Beauceron

Steady and trainable, but can be strong-willed.
A Beauceron
Photo: KekeK9
Adult male
40–50 kg
88–110 lb
Adult female
32–45 kg
71–99 lb
Lifespan
10–12 yrs
Class · Working
also Watchdog, Sport

What it's like

The Beauceron's temperament is calm, confident and steady. It is strongly attached to its family and reserved and watchful with strangers. It is intelligent and trainable but can be strong-willed, and today it is used in herding, obedience and protection work.

Day to day
Activity
Needs lots of exercise
Intelligence
Needs daily brain work
Handler demand
Needs an experienced owner
With people
Affection
Affectionate on its own terms
Loyalty
Sticks close to its people
Independence
Cooperative, with its own ideas
Around the home
Sensitivity
Average
Voice
Barks to alert, then settles
Prey drive
Chases; needs managing
Breed explains only about 9% of how individual dogs differ in behaviour1. Meet the dog. A good breeder breeds for temperament as well as health, and matches each puppy's personality to the right home2,3.
Is a Beauceron right for you?
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Living with one

It has a short coat. Most of the shedding comes when the seasons change. Plan on a brush once a week, plus daily brushing through the seasonal moult. It needs plenty of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Beauceron is a large dog, about the weight of a grown Rottweiler. Males end up clearly heavier than females. It is one of the heaviest large breeds.

The Beauceron is a powerful, muscular dog with a short, dense, weather-resistant coat. It is most often black with rich tan markings on the face, chest and legs, and a harlequin form mixes grey, black and tan. One unusual feature is the double dewclaw on each hind leg, which the breed standard requires.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
Beaucerons reach half their adult weight at about 5 months. They grow fastest between 4 and 5 months old. They keep growing past their first birthday, longer than a Beagle does. Most males grow into the size large-breed puppy foods are made for.
Fully grown
13 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight6
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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Age
Male
Female
2 months
7.0–8.7 kg 15.4–19.2 lb
7.4–10.4 kg 16.3–22.9 lb
3 months
11.2–14.0 kg 24.7–30.9 lb
10.6–14.9 kg 23.4–32.8 lb
4 months
16.6–20.8 kg 36.6–45.9 lb
15.4–21.7 kg 34.0–47.8 lb
5 months
22.5–28.1 kg 49.6–61.9 lb
19.6–27.6 kg 43.2–60.8 lb
6 months
27.9–34.9 kg 61.5–76.9 lb
23.1–32.4 kg 50.9–71.4 lb
7 months
32.2–40.2 kg 71.0–88.6 lb
25.6–36.0 kg 56.4–79.4 lb
8 months
35.1–43.9 kg 77.4–96.8 lb
27.3–38.4 kg 60.2–84.7 lb
9 months
37.0–46.3 kg 81.6–102.1 lb
28.6–40.3 kg 63.1–88.8 lb
10 months
38.2–47.8 kg 84.2–105.4 lb
29.5–41.5 kg 65.0–91.5 lb
11 months
39.0–48.7 kg 86.0–107.4 lb
30.2–42.4 kg 66.6–93.5 lb
12 months
39.4–49.3 kg 86.9–108.7 lb
30.7–43.1 kg 67.7–95.0 lb
15 months
39.9–49.8 kg 88.0–109.8 lb
31.5–44.3 kg 69.4–97.7 lb

Lifespan

No vet study has measured how long Beaucerons live yet. The 10–12 years shown is a general figure without a published source.

Where it comes from

The Beauceron is the old sheepdog of the plains of Beauce, southwest of Paris, bred to drive and guard flocks. Late-19th-century breeders also called it the Red-Stocking, for the tan on its legs, and in 1896, when leading dog authorities met to classify France's shepherd dogs, the short-coated ones were named Beauceron and the long-haired ones Briard. It later served in the trenches of the First World War4,9.

The Beauceron, known in France as the Berger de Beauce, emerged from the working sheepdogs of northern France long before any formal standard existed. A breed club was formed in the early nineteen-twenties. The French army made wide use of the dog in both world wars, where it carried messages, guarded positions and found wounded soldiers. It stayed largely a French dog until the later twentieth century, when it began to gain a following abroad. Its job was to move large flocks across open, unfenced farmland, keeping sheep off the crops and guarding them from thieves and predators. That work called for stamina, judgement and a protective instinct.

Breed standard

The Beauceron is judged against standard no. 44, in group 1, Sheepdogs and Cattledogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Beauceron figure: most females have a first season somewhere between six and fifteen months, and cycles then settle to roughly every 180 days. Smaller breeds tend to start earlier and larger ones later, so a large breed is most likely at the later end.

Compare with related

Doberman Pinscher
Pinschers & molossoids · Medium
German Shepherd
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Large
Old English Sheepdog
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Large
Briard
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Large
Or compare the Beauceron with any breed you choose
Track your own Beauceron
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Sources

Uncited on this page: Lifespan — no reviewed source yet, so it is a general reference figure rather than a published one.
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Parts of this page were written by AI ·