FEDERATION CYNOLOGIQUE INTERNATIONALE
SECRETARIAT GENERAL: 13, Place Albert I B6530 THUIN (Belg.)
FCI Standard No

Beauceron
Country of Origin: France

GENERAL APPEARANCE

A large, solid animal with a rustic look and a powerful, muscular build; get without heaviness A direct and fearless manner Penalties: Too elegant, lack of power, shy. Disqualification's: Lacks type. too heavy, too light, vicious or timid

SIZE
Male: 27" Female: 26" with an allowance of 1" below and 1" above the given size, eves for puppy classes. Thus: Male: from 26" to 28". Female: from 25" to 27". Disqualification's Size outside these maximum or minimum limits.

HEAD
Long (2.5" of height at shoulders), it must be proportion with the body. Skull: Flat or slightly arched; furrow between the eyes is slight, occiput well marked, the head is well chiseled with harmonious lines but without weaknesses. Stop is moderated and placed equally between top of head and tip of nose. Width of skull and height of head slightly less than half of the length of the head. Muzzle shows a slight convex line at the tip of the Dose. Viewed in profile the muzzle is roughly parallel to topline of skull. Muzzle: Neither narrow nor pointed, lips are tight, always well pigmented upper lip must cover lower lip firmly, slight flews at the comer of the mouth must always be firm Teeth: Strong, white. A full set with a scissors bite. Upper teeth cover lower teeth, touching lightly. Nose: Tip of nose is in proportion with the muzzle, neither narrow nor too large, yet well developed, never split always black and always in line with the upper lips when viewed in profile. Eyes: Set horizontally, always dark,never lighter than dark hazel even if markings are light in color. Eyes are always round and oval­shaped opening. Expression: That of a shepherd, direct but never vicious, timid or worried.

Carried high. If cropped they will be erect, never diverging nor converging, pointing slightly forward. A well carried ear is such that its mid­line passes through an imaginary line extending from the side of the neck. The uncropped ear should not be set close to the head; it should be Bat and rather short The length of the ear must be equal to half the length of the head. Between two dogs of equal quality preference will be given to the dog with cropped ears. PENALTIES: Skull too flat or too rounded. Stop too marked or insufficient. Muzzle too hooked, too narrow, too heavy. Lip too tight or loose, corners of the mouth thick and flabby, lack of pigmentation. Teeth yellow or decayed. If the following teeth are missing, rating is shows will be affected as follows:

1 incisor or 1 canine or 1 molar, not eligible for CAC
2 small premolar, not eligible for excellent
2 incisors or 2 canines or 2 molars, Not eligible Tres Bon
3 small premolar, not eligible Tres Bon
3 incisors or 3 canines or 3 molars, unacceptable
4 small premolar, not acceptable
nose too snipey, crooked, too large or too protruding eyes slanted, too protruding, too tight, light colored, worried expression. Ears flabby, poorly carried, too long; if cropped, poor set of ear. Disqualification's: Head lacking in type, too small, too coarse. Lack of stop, stop excessively marked Too small a skull. Muzzle too narrow or too short. Lips too fleshy and loose, lack of pigmentation, undershot or overshot. Missing molars, or set of teeth too incomplete or too faulty. Impossibility of examining the mouth. Split nose, color other than black. Eyes too light, poor set or shape. Ears not corresponding to the description.

CONFORMATION
The conformation of the Beauceron is a balanced one, that is to say harmoniously constructed with no exaggerated lengthening or shortening of the different elements. The length of the body from the top of the withers to the point of the rump must be greater than the height at the withers by 1/2 to 3/4 inches for the male, 3/4 to 1 inch for the female. The neck is muscular, blending smoothly with the withers. The head is carried proudly The chest is wide and deep, the circumference of the chest is to be greater than one and one­fifth of the height at the withers. The brisket reaches the tip of the elbow. the floating ribs are long and flexible. Shoulder sloping and of average length. Straight back, well marked withers. Loin is broad and well attached. Rump is slightly sloped at the attachment of tail.

Moderately angulated stifle, leg can be carried back slightly. Metatarsus strong and of medium length (1/4 of height of dog at the withers) forming an open angle with leg. Hocks are vertical, aligned slightly behind the tip of the rump. Forearms are clean and muscular, forequarter and hindquarters are straight (viewed from the front, the back, and the side) PENALTIES: Body either too long or too short. Neck thin or heavy. Dewlap. Weak shoulder. Shoulder a little too straight or too sloping. rump too sloping or too straight. Slight faults in angulation. Disqualification's Lack of chest. Chest too cylindrical. Too pot­bellied, too tucked up. Long bodied, short bodied Lack of harmony in build. Faulty angulation. Monorchid, cryptorchid or atrophied

TAIL
Left long, carried low and straight down, reaching at least to the tip of the hock, in the shape of a hook at tip. PENALTIES: Slightly off centered, hook too tight, or straight tail. Disqualification: Short, curled up on itself or on back, ratty

COAT
Short on head; rough, short, thick and coarse laying close to the body. 1 1/4' to 1 1/2" long. Thighs and undertail must have a slight fringe. Undercoat is very short, fine, dense and downy, preferably light grey. Should not show through guard hair. PENALTIES: Too long on the head, fringes not thick enough or too light in color. Coat too sleek or tending to wave­the coat is said to wave when the hair is close laying but shows very slight kinks. Disqualification: Coat too long on head, either too long or too short on the body. Lack of feathering and undercoat. Undercoat shows through. Hair too fine or standing off. Wavy coat. Wavy coat is neither curly not flat nor sleek.

FEET
Strong, round, nails and always black. Pads are hard yet elastic. PENALTIES: Feet not sufficiently tight. Pads too soft or lacking elasticity. Disqualification's: Splay feet or feet not allowing a normal action.

DEWCLAWS
Double dewclaws on inside of hind legs, well defined and distinct from one another, and placed close to the foot (their justification is a larger bearing surface) PENALTIES: Dewclaws placed too high or atrophied and superposed. Double dewclaws on forelegs. Disqualification's: Single dew claw on hindleg, or none at all.

COLOR:
A) Bas Rouge (bicolor), black and fawn Black color is deep. Marking must be bright rust appearing above the eyes, on side of muzzle, fading off on the cheeks and never reaching under the ear, on the chest­where two spots are preferred to solid markings across the chest­on the throat, under the tail, on the feet up to hocks and wrist. On the limbs the marking should become progressively narrower upwards, they should not go higher than a third of the leg on the outside but they will blend higher on inside of the leg. A few white hairs on the chest are permissible.

B) Harlequin (tricolor), grey, black, and fawn. The coat has grey and black patches distributed evenly over the body, more black than grey. The red markings are identical to those on the bicolor.

PENALTIES
Black color not sufficiently deep, markings not sufficiently blended into black coat, marking too light or too dark in color, markings too sparse or too prevailing, small white mark on chest For harlequin, grey shading too light or prevailing. Disqualification's: White patches on chest, marking to prevalent, marking on parts of the body not already mentioned, markings contrasting too sharply with other color of coat. For the harlequin too much grey, black on one side with grey on the other, markings smudged with grey, head all gray. One should penalize according to the extent of the fault. Disqualification should result from any sign of weakness or degeneracy such as bare patches, lack of pigmentation, of fading coloring.

MOVEMENT
It is imperative to judge the action of the dog. A herding dog cannot be fully evaluated while he is standing. The action must be free and supple with correct movement of the limbs evaluated by the judge positioned in front of and behind the dog. A break in gait will be penalized The gaits are: walk, trot, extended trot, fast run A Beauceron must have a long outreaching trot PENALTIES: Poor positions (depending on extent) Dog who will hit the ground rapidly with his forelegs and cover little distance, who will have a short trot, who will begin running when at a slow speed, or who will amble. Disqualification: Impossibility of examining attitudes and gaits; action not characteristic of a shepherd dog.

CHARACTER
The temperament must be wise and bold, all dogs which are aggressive without reason, timid, or overly suspicious, must be disqualified

Printed with permission from the FCI