Briard

Protective of its family; may nudge or circle people.
A Briard
Photo: Birgit Balzer, Deutschland
Adult male
32–45 kg
71–99 lb
Adult female
25–38 kg
55–84 lb
Lifespan
12.6 yrs
Class · Watchdog
also Working, Family

What it's like

The Briard is loyal and protective towards its household and reserved with strangers. It learns quickly but has an independent streak suited to work done with little direction. Its herding instinct can show in a habit of nudging or circling the people around it.

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 Briard right for you?
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Living with one

It has a long coat. It sheds through the year rather than in big seasonal moults. Plan on daily brushing. It needs plenty of exercise compared with other breeds.

Size and growth

A Briard is a large dog, about the weight of a grown German Shepherd. Males end up clearly heavier than females.

It is a supple, muscular dog with a long, dry, slightly wavy coat often likened to goat hair, usually black, fawn or grey. Long hair on the head forms eyebrows, a beard and a moustache, and the tail ends in a small hook. The breed standard requires double dewclaws on each hind leg.

Puppy growth

Reference curve · community data appears as owners log
By about 3 months, a male Briard puppy is already as heavy as a grown Pug. They grow fastest between 3 and 4 months old. Most males grow into the size large-breed puppy foods are made for.
Fully grown
12 mo
Both sexes, at 99% of adult weight8
Male
Female
Shaded: expected range
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Age
Male
Female
2 months
6.7–9.4 kg 14.8–20.7 lb
5.8–8.7 kg 12.8–19.2 lb
3 months
10.1–14.2 kg 22.3–31.3 lb
8.3–12.6 kg 18.3–27.8 lb
4 months
15.0–21.1 kg 33.1–46.5 lb
12.0–18.3 kg 26.5–40.3 lb
5 months
19.2–27.0 kg 42.3–59.5 lb
15.3–23.3 kg 33.7–51.4 lb
6 months
22.9–32.2 kg 50.5–71.0 lb
18.0–27.4 kg 39.7–60.4 lb
7 months
25.8–36.3 kg 56.9–80.0 lb
20.0–30.4 kg 44.1–67.0 lb
8 months
28.0–39.3 kg 61.7–86.6 lb
21.3–32.5 kg 47.0–71.7 lb
9 months
29.4–41.4 kg 64.8–91.3 lb
22.4–34.0 kg 49.4–75.0 lb
10 months
30.3–42.6 kg 66.8–93.9 lb
23.1–35.1 kg 50.9–77.4 lb
11 months
30.8–43.3 kg 67.9–95.5 lb
23.6–35.8 kg 52.0–78.9 lb
12 months
31.2–43.8 kg 68.8–96.6 lb
23.9–36.4 kg 52.7–80.2 lb
15 months
31.6–44.5 kg 69.7–98.1 lb
24.6–37.4 kg 54.2–82.5 lb

Lifespan

In UK vet records, the typical Briard lived to about 12 and a half years, longer than the typical large breed. The group was small, so treat the figure as rough.

Where it comes from

The Briard is the long-coated sheepdog of the French plains, bred to drive and guard flocks, and linked by name to the province of Brie; 'chien de Brie' first appears in the Abbé Rozier's farming treatise of 1809. It and the short-coated Beauceron have ancestors in common. In both world wars the French army used it as a sentry and to find wounded soldiers on the battlefield4,10.

The Briard's modern form was settled in the late nineteenth century, when French breeders and dog shows began to separate the long-coated plains sheepdogs from their short-coated relatives. A first breed standard appeared in the eighteen-nineties, and the breed club Les Amis du Briard was founded in the early twentieth century. American soldiers who had served in France took dogs home after the First World War, but the breed stayed uncommon outside France for decades. On the farm the Briard worked as a 'living fence'. It patrolled the edges of unfenced crops to keep sheep from straying and guarded the flock against thieves and, in earlier times, wolves.

Breed standard

The Briard is judged against standard no. 113, in group 1, Sheepdogs and Cattledogs4.

Questions people ask

General guidance for dogs rather than a measured Briard 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

Bouvier des Flandres
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Large
Berger Picard
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Medium
German Shepherd
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Large
Old English Sheepdog
Sheepdogs & cattledogs · Large
Or compare the Briard with any breed you choose
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Sources

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Parts of this page were written by AI ·