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Let's trace the origin of one of the dogs' breed - the
Caucasian Mountain Cattle Dog or Wolf Dog, known as the
Caucasian Sheepdog.
Hypothetically, the only possible ancestor of the Caucasian
Wolf Dog could be the Tibetan Dog. It should not be confused
with a modern one so-called the Tibetan Mastiff, which
is an English "reconstruction" of the ancient
dog.
English scientists should be given their due, but the
matter is that any reconstruction even having a solid
scientific base is inaccurate compared to the original
and for this reason can only be considered as hypothetical.
The Chinese Emperor's present - the Tibetan Dog - was
already mentioned in 1121 BC. Those dogs having changed
but not considerably spread over Mongolia and other Asian
regions. Through one of them - Mesopotamia - ancient shepherds
and their cattle dogs arrived in Greece and Rome, and
them spread over European continent. It's likely that
the Dierbent opening, which is on the territory of modern
Dagestan (the Caucasians' region), played the main role
in that migration.
Since that the history of the contemporary Caucasian
Wolf Dog has started. So, it's not less than 2,500 years
old.
Dagestan region, being a specific Eurasian point with
its historical, social and geographical characteristics,
formed a completely unique breed of dogs which perfectly
fitted the local environmental conditions. The breed was
named the Caucasian Sheepdog.
Starting from this point the ways of the Caucasian breed
and its Asian counterpart went differently. The breeds
appeared in the position of separated brothers brought
up in different conditions. Caucasian region itself is
complicated and interesting. As a whole it has never been
as isolated as Asian territories. However, the parts it
consists of are isolated from each other.
On the one hand, the Caucuses differ in climatic and
geographical conditions. In isolated highlands alert,
aggressive and strong protectors of both people and cattle
were highly appreciated since the breeding of cattle and
especially sheep is still very important in the Caucuses.
Thus having necessary physical characteristics those dogs
were oriented to protect from two enemies: the wolf and
strangers, which created their main characteristics like
hostility and hatred to strangers. From that time there
has been started absolutely unique philosophy of the dogs
based not on distinguishing the world around them as bad
or good but on the principle "theirs - good",
"foreign - bad". This made them unrivalled guardians
not having analogy in the world cynologique
On the other hand, during long trips with flocks Caucasian
dogs were completely isolated from contacting other people
but their shepherd. That might have been the reason for
their unprecedented loyalty to the owner and they are
still famous for it and reputed for being a one-man dog.
Having experience in training dogs in home environment
I should admit the fact that even being separated from
the owner for a short time the dog feels terrible whatever
its owner is like! The Asian dog takes such separation
easier.
Thus the nature has demonstrated a prime example of how
the inbreeding of the Caucasian Sheepdog combined with
a severe natural selection led to such a brilliant result
which can't be reproduced in modern conditions.
The differences within the breed were caused by climatic
conditions. So, how was all this happening? In high lands
the air is dolled up compared to it in low lands. So,
to get enough oxygen it's necessary to increase the volume
of the lungs and as a result of it an increase of the
chest. At the same time the main requirement to any being
in mountainous areas is strength. That's why the breed
has the quite short forelegs and hind legs. Cold mountainous
air, in its turn, makes the dog have a worm coat. These
requirements may have resulted in the specific appearance
of the Caucasian Sheep dog: very powerful, a bit low,
with a long coat and a bit lengthy body.
There was not necessity in such adaptation in the foothill
area. Nevertheless, long legs were required to fight with
wolves. Different dogs more slim and having a shorter
coat were appearing there.
The environment, that was forming the breed, created
the Caucasian Sheepdog as a unique ethologic phenomenon.
Extremely difficult and long lasting trips with flocks
created such ability of the dogs like "energy saving".
Severe life conditions and quite poor food made the dog
use any stop for having a rest. Modern Caucasian Sheepdog
strictly follow this rule: they walk at an easy pace,
don't like hustle, prefer lying but don't occupy much
room, which makes their living in a flat (not best for
them) not too disturbing even in small flats. They eat
quite a small amount of food and don't have much water,
which makes them similar to St.Bernard and Doberman Pincsher.
At the same time the dogs are famous for their ability
to attack at lightning speed from a lying position and
immediately go back to an absolutely calm state. Isn't
it a perfectly balanced psychiatric system? Up to the
1980s there wasn't breeding of the Caucasian Sheepdog
on a scientific base. There are two things affected the
modern breed. Quite often when talking about the disappearance
of the dogs we mean just disappearance of exterior types
but, in addition to this, the dogs also differ in ethologic
characteristics. It would be wrong not to recognize the
existence of absolutely separated lines of the Caucasian
Sheepdog. One of them being generally aggressive is friendly
to dogs! It's easy to explain. Their genetic memory doesn't
have aggression towards similar creatures. That's why
they leave contests with the raised tail confusing the
jury. Another problem is Caucasian Asians and Asian Caucasians.
There is so called Iranian intermediary group which is
dogs living on the border of the area of the Caucasian
Sheepdog and CASD. They are impossible to identify if
they're the Caucasian Sheepdog or the Asian one. There
is one more important thing about these dogs. Just think
of a situation which is very realistic: someone brings
a real aboriginal dog from the Caucasus. According to
its document it's the Caucasian Sheepdog, its behaviour
and temperament match the breed but its exterior is absolutely
Asian! By the way, the opposite situation is quite rare
and usually it's trivial fraud. Considering the first
situation I would like to mention some political circumstances
that affected the history of the Caucasian Sheepdog. They
are described in The Caucasian Sheepdog by O.Krasnovsky
and N.Pshenichnikova (1998, Moskow). I mean repressions
in the 1930s -1940s towards a number of Caucasian nations
and their relocation into Asian region. It's obvious that
they couldn't have taken their dogs with them but after
the war they likely brought Asian dogs. It's clear that
brought dogs cross-bred with the local Caucasian Sheepdogs
and we still can observe the result of that.
Unfortunately, there are attempts to cross-breed the
Caucasian Sheepdog with the Great Dane and even pit-terrier.
It's worth reminding that such attempts don't lead to
a new fight-dog but to poor dogs whose second or third
generation is already deteriorating
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