Upon first look, the world of Turkish dog breeds is a little overwhelming.
Different online sources list different breeds, and then there are the passionate arguments in some comment sections on what constitutes a true Turkish breed.
That’s all okay, because it’s people caring about dogs — working dogs like these (which may or may not be Anatolian shepherd dogs, depending on whether you believe the narrator or some commenters):
According to the explanation in Wikipedia, those are Kangals; only in the US (and the American Kennel Club) will you find Anatolian shepherd dogs.
Family, indeed.
Fortunately for us newbies, Wikipedia provides a link to the Turkish Kennel Club (autotranslated) and they list three native dog breeds, which we’re going with in this post.
Kangal Shepherd Dog
When these babies grow up, they turn into dog mountains in motion!
More information:
- Turkish Kennel Club page (autotranslated)
- The Kennel Club (UK) page
- Wikipedia’s description of the Kangal/Anatolian Shepherd Dog mix-up (accessed December 11, 2024):
Anatolian Shepherd Dog is the name used in the United States to describe dogs descended from regional Turkish livestock guardian dogs, particularly the Kangal but also the Akbash, from the late 1960s.[9] In 1967 a US Navy Lieutenant who was stationed in Turkey, Robert Ballard, acquired two working livestock guardians Zorba and Peki, from breeders in the Ankara region, Zorba was a long-coated pinto-colored dog and Peki a short-coated buff-colored bitch.[9][10] In the late 1960s Ballard returned to the United States and took his dogs with him and in 1970 the pair bred their first litter, becoming the foundation stock of the breed in the United States. A breed club was quickly formed and further examples were imported from Turkey.[9] In developing the breed, the American enthusiasts acted without understanding of regional Turkish varieties of shepherd’s dogs, with the result that the American dogs could be bred with various coat lengths, colors and color patterns whilst in Turkey the different breeds breed more true to a set coat type.[9] This was further exacerbated by most of these dogs being sourced in the intermediate zone between the main breeding centers of the Akbash and the Kangal, where examples of both types can be found.[9] In subsequent years animosity developed between American breeders, who insisted their dogs were the true Turkish shepherd’s dog, and Turkish breeders who believed, and stated, they were an amalgam of various Turkish breeds.[9] Insults and counter-insults were exchanged with American breeders accusing the Turks of marketing dogs of dubious ancestry as independent breeds and the Turks stating the Americans were breeding crossbred dogs.[9] The name Anatolian Shepherd Dog is unknown in Turkey and the breed is sometimes described as having the Turkish name of Çoban Köpeği which means ‘shepherd’s dog’, or livestock guardian dog.[9][11] Since the 1980s Americans have almost exclusively imported Kangals and the Anatolian has increasingly conformed to that breed type. Despite this, pups of mixed appearance are still whelped and Turkish authorities still refuse to recognise Anatolians as a purebred Turkish breed.[9]
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Akbash Shepherd Dog
One of the Kangal sources mentions that in Turkey herd dogs are bred to have coat colors that match the animals they guard.
In one region, those animals are white and so we see the Akbash: a “white dog for white sheep” (and goats) according to the Turkish Kennel Club.
In the following video, narration is a little hard to follow without captions but that’s more than compensated for by lots of information — for instance, a comparison with Kangals — and visuals that include an Akbash intimidating a bear and another one playing with its fave sheep frenz.
They aren’t being mean by running the dog alongside a car — that’s a widely accepted way to exercise high-energy working dog breeds (agility training is another).
More information:
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Zerdava
This one is not a dog mountain —
— but it’s hard to find more informative videos.
Everything is in Turkish, plus the emphasis often seems to be on macho aggressiveness, sort of a “pitbull fighting dog” vibe in some videos that doesn’t communicate to me what the Zerdava is really like.
Certainly it must be tough, since Wikipedia notes that Zerdavas are used in boar hunting as well as for guard dogs and military purposes.
But, like pitbulls, Zerdavas also seem to have a lot of good qualities that just aren’t coming through on YouTube.
After all, the Turkish Kennel Club lists the breed (spelled “Zerdeva”), but its breed information page is blank.
There is an active Trabzon Zerdava Dog Association on Facebook (Turkish) that I found through this article.
Just going through the pictures there leads me to think that, with gentle people, Zerdavas probably are gentle and make good pets.
They are rare.
According to the National Purebred Dog Day blog post, “It wasn’t until we came across an abstract on the Turkish Zerdava Dog that we’d ever heard of the breed, let alone efforts to protect it.”
Well, now you and I have heard of the breed, too. Let’s hope that Zerdava fans will succeed in protecting this interesting Turkish native dog, which seems to be in eclipse at the moment, and can develop it to the point where it is as famous as Kangals and the Akbash Shepherd Dog.
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Some lagniappe:
I hope I’m in as good a shape at 100 as this man is!
Featured image: PardoY/Shutterstock
Flight To Wonder 