Hi Kimberly,
Since nobody else has seen your post yet, I'll try to answer, based on very limited experience....
I have a couple of Dominiques and some Barred Rock/Dominique crosses. I got them a few weeks ago. They are not laying yet, but I believe that they would be if I were supplementing light in the coop.
I wasn't really planning on getting the crosses, but Speckled Hen had told me that you can't go wrong with a Barred Rock, and they were so very cute, so I thought, what the heck. I'm really glad that I did get them, because their personalities are great. They are friendlier and less skittish than the Dominiques.
This may not be true of all Dominiques. These birds were not handled much in their previous home. In fact, the man that I bought them from tried to talk me out of buying them. He told me that I wanted lap chickens, and these were not lap chickens. Said I should buy day olds and hand raise them. And I will, in spring, but I wanted eggs sooner, so I did buy them.
I've spent a lot of time with them, and the Barred Rock/Dominique crosses are really coming around nicely. They will eat of my hand, let me pet them, etc. The Dominiques are not unfriendly, but they don't really seek me out the way the others do.
Also, the crosses are much meatier looking birds.
Well, to sum up my long winded story, if I wanted to get more barred birds, I think that I would get Barred Rocks, just based on the sweetness factor.
