Fewer than 50 litters of puppies were born in 1991, forcing potential buyers to wait for quality puppies. Fortunately, the breed has not suffered the fast increase in popularity of some others and have not shown up in puppy mills and pet stores yet. The breed also has many unique characteristics, including coat, color, head and ears, tail, and dewclaws. Tawny puppies are born very dark red or black that lightens to tawny by three or four months of age and further paling to light tan or white by two years of age. As the adult coat comes in, the color again changes to deep gold or red and may continue to change for another four or five years.
Color is a matter of personal preference.
Gray Briards are rare in the US, and tawnies are more popular than blacks. Black is dominant over tawny, so two black parents can produce tawny offspring, but two tawnies can only produce tawnies. It is dry, coarse, and makes a rasping noise when rubbed. Dirt and water do not readily cling to the hair and it is easily brushed out when dry. If kept well-groomed, Briards shed very little, but if left unbrushed, the coat gets heavily matted, sometimes necessitating clipping the hair.