The myths and misconceptions about the Caucasian Ovcharka
So many misconceptions exist about this breed and here I'll address the most common ones.
Myth # 1. CO's were bred to hunt bears.
There is absolutely no truth to this myth.
For LGD breeds it would be very contra-productive to have a high prey drive, so that's why it's so absurd to claim that this breed was ever used to hunt bears with.
The CO's are not built for hunting large game, they are not built like a hunting breed period.
The FCI CO's is a breed that was standardized out of the aboriginal LGD's (a land race) from Caucasus. These dogs were used to protect livestock and were required to have a relatively low prey drive.
CO's job was to deter bears, wolves and other predators. Not hunt them.
In fact the Russians use the much smaller and more nimble Laiki breeds to hunt the bears with and not the CO's.
The behavior and the drive of a hunting breed like a Laika is very different from the CO's temperament and drive.
Myth # 2. Caucasian Ovcharka's were bred for dog fights.
Most definitely not.
It would be incredibly contra-productive for an LGD breed to be so dog aggressive that they can't even function in a pack.
No matter how strong an individual dog may be, he wouldn't last long trying to deter large predators all on his own.
CO is a breed that was developed to be a property and livestock guardian.
Myth # 3. The Caucasian Ovcharka is recognized by the AKC (American Kennel Club).
No they are not.
CO's have not been recognized by either the AKC (American Kennel Club) or the CKC (Canadian Kennel Club).
CO's have been accepted for recording in the AKC Foundation Stock Service, however as it clearly states here: https://www.akc.org/dog-breeds/groups/foundation-stock/
FSS breeds are not eligible for AKC registration.
In U.S. the CO is recognized by the UKC (United Kennel Club) and the ARBA (The American Rare Breed Association).
And this is where CO breeders in U.S. register their CO's.
The CO is recognized by the FCI (Fédération Cynologique Internationale), the largest canine organization of the world.
Only puppies born in FCI countries (U.S. and Canada aren't FCI countries) can actually have FCI pedigrees.
Myth # 4. The Caucasian Shepherd and Central Asian Ovcharka (shepherd dog) are one and the same breed.
No, although closely related, these are two separate breeds.
There are several differences between these two breeds when it comes to both the temperament and the general appearance.
Central Asian shepherd dog is recognized under FCI-Standard N° 335.
Myth # 5. The Caucasian Shepherd Dog and South Russian Ovcharka (shepherd dog) are one and the same breed.
No, these are two separate breeds with very distinct differences in looks and there are several differences when you compare the temperament of these two breeds.
These two breeds are not closely related.
The South Russian shepherd dog is also an LGD breed, and they are recognized under FCI Standard N° 326.
Myth # 6. The Caucasian shepherd dog and the Sarplaninac are one and the same breed.
Most definitely not.
Šarplaninac (pronounced as Shar-pla-ni-natz) is an LGD breed from the former Yugoslavia. They are the descendants of the ancient molosser dogs from Asia accompanying migrating nations to the Balkan Peninsula and guarding their livestock.
So Sarpla's and CO's have the same origins (ancient molosser dogs from Asia, mainly Tibet).
They do have a lot of similarities when it comes to their appearance and their temperament, but there are also a lot of differences (for instance many colors that are allowed in CO's are not allowed in Sarplaninac's breed standard, CO's are generally more massive, their legs and paws are different, Sarplaninac's are often less intense and have an even lower prey drive etc).
I have seen on a few different pages in English people claiming modern CO's were mixed with the Sarplaninac during the Soviet era.
This is absolutely not true.
Sarplaninac dogs were not even known to the Soviets back then. In fact Sar's were extremely rare outside of former Yugoslavia until the 70's.
And Sar's have always been somewhat smaller and lighter in build than the CO's.
Which is why in the early 90's (as CO's did not even appear in former Yugoslavia until mid 80's when they were first imported from Hungary) some unethical Sar breeders in ex-YU decided to secretly add CO's to their Sar breeding programs.
They wanted bigger, more impressive dogs. And due to an already close resemblance between these two breeds, they got away with it.
The ex-YU military did also admix CO's to their Sarpla's, but they did it because they wanted Sar's to be more aggressive guardians.
Some of this has even been mentioned in this recent scientific study about Balkan LGD's: http://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/jbg.12077/full
Luckily ethical Sarplaninac breeders stay away from dogs that are known to have such mixes in their pedigree and they do try to preserve Sarpla's as a working, LGD breed.
Myth # 7. CO's are a herding breed.
The Caucasian Shepherd Dog is not a herding dog and the CO's (as do all other LGD breeds) have a very different temperament from herding breeds.
Herding dogs are used to round livestock up and control the movement of the herd, when they do their job, they follow the direction of the farmer.
Livestock guardian dogs are used to protect sheep from predators, they work independently with no direction from the farmer.
Myth # 8. Misrepresenting aboriginal CO's.
The term aboriginal has unfortunately been misused by the majority of short-haired CO breeders in order to make their dogs more marketable.
The true aboriginal LGD's from Caucasus are:
- Dogs that whelp and raise puppies without assistance of people
- Aboriginal dogs are attuned to environmental changes
- They are fed occasionally, but most often have to take care of their own food by catching marmots and other small animals near the flock/herd they are guarding.
- Their populations are controlled by natural forces such as shortage of food, predators and epidemics causing high mortality among puppies and young dogs.
- People keep useful dogs and abandon or cull worthless ones.
- Genetic exchange is facilitated by nomadic way of life of dog owners and combined with the natural selection for function makes them what they are now.
- They breed freely in the right season, reverting to a feral or semi-feral way of life at least temporarily.
Dogs born and/or raised in kennels can not be considered aboriginal, even if they have recent ancestors that were.
Once the dogs are taken out of their natural environment and artificially selected for certain particularities (such as color, size and type for example) they cease to be aboriginal.
Myth # 9. The current aboriginal LGD's on Caucasus are the exact same type of dogs as the ones the Soviet army imported to Russia all those decades ago.
According to several breed experts and according to O. Krasnovskaya's book (considered by most CO fanciers as the premier source on the Caucasian Ovcharka), not really. Or at least not entirely.
Even though in some areas the habitats of native Caucasian, Central Asian & Turkish livestock guardian dogs overlap and intermediate types have always existed....
During the time of mass repression in the early 20th century, many people from Caucasus were deported to Central Asia. Some of them took their dogs with them.
When they finally returned to Caucasus, many brought back with them the LGD's from Central Asia.
And these dogs then often crosbred with the aboriginal LGD's from Caucasus.
To make matters worse, because of industrialization, less and less people were involved in agriculture and even more good quality aboriginal CO's have been lost since then.
Myth # 10. The CO's studbook is closed.
No, it is not. But there are certain regulations put in place by the FCI.FCI requirements for this are the same for all FCI dog breeds with an open stud book. It has nothing to do with just CO's in particular.The FCI regulations basically say that in order to acquire a so called "Conditional Registration Certificate/Pedigree" for aboriginal, paperless dogs you need an expert judge in the breed or you can do it via the parent club, if you have an official FCI parent club in your country.The dog is then required to be evaluated by 3 different judgesThe expert judges then examine the dog and determine if the dog indeed confirms to the breed standard.After 3 generations of successful breeding and showing, without displaying any disqualifying traits, the 4th generation removed from that initial registration receives a full pedigree.
Myth # 11. CO's have been mixed with St. Bernards, Newfoundland dogs, Mastiffs etc.
There have been persistent accusations written on the internet lately about modern (and by modern I mean CO's from cultivated breeding with a FCI/RKF pedigree) Caucasian shepherd dogs being nothing more than mutts.
Even though there is no solid proof for any of these accusations, these erroneous claims have persistently been repeated online.
The fact that the Soviet military tried to create different dog breeds for their military purposes in the famous "Red Star" kennel, is then being used as some kind of evidence that CO's were allegedly created through crossing of aboriginal LGD's from Caucasus with St. Bernards, Newfoundland dogs, Mastiffs and so on.
I'm going to try and explain why this simply isn't true.
The Soviet military saw a lot of working potential in several western breeds (breeds like for example the GSD, St. Bernard, the Newfoundland dog and a few others).
However, in their pursuit of developing working breeds suited for their needs, they weren't happy with how some of these western breeds would tolerate the harsh Russian winters and they felt that some of those breeds were "too soft".
So they "threw in" native breeds into these western breeds to "correct" that. And then they started with breeding programs that would eventually result in the development of the Black Russian Terrier (recognized by the FCI and the AKC), Moscow Watchdog (not yet recognized by the FCI) and the East-European shepherd (not yet recognized by the FCI).
Basically what I'm trying to say is: the Soviets have thrown in native breeds into western breeds of their choice in order to "improve" those western breeds. Not the other way around.
The Soviet military had several separate breeding programs going at the same time in their "Red Star" kennel.
One of their goals was to make the LGD's from Caucasus more uniform in appearance and to select only for the most protective dogs.
All of their efforts have been well documented in Russian literature (like for example in O. Krasnovksaya's book), pictures included.
Only what in their opinion were the best, most protective LGD's from Caucasus were bred to each other.
As I said before, these breeding programs were all kept separated.
The Soviets were expert breeders.
One of the many breeds that were used to develop the BRT were the Schnauzers.
Can I now claim that because the Schnauzer was used to develop a new breed all Schnauzers in Russia are crossbreds?
No of course not.
Or if we are to follow the logic of people claiming CO's are crossbred, can we now claim that because the Labradoodle was created by crossing the Labrador Retriever and the Standard, Miniature or Toy Poodle, the Labs and Poodles aren't purebred anymore?
No.
Also, the Vavilov Institute of General Genetics, Russian Academy of Sciences in Moscow, studied Mitochondrial DNA Variation in several LGD breeds native to countries in between Europe & Asia.
CO's included.
They came to conclusion that out of all the breeds they tested (which were: Central Asian shepherd dog, North-Caucasian Volkodav's, Caucasian shepherd dogs, Turkish Kangal and Akbash), the number of haplotypes, gene diversity, and nucleotide diversity were the lowest in Caucasian Shepherd Dogs.
Genetic diversity in CO's was the lowest, because of the inbreeding & selective breeding the CO breeders have implemented on the breed in order to obtain a more uniform, more desired type.
More importantly, the researchers also came to the conclusion that (and I quote): "The results of the analysis allow the Caucasian Shepherd Dog, Northern Caucasian Volkodav, Central Asian Shepherd Dog, and the Turkish breeds Akbash and Kangal to be combined into a single group with an extremely low degree of differentation".
You'd think that if CO's were mixes of so many different dog breeds, they'd have a larger genetic variety and they wouldn't be so genetically similar to other LGD breeds in that region.
But also as O. Krasnovskaya best summarizes in her book: "It is well known that any landrace breed, that is then selectively bred undergoes inevitable changes.
The then developed dogs may differ significantly from the initial specimen. Planned, selective breeding of the Caucasian Shepherd dog has lasted on the average over half a century.
And there are now obvious differences between the original form of aboriginal dogs, dogs currently existing on Caucasus and those that are created as a result of cultural/cultivated breeding."