History of the beauceron

 The shepherd of beauce, more known under the name of low-red, is in the beginning a dog of herd of strong stoutness, robust and full with endurance, with the temperament of heat.

 This shepherd with short hair is characterized, amongst other things, by a double pin with the rear limbs is a sportsman achieved at ease as well with the field at the city. Adorable and guard towards his family, it can be a frightening guard.

 The stock of the dogs which contributed to the creation of the Shepherd of Beauce goes up directly in Canis palustris which one locates the existence at the age of the stone. Known under the name of "dog of the peat bogs", it seems to have transmitted to its descendants a type common to the races shepherdesses.

 The origins of the race are similar to those of the majority of the continental European sheepdogs. The shepherd was useful himself of the dog to protect his herd. The animal was of strong stoutness, powerful, robust, courageous, being wary. The dog of control appeared only in XIIIè century, in Iceland. From XVIIè century, its use was diffused in almost all Europe. Its aspect differs from the dog of protection by a less significant gauge. One still distinguishes the dog of plain, average size, and the dog of mountain, smaller. One like the other show endurance and an unquestionable heat with the work which consists in carrying out the animals of a grazing ground to another and place of breeding to the cattle market or at the slaughter-house, to bring back the stray ones towards the herd and to protect the cultures. With the disappearance of the wolf, the plains became surer; the breeding increased without fear for the security of the herd. The dog of protection becomes less current, except in mountainous or hostile areas where it is always of utility. The dog of control thus primarily developed in plain; its use became necessary as from the moment when the grounds were parcellisées and which the cultures took of the extension.

  The Rozier Abbot, in his Course of Agriculture (1809) depicts two kinds of dogs employed with work on herd:

- the dog of Brie, equipped with a long hair, used "in the walks of day of the animals with wool", in flat ground;

- a "Mâtin robust, sharp, bold, able to attack and embank a wolf". One associated it with the dog of Brie for the guard of night and with work in wooded and mountainous ground.

    The first French canine exposure was held in 1863. Among the sixteen exposed sheepdogs, thirteen presented the same type, black with a white spot with the breast piece, demi-long hair, lupoïde type, triangular head. All had the aspect of a wolf. One can think that they were the closest ancestors of the Shepherd of Beauce.

    Until 1890, one distinguished the Herdsman and sheepdogs on a variation from size or their use. The regionalization of some types was distinguished: the Picardy type in the North and the North-East of France, the types of Beauce and Brie in the center and more particularly in Paris area, the Ardennes type in the East and the types the Pyrenees and Crau in the South.

  In 1893, Pierre Mégnin published the characteristics of the dog of Beauce.

    In 1896, amateurs of user, sheepdogs primarily, met and formed a commission charged to study and determine the characteristics of the two races of sheepdogs French mainly met in contest: one with hair runs, the other with long hair.

    Together, they decided to appoint the variety with hair short "Shepherd of Beauce" and to preserve the denomination "Shepherd of Brie" for the variety at long hair, such as it had been already employed for one century. It was well stipulated whereas it was by no means question of their region of origin, but only of one means of distinction between the two: the Shepherd with short hair would be Beauceron, the Shepherd with long hair Briard.

    The French Club of the sheepdog was created the same year with Emmanuel Boulet as president. Consequently the real selection of the race of Shepherd of Beauce started.

    It is into 1911 that the Club of the Friends of Beauceron was created, under the impulse of Mr Siraudin, whose writings still act as reference to date.