Looking for a Briard type farm dog.

[Joybell]

We lost our 13 year old Briard mix to a heart tumour in November. We are on a dairy farm and usually our new dog would have found us by now. It's good news that there are no strays or abandoned dogs in our area anymore (our Briard mix was given to us by our vet). However, we are finding it hard to find a dog! The problem is that if a dog is over a year old, he/she will find it hard to get used to a farm if their previous life has been spent in a house. Our farm dog has always roamed freely, which meant intensive training, starting as a pup, to stay off the busy road in front of the farm. The farm dog's territory is the whole farm, with cold days or nights spent in the barn with the cows and cats - not in the house. The house is only for "visits" at mealtimes. It takes a special dog to be a farm dog - friendly and loyal to the family, but very wary of strangers and posessing a very loud bark! Briards or other "Bouvier" or cattle dog types are great.

I guess a puppy would be best, but I am really, really hesitant to contact a breeder because they may just be operating a puppy mill. We don't want to encourage that kind of breeder.

We are in southwest Quebec. Does anyone here know where we could start to look? We don't mind paying a breeder for a puppy - but need to know if they are breeding in the best interests of the dog breed and not themselves. I don't know how to word this properly, but I think you may know what I mean.

[allymack]

are you looking specifcally for a briard? or just a farm dog, who can be easyily trained to do the tasks you want, or is it just for company? i found my breeder from this site ( but from the nova scotia part- not the quebec part you need)i found every breeder on here, that i visited from this site (while looking for my puppy) to not be a byb. http://www.grandane.com/QuebecKennels/index.html plus they are all registered breeders, you will see that most of them breed for health, and for the desired breed charateristics. hope this helps.

[Joybell]

You have Morgans too? We have two registered Morgans - the old chunky type. My gelding is 19 years old and my daughter's mare is going to be 15 this spring! My best friend moved to Nova Scotia and she has two reg. Morgans (one which I bred) that she uses in therapeutic riding in Blockhouse NS.

Anyway, back to dogs.....Yes, I gues we would like another Briard, but not necessarily a purebred. I have found out how hard it is to find one! We had no idea they were so rare, but I don't think ours was a purebred, although he looked like one. We need a "serious" farm dog (not a Lab - they are too friendly and fun!). We found that the Briard had the herding charateristics that are very usefull when the heifers got loose. He would quietly get behind them and then bark....excellent intelligence and herd instinct. I suppose any kind of cattle dog would be just as good - but we loved our Briard type and that's why we are leading in that direction.

I'll check out the link on your post. Thanks!

[allymack]

are you looking for a herding type dog, or a more protective dog? it you are looking for a protective dog i would definately suggest a great pyranese, if they grow up with the stock they are going to protect, they get very attached to them and think of them as part of their family, but i mean they have to litteraly live with the stock and they will grow really attached. but if you are looking for a herding dog i would really suggest a border collie (now i might be a little biased since i own one ) but they they can really herd!

[Joybell]

I came across this post while posting on another topic. I thought I'd let you know what we decided to do - visit our local pound. There we found a young female shepherd mix, sad and frightened. She has turned out to be a great dog. She is very good at guarding and yet is a fun family pet. She is wary of strangers until properly introduced. The only thing she doesn't do well is herd the heifers - we have to do that ourselves now. But we don't mind.

A little while later I came across a shelter (AMR in St. Constant) and adopted another dog, this time a little companion for me. He is a ****zu mix who was found wandering the streets in January. We've had him for 2 years now. He's a great little dog and a good playmate for our big shepherd (who takes care of him very well when playing).

Moral of this story? There are excellent dogs that can be found at pounds/shelters. These dogs seem to know that they have been rescued and are forever thankful.

[Marty11]

That posting was old!!! Glad you found great dogs, I will adopt from shelters someday too. Good ending to your story.

[Melinda]

welcome back Joybell and thanks so much for the wonderful update!!

[hazelrunpack]

I love happy endings!!

Welcome back, Joybell! I don't suppose we could get a few pics of your two additions, hmmmmm?

[pbpatti]

This post made me smile , 4 years later and here you are Joybell back to give us an update on your two new additions to your family. I second the motion for some pictures. patti

[Joybell]

I guess my pic sizes are too large. I will get my daughter to post them since this site didn't want to accept mine. She will know how to resize them.