A little about Briards |
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Briard is an ancient French herding/guarding breed. The many are wonderful
stories surrounding the history of the breed, including one Briard
who challenges the murderer of his owner to a duel and wins! Thomas
Jefferson is credited with having brought the first Briards to the
United States. The breed is well known for its role in WWI where it
played an important part in locating wounded soldiers in the battlefield
as well as transporting messages between units. The original breed looked considerably different to what is seen today. Today’s Briard has a much more profuse coat which would be unrealistic to a sheep farmer. Even today’s Briards with the correct goat like texture often have a much longer coat than one sees in early portraits of the breed. Although it
is stated in most sources that a Briard requires about 1-2 hours
of grooming weekly, this certainly does not apply to most dogs between
the ages of 9 to 24 months. During this age stage there are two
coat changed which can result in many hours of grooming needed to
keep the coat mat free. The first is when the puppy coat is dropped
and the second is the change from adolescent to adult coat. With
good coat texture and quality, once the Briard reaches adulthood,
1/2 hour a week is sufficient. |
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There are many good books on the Briard, a few are listed below. The
Briard A Collection by Diane McLeroth |
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