[quote=elle]In my reading of the Dogue I seem to find two main descriptions A) They're not athletic or agile,are lazy, and have no guard or protective instinct left these days. OR B) The active, powerful, high level protection dog. Seems like i'm finding more contradictions than when reading about other breeds. Is there a huge variation within this breed?[/quote] Your concerns seams to be right! There are the A and B strains. The DDB in Brazil are for FCI show .All good DDB Kennels have been imported the best stocks available in Europe. I had the oportunity to know one of the top 5 Kennel of FCI DDB in Brazil because the Kennel is 10 miles from my Back Yard.This Kennel have 4 types of DDB most of them large size. The smaller dog that they had was sold because this particular bitch did not fit in the FCI standard (small size) and the behavior was excelent to guard. The DDB before 1900 had 4 variety.Tolouse, Parisiense, Bouleas and also Doguin (with high Bulldog Blood) The B dogs mentioned are probably the blood with more Bulldog type Doguin , usually small dogs around 30 Kg, agile and temper with guard behavior. I received a small size DDB bitch with 1 years old and after 3 months my analize is her is from group B , Doguin inheritance.Good guard dog. I spent 6 years to find her type.One side of the parents comes from Italy this is the only information that i got. I expected that I was helpfull on this topic with the info mentioned! My Advices. The working DDB must have around 30 kg with the body type more close to a large APBT then a small Mastiff.