There are two types of Turkish dog breeds: livestock guard dogs and hunting dogs. Most of native Turkish breeds are livestock guard dogs, except for the Turkmen Tazi and Catalburun, a sight hunting and pointing breed, respectively. The Catalburun and Tazi are the only native hunting breeds of Turkey.
Unlike the "shepherd" breeds of the West, the Turkish shepherd dogs do not usually herd sheep or move them from one area to another by biting, chasing, or barking at them. Instead, they are usually left alone with the sheep and almost always act independently of a handler (the shepherd). They are discouraged from biting, chasing, and barking at sheep. They must be able to act independently and react instinctively while protecting the flock against predators, while being attentive to sheep and not harm them. Most of these breeds are very intelligent, alert, and confident.
Similarly to the herding dogs described by ancient Roman writers, most of these dogs are white in color. The white coat color made that de dog was more easily accepted by the sheep and could not be mistaken for a darker colored predator by the shepherd. Darker colored dogs were more usefull at night as property guards, because they were hard to see and could surprise human intruders. For the same reason darker colored dogs were also predominantly used by the military.
Broadly speaking there are two types of coat types in the herd guards: "Kirik" and "kaba. Kirik, which literally means 'broken' is a short coat, but in the sense of "something that has not grown enough". Kaba stands for 'long coat', something 'wooly' and with substance, not necessarily a really long coat. All kaba dogs have thick, bushy tails, but some kaba dogs have longer hair on their body coat as well.
There has been a great deal of confusion concerning the Turkish guard dog breeds. They are often "lumped" together as Anatolian Shepherds, not taking into account conformation and behavorial differences. Studies have shown that guarding ability varies from one breed to another (Green and Woodruff, 1993) and breeds can be matched to specific guarding situations (pastures or open range). The Turkish guard dog breeds often evolved in relatively remote regions where they were selectively bred to adapt to the local conditions and guarding situations. Each region developed their own livestock guard dog with their specific characteritics and bringing them together under one umbrella term for the sake of
Akbash Dog (Akbas)
A white-colored lifestock guard dog from Western Turkey, which bears some similarities with (and maybe related to) some other white flock guarders, such as the Komondor, Tatra Mountain Sheepdog, Kuvasz and the Pyrenean Mountain Dog. As compared to the Kangal dog, the Akbash dog has a more "tucked-up" appearance, showing signs of greyhound or gazehound influence.
Both breeds are often seen in their native land wearing an iron, spiked collar, often with a piece of cloth underneath it to protect their necks and sporting "cropped" ears as are seen here on this mature male Akbash Dog in the Sivrihisar region.
Anatolian Shepherd Dog
The Anatolian Shepherd Dog is a muscular, broad-headed flock guardian dog breed native to Anatolia (Turkey). The Anatolian shepherd comes in various colors which keep close to the original wolf grey. The main or base color of the breed is wolf grey and includes white, yellow and black. The perfect blend of these colors includes white, black and yellow in the right proportion is known as agouti. However, all tan or all white specimens also appear in some regions of Anatolia.
Catalburun
The only native pointing breed of Turkey is known as 'çatalburun' in its home country. The term refers to the breeds most distinctive feature, its split nose. The term "çatal" means fork and "burun" means nose.
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