Caucasian Shepherd Dog


The Caucasian Shepherd Dog is a Georgian breed of large livestock guardian dog from the Caucasus Mountains. It is commonly bred in the mountainous regions of Transcaucasia, especially in Azerbaijan and Georgia.

History

The Caucasus Mountains are home to many of the oldest living molossoid dogs, such as the Azerbaijani Volkodav, Azerbaijani Shepherd Dog and Georgian Shepherd Dog.
During the twentieth century the Soviet breeders selected some of these varieties among Caucasian dogs and created the Caucasian Shepherd Dog breed. The modern show class Caucasian Shepherd is a hybrid of established Caucasian types, fundamentally based on the Georgian Shepherd Dog, which is the largest and most muscularly built dog with attractive long hair.
Since ancient times Caucasian mountain dogs have served shepherds in the Caucasus mountains as livestock guardian dogs, defending sheep from predators, mainly wolves, jackals and bears. Caucasian Shepherd Dogs served as guard dogs, bear hunting dogs and today they work as prison guard dogs in Russia.
The breed was definitively accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in 1984, under the patronage of Russia.

Characteristics

The Caucasian Shepherd Dog is a strongly-boned, muscular, but handsome and even-tempered molossoid dog. Plain dogs have a shorter coat and appear taller as they are less strongly built. Alpine types have a heavier coat and are more muscular.
The Caucasian Ovcharka is a large dog. Minimum weight and height for bitches is /, with a preferred height range of ; for dogs the minimum is /, with a preferred height of.