On the other hand, the GSD remains one of the top 5 most popular breeds in States. Of course there are going to be more working GSDs than Beaucerons. Anyway, that being said, I agree with you that she probaby has a better chance with a well bred GSD-not because the Beaceron isn't capable, but because GSDs are proven in the States to be very successful working dogs. That, and there are alot of experienced breeders who know what to breed for in a pup.

Within these types of breeds that aren't often used for protection, there will always be different bloodlines that produce dogs that have the ability and those that don't. I've heard from professionals that the Beauceron is not suitable for protection work or Schutzhund, but then there ARE some Beaus that are excellent for that type of stuff. It's hard to know what each breed in general is good at, as different dogs and different bloodlines produce different things.

I have only met two Beauceron in my life. Both were very high drive. They were dogs I'd only want to see with experienced handlers. As far as drives and temperaments, they were more like mals than GSDs. But were larger and more powerful. How these two compared with others of the breed, I don't know.

GSDs would definitely be easier to handle.

I have a beauceron.

If you search my posts you'll find a fair bit. There are other threads you can find on this board on the topic.

If you are serious about schutzhund or ring get a belgian or gsd.