Anatolian Perspectives

by Guvener Isik From the Author:

I have owned shepherd dogs since I was 8 years old. My grandparents had them for guarding their properties and animals. I grew up hearing stories about them from my father and my grandmother. My grandmother still talks about her dogs. I have always been attracted to their primitive looks but more importantly to see them in action as working dogs. Writing something about these dogs occurred to me in 1993, but I really didn't have the knowledge required to fill a book. I had to wait until 1997 with a clear intention to collect data about them. When I research them I research a life style. These dogs are one of the windows that one can see and analyze the circumstances of the rural people and nature. I had to learn about sheep, goats, donkeys, horses, cattle, bees, cats, wheat, carpets, forests and wolves along with history and genetics in order to have a multifaceted perspective about these dogs or about everything surrounds them. The main motivator behind studying these dogs is my uneasiness about the disappearing rural life styles in Turkey. I know that we need native sheep and goat flocks and wolves in order to preserve these dogs. Without these we can only preserve dogs with diminishing quality at every generation. We cannot choose and preserve them without the combined interaction of the flocks, shepherd and the wolf with these dogs. It feels like we are trying to keep water from running through our fingers. It will disappear in the end ------ Visit Guvener Isik's website at http://yorukanatolian.com/

Stray, Street and/or Pariah Dogs (first published in Choban Chatter)

These are stray/street dogs, but they are from shepherd stock. In these photos, only the white dog (photo at top) has a regular collar. The grey dog (photo on bottom) with cropped ears has a spiked collar. These are stray/street dogs, but they are from shepherd stock. Where did the street dogs originate? To me a street dog is an unwanted dog of any kind. The dog with a different skull and the white one (photos above) had owners in this photo, but the others in the photos probably did not. They can be sold as kangals or their offspring can be used as shepherds. It is all about selection. If both parents are active shepherds, then the offspring become shepherds in theory. Since not all the pups have the same instinct, sometimes some of them are useless. Then th ey become street dogs. However, there are no street dogs in the villages; they are only in the cities. The street dog does not exist in the villages in practice. If a village dog, which is most of the time a shepherd dog, is not taken care of by someone for any reason, it will abandon the village. This particular dog does not start life as a street dog. It is a potential shepherd dog with a shepherd family line. Its status in life determines what it is. A first generation shepherd dog in the city is still shepherd-like dog in terms of form. The subsequent generations will then alter the form of its descendants. There are loose shepherd dogs without herds, because the herds are sold or the village is emptied. Some villages are emptied seasonally 80% of a village may be in the cities in wintertime working. This population comes back in the spring to work in the fields. Some villages have been forced to be evacuated because of terrorism. That is why one can get a nice shepherd dog from a street dog. It is a loop. Street dogs can be in the shepherding cycle again if they are chosen for some reason. However it is not likely that the street dogs mostly in the cities would be shepherd dogs again, because the original stock is in the villages.

This long-coated dog was a left behind dog by a Nomadic Yoruk tribe in Izmir Seferihisar. You can tell it is sick and weak. These are stray/street dogs, but they are from shepherd stock. I have another dog photo from the same Yoruk tribe. However that dog is not a stray one, because he is owned by a villager! Now he is a guard/shepherd dog.

I would not mind picking up a street dog if it looks to be a potential shepherd to me. It is a state of mind and the way things are labeled - some of the street dogs may actually be working stocks that do not have a job at the moment. You can see nice street shepherd dogs in cities like Konya, Sivas, Afyon, Denizli, Erzurum, etc. where there are flocks in the surrounding villages. These dogs may leave the village for mating and may not go back to the village, but may stay in a nearby town or city. Now they become "street dogs". Some people jumped on this notion not in the way Coppinger looked at it. They wanted to despise shepherd dogs, which bear various colours, or the shepherd dogs that do not fit into the predestined packages of a breed. It is their ignorance if they do it without knowing. These people apparently do not see the "pure breeds" like Akita, Great Dane, Canaan, Siberian Husky, etc. the same way. These breeds carry various colour, yet that color does not affect their status of being "pure". They are registered, no matter what colour they are. When I was between 15 to 19 years old, I lived in Izmir and our apartment building was very close to a mountain range. I used to hike there almost every weekend and I was able to walk over to the skirts of the mountains in 10 minutes. I used to see big sheep flocks at night surrounding the apartment building to graze. The land was originally vast olive and almond orchards, which was sold to city developers. I have watched those flocks at least once a week. I saw so many dogs with these coming flocks. Some dogs were left over from the flocks probably and they stayed in the new developing area. I had a few of them. I fed them. They were always free. They were mine, they were street and shepherd dogs. They gave birth under the balconies. All of them were descendants of these shepherd dogs. The same was true when we lived in Diyarbakir. Sure there are GSD and pointer kind of hunting dogs one can see now and then, but they cannot make it under unsupervised conditions. They pass their genes rarely and through bitches only. The shepherd bitches did not usually mate with the outside dogs, but the outside bitches were sometimes bred by the shepherd dog males. Of course in time the original shepherd stock in the cities becomes so diluted with the various contributions from other breeds. Their bodies start looking like jackals. Their size diminishes. The pressures in the city cause them to evolve over time so that they essentially become "pure bred street dogs". The main reason the Turkish street shepherd dogs evolved was simply because of the imports from Europe. There were always various typed street dogs in Istanbul, because of the minorities like Armenian, Greeks, Jews, Europeans. One cannot see the same environment and gene pool in Diyarbakir or Kars or Afyon. It depends on where we look. The Istanbul type street dogs can be seen in Izmir, because of the same minorities. There were French, Italian and English towns in Izmir in 1915s. It was a major export city for centuries for the agricultural product harvested in the Western Anatolia. The street dog has been a status term in the beginning and not a name for a breed; but it became so by selection, which is dictated by the conditions of the cities. The pariah dog that I mentioned above is a different subject. It sounds more of a proposed theory. Nelson talks about them as well. Pariah dogs in Anatolia- if they exist- are not like Dingos. Some other sources state that Canaan and Basenji dogs are domesticated forms of Pariah dogs. The stray dogs in Turkey do not go back to wild life when the wild calls. They are abandoned dogs that made it in the wild for limited generations. They do not have a consistent breeding activity. I do not think that they can compete with wolves, but they would be perfect winter meal for wolves. I did not really think about this issue. What are the stray dogs? All the above terms are interjecting with each other, as we will see in the following. All the dogs found in the streets are stray dogs. Any dog, which has shepherd parents and whether capable of shepherding or not and goes to street is a stray dog. Instead of . . . However the shepherd dogs' value is determined by how well they shepherd. seeing them useless, poor, dirty, and muddy dogs, I see them as a bundle of puzzles where lots of potential traits are hidden. I believe that stray dogs are extremely smart dogs. They always survive under the least undesirable conditions and interbreed with shepherd dogs, enabling a continuous genetic fluidity. They transfer both good and bad qualities. However the shepherd dogs' value is determined by how well they shepherd. This should not mean as a general rule stray dogs are allowed to breed with shepherd dogs. What it does mean is that the undesirable dogs are/were excluded and the shepherds continued work with the desirable ones. Naturally, the possibility of working a stray setter dog as a shepherd dog is almost remote. The contribution to the current quality-level of ASDs in Turkey/Anatolia comes mainly from previous as well some currently ongoing selection of the puppies and not from the newly evolved "purebred" breeding practices. The ASD population (Kangal, Yoruk and South Caucasian) is set by functional quality! The set up has nothing to do with the colour codes or colour schemes, since the colour can be washed away in one generation easily. In this connection determining whether a dog is a street dog or not, solely on its colour, is an attitude that is more than shallow. The coastal area stray dogs in Anatolia are about the size of a jackal with an average height of 55cm [21.5 inches]. The stray dogs of Istanbul do exhibit KSD [Kangal Shepherd Dog] characters following the national trend of KSD-mania in the recent years. The KSDs brought from Sivas and Kayseri were mostly cute puppies like all the others. They served as an object of social exhibition in their first six

months and were thrown or given away to people, who were as ignorant and inexperienced as the former owners most of the time. That is how KSDs genetically contributed to the stray dog population of Istanbul. Stray dogs can be seen in any colour or coat type. Their body structure resembles a mix between a shepherd dog and a tazi (greyhound). It may not reflect what the future generations will look like, but someone who knows how to choose can detect splendid shepherd dogs among the stray dogs. There are many dogs with rear dew claws which is an indirect indicator of the relationship between the stray dogs and ASDs, although it does not mean that all ASDs are supposed to have dew claws. Stray dogs are mostly seen in the cities. The stray dogs in the villages cannot survive easily, because of both the disrespect of the people and the pressure of the larger dogs. Besides, stray dogs are not necessary in the villages. Villagers prefer to keep either large dogs or very small dogs. The large dogs are for shepherding and protection, whereas the small dogs are for warning. These small dogs are known as Findik (peanuts or doorbells). They offer cheaper security because they consume less. The semi -wild dogs / pariah dogs which have been seen around villages have been living in Mesopotamia and Anatolia for thousands years. These were larger dogs compared to the ones in the cities and they resemble shepherd dogs more. They sometimes hunted, sometimes lived with garbage or ate dead animals. It would not be wrong to assume that shepherd dogs are related to these dogs, because these are the ones which are more apt to be domesticated. They dwelled in areas next to the villages and gave animals and people from the outsiders. They sometimes barked at them when they had a brave leader and attacked them in order to keep threat away. This was a warning for the villagers at the same time. Although the villagers did not like these dogs, they tolerated them since they cleaned all the dead animals and garbage and worked as a first hand independent warning. It is assumed that people used to feed the puppies and then steal these puppies from the pack of dogs, both for food and for guarding purposes. Today in some countries in Asia, dogs are still used as a food source. The practice of eating dogs may have existed in Anatolia thousands of years ago. The same dogs in the cities or the relatives of these dogs in the cities do not get as much attention as they do in the villages, since they are mostly at medium size. They are not found threatening by people and they have more to eat, although they do not require lots of food as larger dogs do. They have to be cautious about traffic and be street smart. The ones which cannot comply with the existing conditions are eliminated in the first two months of their life. Those that remain are the dogs smarter and most resistant to disease.

The female pictured above is a shepherd dog. It was brought from another village in order to "stir the blood" in the existing population. She did not grow up. Her pups were not promising. Although she comes from shepherd parents, dogs like her can easily be abandoned and they can be strays. However in the area where this bitch is, no one abandons the dogs. If they are not good enough, they are shot. However some unpromising ugly looking dogs can throw perfect puppies. Since the shepherds know this they give a try. This also gives one some idea behind the selection and elimination process. That is why even when people keep pedigrees, they will end up with undesirable offspring. I believe that what villagers do is the best method. They look at the end result, not the historic ties, which is expressed in terms of papers and the list of the names of the dogs. Of course keeping a pedigree book is easier like producing pasteurized milk instead of raw and healthy milk. In the same sense the villagers do not bother with the family trees of the many generations of dogs. They know a few generations back. What they do is the most difficult, which is a continuous upgrading of the available specimens. The turnover rate of the dogs is so high in the villages. People respect the good dogs or their good work in the past, but they have to move on, because they are there for a living not for hobby animal keeping. Shepherds are the people behind these dogs no matter what their education level is. They provide subject for the scientists and veterinarians and dog fanatics. Their mind is cooler than the above-mentioned three groups of people. What I mean by "cool" is their decision-making is calmer; they assess the situation based on the potential benefits. After all, these dogs have been the subject of the scientists and dog keepers in the last 30-40 years. So far the people in the cities and the dog clubs have made no contribution to these dogs other than marketing and advertisement.

That is why it is easy for the city people to label the unwanted dogs in anyway they want. The real activity is in the mountains and in the flocks not the kennels. Of course we cannot expect people like us to practice what is exactly practiced in the villages, but we should at least understand the initial causes of the shepherd dog making recipe. Anti-street dog people need to figure out what street is made from. Being a street dog is like being a prostitute. Once one falls into that state of life, no matter what the qualities are, there is almost no coming back, because of the current status and the lack of pedigree. Maybe, one day, a purification* study will be performed with these stray dogs. I wonder, how? Perhaps, someone will claim that Anatolian Stray Dogs are already pure in terms of being stray. Therefore, a possible study about purification of these dogs will never be done. *You can make up words in Turkish! The process of creating a breed via line breeding based on some certain standards is "purification" to me.

Sheepdogs in Turkey
All the dogs in Turkey are related to each other; there are not sharp distinctions. Nevertheless, it is impossible not to see the variations or strains. These dogs are ecotype dogs and their general structure is shaped by geographical conditions and by the culture of the people who bred them. What I mean by ecotype is an existing species created by natural selection and adapted to a particular habitat. Since these are not wolves, there is a cultural selection as well. There are two terms that I am going to use. "Kirik" and "kaba" are to describe coat types. Kirik is a short coat, but it is not like a pit bull short hair. It literally means,"broken", which can be interpreted as "something does not grow enough". Kaba is for long coat, but it does not necessarily mean that all kaba dogs have long coats. It means "wooly" or "a substance that is light yet it has volume". All the kaba dogs have thick, bushy tails, but some kaba dogs have longer hair on their body coat as well. When one touches a kaba puppy and a kirik puppy, he can feel the difference. It feels like the kaba hair's micron size is smaller. I have some photos which may underline some of the differences. However, I do not have any taxonomic values about these dogs. Most of the time I saw these dogs in the villages and not with the intention of taking photos. I started taking photos regularly since 1997. Even so, it is hard to see the dogs any time one wants to see them, because they are not in the village and one has to find the flock in order to see the dogs. The flocks come down to the villages with the sunset. The yoruk dogs that I have seen when I was 8 to15 years old are not present in the same locations any more. Nevertheless, some of the photos may do. I did not take the photos in order to compare them later, but to record them in the form of raw data to be interpreted later if necessary. Patented Dog The kangal issue is so stressful and confusing now that I'd rather not to talk about kangal, especially when I think about the patent that was received for kangal and the issue of breeding rights of kangal by Sivas province in connection to the patent issue. These are all nonsense commercial moves. How about the dog owners in Kayseri and Konya? They can breed their dogs as usual, but can they call them kangal? One has to get permits in order to breed kangal outside Sivas. The rights of doing research or publishing papers, or representing kangals, all belong to the Sivas Kangal Shepherd Dog club. The kangal standards have changed so many times in the last 20 years. That is why one is forced to look into this issue and that is why it is too tiresome and boring. It is like only the Greeks can produce Feta. I can produce it, but I cannot call it Feta. If kangal is bred in Ankara and sold to Istanbul and then this dog is exported to the USA, what does it become? There are some French cheeses which have been traditionally made only in a few villages and they have the rights to use the name, but neither is "kangal" a traditional name nor is the breeding limited to Sivas. I guess I have to talk about kangal. There is a saying in Turkish, "One mad man throws a stone into a well, hundred wise men try to take it out". I do not know whether there is this kind of "right to patent" for the German Shepherd Dog in Germany! Basic Strains The first type of dogs in the photos below, Yoruks have relatively square bodies with pointed muzzles. The second type dogs, Kangals have rectangle bodies with square muzzles and rounder skulls. According to the related city of Sivas kangal web site kangal dog has a square body. According to some others like Kartay, it is longer than taller. Yoruks were known to be larger than kangals, but the remaining population is almost the leftovers of the original populations, because their original keepers are not in the business anymore. Yoruks are springy in their movements with long strides; they do not pace as frequently as kangals. In general their stomach is tucked up and their chest is deep. Kangals have heavy gaits. Their gaits almost resemble bears. When they are watched from behind, their hips swing to the sides more than Yoruks. The kangal stomach line is close to their chest line. Some of them have apparent barrel-like chest, which they

can efficiently use at knocking their opponent. When they accelerate, they can feel the momentum easily. Of course these are how I see them. I am not intending to set rules. The Challenge of the Terrain I have seen Yoruk chasing a hare along with two kangals in Denizli. Kangals had very short hair with extremely curly tails and square muzzles. They were really nice specimens and they were being tried by the Denizli shepherd. The yoruks were local to the village. Kangals could not keep up with yoruks when they were chasing the hare up the hill on a rocky surface. It seemed that yoruks did not feel the rocky surface; they were quite comfortable as they were climbing the hill at full speed, and they made sharp turns with the hare without loosing their speed. Then they disappeared behind a hill. I do not know what happened to the hare, but kangals gave up the chase. This observation cannot be easily generalized and it best not to, but different shepherds have made the same assessment. Of course for the above observation one can say that kangals did better, because they did not leave the flock, which is reasonable. But if there were wolves on the far corner of the flock, yoruks would have been there first. This is an open speculation that one can exercise. My main point here is the speed of Yoruks. I have seen kangal type dogs in a Kayseri village and watched them when they chased the wolves all night long. There were three dogs and two bitches. They were not as heavy as the standard kangals and the terrain was similar to Denizli and Afyon. I still think that yoruk dogs are swifter in general. These dogs had to move along with the flocks for as long as one month until the flock reached the next pasture, be it in winter or summer. The size of the flocks used to be enormous. I have seen a goat flock that was made up of 5000 goats and I have heard of sheep flocks with as many as 10 thousand. Of course the number of the dogs in protection matters, but distribution of the dogs are not always perfectly random; that is why dogs have to cover hundreds of yards back and forth as the flock moves. When the terrain is hilly, the dogs have to be swifter. I spent a couple of days with shepherds almost every year in western Turkey. Sometimes we cannot see almost half of the flock, because they are either in a valley or on the other side of a hill. Under these circumstances the dogs must not only be swift, but well organized as well. Most of the time an alpha dog will manage the location of the other dogs in respect to the flock. This does not mean that the assigned points are stable; most of the dogs may move a few hundreds yards to another direction and come back to their original locations. This continuous ground covering continues from approximately 6 PM to 6AM in the morning in summer. This does not mean that kangal dogs are useless shepherds, but their origin is Central Anatolia. It is a high plateau with some mountains. Covering a flock does not require heavy running in flat land. It is easy to see hundreds of yards away. Wolves can see the dogs as well. Wolves will not attack under those circumstances. They would wait for watering time for the sheep. However it is much different in the Taurus Mountain range in the Mediterranean region and in Western Turkey. If one starts traveling from Eskisehir to Ankara, then to Konya and Kayseri and Sivas, he would be traveling on relatively flat land with some mountains around. However, it is all mountains in the West and in the Taurus region. This does not mean that there are no flat lands in the Western Turkey or in the Mediterranean; the fact is that the ratio of flat land is relatively the reverse. The Caucasian shepherds that I saw in the Kackar Mountains in the Northeast Turkey were bulky with heavy coats. They were not swift dogs, but were perfect for the steep hills and heavily forested area that receives rain and snow for about ten months a year. Let's review some of the dogs The black dog (right) is the only black one among eight villages I have visited in Bursa. It is about 70 cm [27.3 inches]. His owner told me that his mother was larger than him. He also was about to sell his entire goat flock in 4 months as of November 2004. This dog was very aggressive. I could not get near the flock more than 40 yards. He has not come into the village for two years. He was aggressive to everyone and to the other dogs. His skull type is unrelated to kangal. He is not a good specimen as a yoruk dog, but he is one of the rare black shepherd dogs with a pointed muzzle.

This karabas dog is in Bursa. It is resembles the region's old dogs structure wise.

The white dog (right) is in Seferihisar, Izmir. The inhabitants of this area are locals and Yoruks. The people who live in the mountains are all ex-Yoruks. This Akit (white dog) is a goat shepherd. I spoke with his owner who was a shepherd. He said the same words that I have been hearing in the last ten years, "Now the flocks are smaller and wolves are gone and so are the big, handsome dogs". This dog has a pointed muzzle as well. It can be referred as an Akbas, but there were pinto dogs for the same flock as shepherds as well. I know this line since my childhood. When the flocks were larger there were large white, black pinto (not fawn or brindle) and grey dogs with semi-long coats.

The dog (left) which is karabas, is my male dog's father in Cal, Denizli. According to the owner shepherd, he has about 80% old sheep dog blood. He has some Konya dog blood. What shepherds mean by old sheep dog is a Yoruk dog. This karabas had an aunt who was more than 80 cm [31.2 inches] on the shoulder. She had to be shot, because she acted like old dogs - she was very aggressive with a dog-killing instinct. This dog has really a very different temperament than Konya dogs. Konya dogs are softer and one can pet them. This karabas line is too aggressive towards strangers. There are brindles, dark greys and diluted blacks in his pedigree. They are both short and semi long coated. Their short coats are still pretty thick ones compared to Konya dogs.

This dog (right) which has no mask is either his son or his brother. His mask is almost erased. The shepherds call him old style sheepdog kirik (short coat). Actually in that very village most dogs were long coated about 15 years ago. The kangal mania influenced everyone and some shepherds crossed their dogs with eastern blood and kept the black masked fawn dogs, although the body form remained pretty much the same. Of course this does not mean that there were not karabas dogs in the western Turkey, but the karabas dog population has increased exponentially recently.

These two karabas (left) are either in Denizli or in Afyon. One can see their distinct skulls again. They are wolfish and not heavy. This particular shepherd and the village feed them with donkey before winter. I believe they have no kangal blood in them.

This red one is a nine month old and a Yoruk dog too. It is in a mountain village in Afyon. I have seen him in 1997 in November. He has a wolfish skull as well with a domino marking.

This grey long coated dog (left) is in Afyon. He has pretty long hair. His mane hair was perhaps more than 15 cm [5.9 in.] long. He definitely had very sharp slanted eyes. All the villagers were exnomads. Their dogs used to be as big as newborn donkeys. I believe this "colt" analogy, because I was in one of those villages when I was about 12 years old. I could not get out of the car when I saw their dogs. Their dogs were so huge compared to the ones I used to see in Diyarbakir (a city in South East Turkey). They did not keep those lines aggressively. However, they saw huge pups born from time to time. They used to feed their dogs with yal [a watery mash], whey and yogurt.

The pinto long coated dog is in Sivrihisar, Eskisehir. He had no tail. He was roaming by himself. He was impressive. He was over 80 cms [31.2 in.]. This dog was the whitish one that I have seen in that particular expedition. I covered about 9 villages. I did not take pictures of so many dogs, because I was looking for the white dogs. I have seen so many very pale yellow dogs with almost no mask at all. Half of them were long coated.

This kaba (long coat) dog is in Afyon. He is a sheep dog with a primitive skull. He resembles a Caucasian shepherd. I used to see the same type dogs in Isparta as well. There were some with white coats in the surrounding villages.

These two dogs (below) were in the same village. A kirik (short coat) called Sirtlan Alasi (Hyena Pinto) and a kaba. They have square bodies and pointed muzzles.

Brindle dogs are called hyena; if they have white spots "ala" is added which means spotted. In the eastern Turkey, they may be called "sarma" which means "rounded" or "covered" with stripes.

Capar is another name used sometimes with a few different meanings. In general they are called "Karayaka" recently in the cities; but it is wrong to me, because it means "black body". Brindles do not have black bodies, they have dark bodies and there are different shades of brindles including red brindles. A real karayaka is a black dog of a lighter boned kangal type and they are believed to be present in Elbistan Mountains. I have seen a black kangal type dog in Bala in 1992. Bala is town located east of Ankara. These two dogs (below, both males) are in Sindirgi, Balikesir. The leading one has a perfect square body that I like very much. He is semi kirik. He has a very thick and curly tail that is kept on the left side of the body. The pinto is a kaba one. His muzzle is not as pointed as the karabas, but it is longer than a standard kangal muzzle. The pinto one has thick bones. It is not the hair, which is misleading. The bones are really thick. That could have been a white dog or perhaps he has some white relatives with the same bone structure. That does not fit into Akbas standards, because there are stockier dogs than him in Afyon and they are white.

Anyway, they got into a fight with three dogs from another flock a few minutes after I shot this picture. Watching five dogs fighting in a natural setting was exciting. It was sorted out with minor injuries; they went on their way after the territory issue was resolved. One of the distinctions of yoruk dogs is their body structure, not the thickness of the bones. The bones can be thick or thin based on the size of the dog.

This pale yellow dog with a very wolfish muzzle is definitely a kirik Yoruk. The collar is typical of Yoruk dogs collar. It is made of wool and dyed red and called "kee". It is to protect their necks from the spiked collars' friction effect. It is not used in Sivas. If you enlarge the photo and cover the ears part of its head you will see a wolf. Try it you will see. This one was over 75 cm [29 in].

This is Arak (left) and belongs to Dogan Kartay. There are different stories told by different people about the same dog! He is a Haymana type according to Kartay. Kartay claims that Haymana dogs are squarer than rectangle compared to Kangal; however, Arak is not a square one and it is not a typical kangal as well. It is a moloss type dog. He is about 100 cm.[39 in] on the shoulder. He does not like wrestling. He is a breeding stock now. His offspring are sold as kangal. This type is useless in rocky terrain, because of their paw structure. Their paws are huge, but soft.

See map and details on the part that Malak have played in development of Kangal Dog and other issues....

This moloss (right) is not from Kangal. It is considered an Aksaray line. Aksaray is not far from Sivas though. He is about 85 cm [33.2 in.] on the shoulder. These dogs are heavy too. They are much slower than Yoruks. The same man has other types of shepherds from different parts of Anatolia such as Maras and Elbistan. One of his dogs was half wolf and extremely sharp. It was about 70 cm [27.3 in.] only. Two of his kizilyaka kangals were pretty wary of him.

This dog (left) is a Kangal. He has typical kangal ears and round skull and semi square muzzle.

This dog (right) is in Denizli. He has Haymana and Yoruk in his lines. He is 86 cm [33.5 in.] on the shoulder. I measured his paw size as 11 cm*11 cm. [4 in. x 4 in.] His head type is very moloss. His skull is round like a kangal skull. He is about two years old. He never wrestled. He stayed with a sheep flock, but he is not a guard. His father is 80 cm [31.2 in] on the shoulder and he is very famous. His name is Topal (lame), because he limps. This line is very famous in Denizli region. I own his half sister. This dog can also be petted. The shepherd Ibrahim's sheep dogs have longer coats and are sharper and smaller than he.

This dog (left) is Hasan. He was famous in from 1996 to 2000. He is a very calm wrestler. He is a Haymana line and he is the grandfather of the previous dog. His temperament is friendly with people. He is 82 cm [32 in.] on the shoulder. He is owned by Necati Acar who was a friend of my grandfather. He also is not a shepherd, but some of his lines attend the flocks. One of my bitch's sisters is an active shepherd as is her mother.

This kangal (right) is in Sapanca. It has a typical kangal muzzle.

This kangal (left) is in Balikesir works as a dairy guard. His front lips are also hanging.

For further comparison [of Yoruk and Kangal types], contrast these two fawn karabas dogs. The first photo (left, below) is labeled Civril Kirik Yoruk YY. He had a brother. I did not measure them, but I believe both of them were about 90 cm [35 in] tall on the shoulder. It is obviously very leggy. This dog was in a mountain village and is definitely not a kangal. The other one (right, below) is labeled Perfect Kangal Head KK. It was brought from south of Sivas to Izmir by Aral Altay. It is not a bony dog and it is almost square, but it is not well fed.

In order to see the difference one must look at the structure, not the colour.

These two photos (left and right) are kaba Yoruk dogs from Denizli and Afyon. The domino masked one was so super fast that it was a pleasure to watch him in the flock.

Dogs from Aksaray, Erzincan, Konya and Kangal are all considered kangals, because it is easier to sell them under the kangal name. Konya dogs are the most successful wrestlers. Perhaps wrestling ability was appreciated as well as fighting against the enemy in the ancient Hittite empire. These dogs can attack man as well if they are raised in a certain way and they can be devastating. That is why I consider them as the old war dogs, but not primarily shepherds. Konya, Karaman and Aksaray were the main Hittite settlement areas and they kept this kind of dog based on the pictures on the stones found in the area. There are shades of morphologies. The way I see it, is wolf on one end of the scale and a moloss on the other end. Perhaps jackal interjects now and then. Yoruks are more wolfish with lots of moloss blood, and kangal and haymana are more moloss with less wolf blood. Wolf crossing is a separate issue that I may talk about later.

All these dogs belong to a big family with several strains or varieties. One can see a moloss head, kaba coat dog among the other typical yoruks. These show the effects historical migration and breeding practices. That is why, although I try not to miss the bodily structure, I consider the temperamental structure as well. I try to place these qualities according to the geographical regions, because genetic acclimatization is unavoidable. Some sort of segregation takes place under minimally supervised conditions. Another reason for the kangalization process is the common, uniform colour: fawn body with a black mask. Yoruk dogs can have the same colour, just like English thoroughbreds can bear the same colour as Arabians. However it is easy to classify based on the colour. It must be because of the culture of globalization. There are white and black people in the USA. Some Indians are darker than Africans and they are different races and Europeans are composed of several races. but they bear paler skin. People make the same mistake when they classify animals and plants. There are yoruk type dogs all over Turkey. Kangal type is concentrated in Sivas and Konya regions. Yoruk means nomadic Turkmen; Turkmen ruled at every corner of Anatolia, but their heaviest settlements are in the Western and Southern Turkey. Yoruk type dogs can be seen in South East Turkey among Kurdish tribes. There are still a few nomadic Yoruk and Kurdish tribes in Turkey. Their lifestyles are similar and dictate the type of the animals they can keep. There are undiscovered areas in Mediterranean and South East Turkey in relation to shepherd dogs. The conflict between Kurdish guerillas and Turkish military caused so many flocks to be sold and slaughtered. Some villages cannot take their flocks to the highlands in the summer time, so they sell the flocks. Once they are sold they are not replaced again and the villagers move to the cities. The same is true in Sivas, although there was not a tangible terrorist activity in the past. In general whether there is terrorism or not, the flocks are getting smaller because of the global pressures on the Turkish economy and politics. It is not hard to forecast the total extinction of goat flocks first and sheep later in the next 15 years. According to a deceased army vet General Oncul, the largest dogs were nomad dogs. He did not consider Sivas dogs as the largest and fiercest. He also talked about Karayaka dogs as a separate breed, but he did not research them very much. He termed Sivas dogs as Karabas and he stated that the best karabas dogs could be found in Sivas. When I visited his breeding and training program with my father in probably 1980, there were close to 100 karabash dogs, a few kaba white dogs and a huge kaba Yoruk karabas. That dog looked like a lion to me, size wise. He talked about nomad dogs very briefly and no one brought them up again since 1983. I remembered what I heard, from his breeding program in Gemlik, Bursa, when I was traveling to understand more about the shepherd dogs in 1997. Then I realized their existence. If there are Yoruks and they are nomads, then their dogs must be called Yoruk dogs; not Turkish, Anatolian or nomad. I heard about yoruk dogs from my father when I was a child, but he termed them as "koyuncu" and he told me Yoruks keep them. "Koyuncu" means "sheep-man" not sheep herder. It means a dog that works with sheep. His term will lead to something else. So I should stop here.

Anatolian Perspectives

by Guvener Isik BOZKIR ANAVARI: THE STEPPE MONSTER

Written by Dogan Kartay and translated and edited by Guvener Isik (first published in Choban Chatter) "The word "an" (pronounced "Jan") entered into Turkish from Persian, which means "soul that leaves the body after death". "an" is a form of energy or vigor that makes one alive. "Var" is the Turkish word meaning "present". In the very beginning the word "anavar" had been used meaning "an alive creature" and its archaic form was "cani-var" that is "contains life" As the time passed, the word represented a wild animal or a wolf in the rural Anatolia. If this word is read as "ana var", then it means reach and take or fetch the life, which anavar takes the lives of sheep". *

The villagers of Anatolian and Central Asian steppes call a wild canid that does not pursue a pack life like wolves as the "anavar" (Joanavar). anavar lives alone; it is larger than a wolf and looks like a large dog with hanging ears. What is the origin of the animal that is known as the "anavar"? Is it a wolf or a dog? As it is accepted, the shepherd dogs have the same genes as the wolf. Scientifically, the shepherd dog is a derivation of the wolf. The female wolf in the wild can mate with the male shepherd dog and vice versa. This is a sort of blood renewal process. The female dog gives birth in a barn and the female wolf gives birth in the wild. The produce of both kinds of births are puppies that are larger than wolf cubs. Some pups have hanging ears and some other have pricked ears. The pricked eared pups from a female wolf are accepted by the wolf pack. These pups, which are larger and stronger than the wolves become the pack leader when they grow up if they ever stay with the pack. The pups with hanging ears are excluded by the pack and the mother wolf. The pups that have hanging ears have no choice but to live in the wild by themselves. Only the strongest and the lucky ones among these excluded pups can survive and become mature. Thus the "Bozkir anavari" is formed. These shepherd dog looking hybrids, which posses a hunting instinct are well adapted to the steppe life. In general the shepherds dogs that defend the flocks

cannot deal with the anavar that attacks the flocks one to one. The anavars are stronger than the shepherd dogs and more aggressive than the wolves. They have sharp teeth and nails. They do not attack man as long as their lives are not threatened. They generally prefer shepherd dogs for mating. The cubs of a female anavar can be only taken from her by the villagers shooting her. These cubs that have hanging ears are born in the barn and they generally can be raised as shepherd dogs and are considered very valuable. The pricked eared cubs, which are born from the anavar mother ge nerally, join with wolf packs. The wolf -like anavar cubs stolen by the villagers are believed to cause panic in the flock so they are killed for they are thought to be potentially dangerous as they mature. The pricked eared pups may be sold to some dog people for them to be trained as pets. However it is very difficult to train these pups because of their free spirits. Training for domestication can be achieved only with love, patience and hard work. The parents of the anavar in Anatolia can be karabas , akbas or crosses of these two. The possibility of the survival of the cubs from the anavar parents is greater in the steppes. These cubs become the king of the steppe life when they are mature. Male Wolf and female Kangal pairs are bred under the control of the villagers of Yesildag region that is in the west of Beysehir Lake, which is located, further north of Toros Mountains. The pricked eared pups, which are the product of this kind of mating takes the form of a wolf. The pups that cannot be trained are released to the wild by the their owners. The pups that have hanging ears are kept, if they are good with the flocks, and if not they are killed. The formation of a anavar in the fierce and merciless conditions of the steppes is a rare event. The steppe villagers tell old anavar stories to each other during the cold winter nights. * Guvener Isik's note. This article is taken from the 3rd edition of "Turk oban Kpegi Kangal" book of Dogan Kartay. It is translated and published with Mr Kartay's permission. Mr Kartay was born in 1932 in Izmir. Currently he is living in Izmir with his 30 Kangals and two Akbas in a mountain village called Gokceler in Izmir. I am thankful to Mr. Kartay for sharing his experiences with me and allowing me to translate this article for Coban Kopegi fans that do not know Turkish. Anatolian Perspectives

MALAK and furthermore GREYHOUND TURCA (first published in Choban Chatter)

Several criteria could be employed in order to establish a breed. Race A must be tangibly different than Race B. Comparison requires evaluating the contrasts, similarities and associations within the whole. Thus, "the whole" must first be defined in order to approach the parts safely. Since the state of being different in itself does not exist without comparison to other sets, the differences can only be seen via a thorough comprehension of the whole.

The Malak We can always see some relative deviations once we have at least two units to compare. We can notice the heavy Kangal-like dogs present in Anatolia. Why are they present? Apparently not for sheep herding, certainly not for goat herding because they are very slow. The most appropriate task for the Malak could have been Cattle or Water Buffalo guarding*, but we are neither aware of the presence of any task of this kind nor the distinctive swimming ability of Malak!
Note: *Water is a must for Water Buffalo. They are not seen in the arid regions of Turkey. The marshy land can be best used by the Water Buffalo. They enter the muddy waters and spend their time by grazing and swimming. They are resistant to diseases that cattle cannot handle. They have very rich milk, which makes the best yogurt.

I noticed these dogs in year 2000, and I used the "Central Anatolian or Hitite Mastiff" for the purpose of description in the summer of 2004. This description covered Kangal and its derivations. The more correct term should have been Molossus instead of Mastiff. Historically Molossus dogs were not heavy dogs like todays Mastiffs and they were strong, well -built and agile dogs. The dogs called "Malak" or "Malakli" in Anatolia are heavy molossus based on this description, because Malaks are not fast runners like most molossus. Calling them Mastiff has a couple of historical problems. The Greek Molossian and Laconian dogs were shepherds and hunters and they did not look like todays modern Mastiffs at all. The Assyrian dogs were not Mastiffs but Molossus. The breeds, which have brachycephalic head, are not necessarily Molosser nor even Mastiff. Greco-Roman art does not indicate any modern Mastiff looking dogs. I will feel safer assuming the presence of proto-mastiffs in Anatolia in the form of Molossus.

The Turkish name of these dogs in Anatolia is "Malak". Although some heavily lipped examples of these dogs can be found in Konya, Aksaray and Nevsehir, they can be found in Balikesir, Denizli, Burdur, Maras, even in Erzurum and Agri. The reason that this type can be observed in regions which seem unrelated, is the old tradition of dog wrestling in Anatolia. The presence of Molossus and/or Mastiff like dogs in Anatolia before the Turks entrance to Anatolia is known. These dogs had already completed their development in ancient times. Now what needs to be done is to research them. I thought that calling these dogs with a name that belongs to an antique people could be right and just. Nevertheless "Malak" by itself is sufficient. New Breeds? The Kangal is already considered a mastiff-like (heavy molossus) dog. When a new breed is considered apart from Kangal, then a tendency to call the akyaka (white-body) Kangal as a "white Mastiff" could arise. The reason behind this logic is clear: according to the standards of Kangal, Kangal cannot be white and without a black mask. Then what is going to happen to the akyaka Kangal? The solution is the following: A new class or breed could be created -- or more correctly, Akyakas would be transferred into the new classification of Mastiff! That way the God given solid standards of pure Kangal would be left alone. This indicates that the Kangals standards have been established several times hastily without studying the dogs as a whole. Today, as breeding under controlled conditions increases, more differences among these dogs have been realized. We now see the differences within a given cluster and between the clusters of dogs. Color Malak could come in any color. When this was the case, then the Akyaka could be collected under the Malak class. Instead of approving the existence of white Kangals, or calling different colors of kangals as "white", brindle or pinto -- the use of the term "Mastiff" has become a solution that would not hurt the initial argument regarding color purity of the Karabas dogs of Sivas and the surrounding regions. Body and Head Both Malak and Kangal are similar to each other. Kangals that are particularly favoured are more Malakish in terms of the large head size and broad chest. It is not easy to see the difference between them. The forehead is not as developed in Malaks. The body becomes more barrel like as the weight increases in Malaks and when observed from the profile, the body looks rectangle instead of square. Malak is less hairy and has a tail with less curl. But, since I always state that the exceptions are a rule in Anatolia, one can encounter curled tailed Malak infrequently. They are ideal for wrestling considering their body structure. Those that I have encountered all had soft temperaments with one exception. Malaks weigh more than 150 pounds and can be as heavy as 200 pounds. Etymology of Malak It is a name given to the dogs which have hanging lips and cheeks. The word means "like buffalo". The temperament of these dogs reminds one the Camiz/Manda/Water Buffalo anyway. In some regions the word becomes "Balak" meaning the calf of a Camiz. The same word is used in Syria and Iraq too. In Arabic, Malak also means the messenger of God or Angel or independent, but obviously the same word has a very different meaning in Turkey. The Turkish name of these dogs in Anatolia is "Malak". Although some heavily lipped examples of these dogs can be found in Konya, Aksaray and Nevsehir, they can be found in Balikesir, Denizli, Burdur, Maras, even in Erzurum and Agri. The reason that this type can be observed in regions which seem unrelated, is the old tradition of dog wrestling in Anatolia. The Breed, Classification and the Function Is Malak a breed? Not yet. Was it a breed? There had been general populations of dogs in Anatolia/Turkey. The shepherd dogs, tazis (Turkmen Greyhound), Findiks (small guard dogs), and kopays

(hare flushers) were all separate breeds. These populations developed regional variations within themselves. The main groups had always exchanged blood. Moreover there were inter-breed blood changes infrequently. Malak is a type and it exists. It could be a breed when some of the basic traits are fixed and tested positive through progeny testing. In this relation, the Malak whose responsibility was guarding silos, dairies and slaughter houses and which has not been swift like shepherd dogs had been sometimes used as a wrestling dog in special days and in festivals should be investigated in the shepherd dog class, because shepherding is a nomadic mode of guarding. The common feature is still guarding. This sub-group could be taken as a separate breed when it is described with definite descriptions about temperament and structure. In relation to Malak, even the shepherd dogs of Kangal that have prominent differences could not become a breed without opposition yet. The reason for this is about the requirements and conditions of calling a group of dogs a breed. We are back to the beginning: the names and the descriptions. From a general descriptive perspective: Malak, whose main job was to guard and wrestle on special days which was passed to Turks probably through Sumers or Hittites, can be mostly be seen in the Central Anatolia, like Kangal Shepherd Dog. This subject requires an extensive field study. This definitely does not mean that Turks acquired the animal wrestling tradition from the ancient people. They always had this culture. I also believe that Malak has been historically used to produce Kangal like dogs in Anatolia, because the traces of this practice can easily be seen today in the Kangal dog shows in the winning dogs. However we cannot surely say, which one is coming from which. As opposed to the assumption of Malaks contribution to Kangals, it is also possible to claim that the heavy built puppies from shepherd lines have been kept and bred together for centuries and heavy dogs were produced. There is a third alternative explanation to the origin of Mastiff-like dogs in Anatolia that it is crossbreeding Kangals with Mastiffs. I could have skipped this, but it is more industrious to discuss this issue instead of playing the blind. At the present, this assumption is not more than a rumor and we have no way of proving that this is the case, although there is tendency to think this way among some shepherd dogs fans in Turkey. The only clear answer could be obtained through some detailed DNA analysis of the chosen Malaks and possible mastiff crosses. To analyze the above-mentioned assumption I would assert that any shepherd dog can wrestle, but Malak cannot guard fast moving flocks like a shepherd dog. When we especially consider the ancient way of moving flocks from one location to another as distant as 200 miles, it becomes obvious that the base stock was always the nomadic shepherd dog, not the other way around. Some heavy dogs in Anatolia may be the result of recent Mastiff introduction, but making a generalization is not a safe way to go. Furthermore neither the older wrestling people nor I remember seeing any mastiff- like dogs in the wrestling events. The wrestling dogs and Malaks are heavy dogs and there is no need to get confused with the possibility of the mastiff crosses. People should not be prejudiced against Malaks, but they have to be on guard against the mastiff intrusion. One last point about the crosses is that they exist in the big cities, not in the traditional rural areas and these crosses have not even a slim chance of competing with the shepherd dogs under the traditional conditions. It is my belief that Malaks are the true progenitors of the Mastiff-like dogs of Europe; the modern English Mastiff is far from its original form in terms of structure and temperament under the civil requirements of its modern breeders with diluted and exaggerated standards. Nationalism and the Malak Malak is a word used by the Turks, the combined people of Anatolia. That should be the name not because its congruent with Ataturks ideas, but because Malak belongs to the layman and not to the club founders or to the new generations of Kennel men. Kennel mens one hand is in the dog wrestling and the other one is in the breed creation. They locate the best specimens in these matches and then turn against the original breeders of these dogs and re-name the dogs differently. Malak is a wrestling dog, but "Mastiff" is not. Now we are facing a new word and a new task. According to some, Malak keepers are poor, uneducated, barbaric people, but Mastiff keepers are educated and humane! The reality is this dog type has been protected by the Malak breeder for centuries. Villagers protected them via wrestling events. But, Malak could come in any color. When this was the case, then the Akyaka [white Kangal] could be collected under the Malak class. Instead of approving the existence of white Kangals, calling different colors of kangals as "white", brindle or pinto -- the use of the term "Mastiff" has become a solution that would not hurt the initial argument regarding color purity of the Karabas dogs of Sivas and the surrounding regions. A few years ago, a new coke brand was marketed in Turkey and it was called " Cola Turka". The "Greyhound Turca" is pointing toward this shallow nationalism and a clever marketing strategy in Turkey. That is why I had to talk about Ataturk and his position on these issues. Since this article [you are reading] was originally written in Turkish and for Turkish readers in April 2005, it made more sense to

me. However, by making this point more informative, Americans and other non-Turks can see the inner dynamic behind this thinking. Mustafa Kemal Ataturk who is the founder of the Republic of Turkey was a pioneer who urged the scholars to start archeological researches about the presence of ancient civilizations in 1931. The financial banks like Sumerbank and Etibank have been named by him, although these banks were consolidated by some contra political movements in Turkey a few years ago. There are so many men, women, institutions and organizations, which bear names like Sumer and Eti (Hittite). Ataturks nationalism was not a race based one, but a people-based one. He recognized all the people of Anatolia with their culture and their past and he united them around one language to overcome several potential problems. The language was Turkish. Understanding the ancient civilizations was a requirement in Ataturks ideology of nationalism. He was not a man of slogans, but a man of meanings. Where do Turks fit in regarding the subject of the molossus Malak? Turks or with an ancient pronunciation, Toroks, are the beneficiaries of all the previous civilizations. In other words, Sumerian is Turkish, and Turkish is Sumerian. So many centuries have been passed since Hittites became Turkmen and vice versa. Again, the whole is greater than the sum of its parts.

DESCRIPTIONS AND COMPARISONS OF MALAK AND SHEPHERD DOG

Compare the HEAD PROFILES on Malak vs Shepherd Dog

Image 1: Profile of a Malak. The muzzle is not necessarily short but thick and rectancle.

Image 2: Profile of a Yoruk looking Shepherd Dog. The muzzle is necessarily long but triangle. Kangals standards have been established several times hastily without studying the dogs as a whole. Today, as breeding under controlled conditions increases, more differences among these dogs have been realized. We now see the differences within a given cluster and between the clusters of dogs.

Compare the FACIAL VIEWS on Malak vs Shepherd Dog

Image 3: The muzzle of Malak from the faade is also pretty rectangle. The top of the skull is not as round as a Kangal. The eyes are more than oval: they are almost round.

Image 4: The muzzle of Shepherd Dog from the faade is triangular too. The top of the skull shows a bump. This bump can also be seen in Kangals. The eyes are between oval and almond.

From the FIRST ARTICLE of the series by Guvener Isik.

Image 5: This picture was published previously in "Comparative Analysis of Two Different Strains of Anatolian Shepherd Dogs: Yoruks and Kangal." as a Moloss. This dog is from Aksaray. One can easily see the hanging lips and the square muzzle like the other Malak pictured above.

Open letter to the ASD OF GB from Professor Susan Goldhor

taken from Anatolian Shepherd Dog Club of GB newsletter April-June 1982, Vol III, No 2. "I recently heard that there has been a move to have white Anatolian Shepherds made a separate breed in the UK. As you can imagine, I was quite surprised. Luckily, I believe that British breeders are sophisticated enough to see this move for what it is, an attempt to develop a market by a breeder who happened to be particularly fond of the 'white' dogs, and to have concentrated on that color while collecting in Turkey. Since you may wish to show this letter to other breeders, it might be useful for me to state briefly what credentials I have in this matter. I took my undergraduate training in Zoology at Columbia University, concentrating on genetics under Professor Theodosius Dobzhansky. I did my Ph.D in Biology at Yale University, and was a post-doctoral research fellow in Biology at Stanford University. My first teaching position was at Hacettepe University in Ankara, Turkey - a new university where the Turkish Government had invited me to aid in the development of the Biology Department. During my two years as an Assistant Professor there, I learned reasonably fluent Turkish. Some years later, while I was starting and then directing the New England Farm Center (at Hampshire College in Amherst, Mass.) that fluency was useful during the three trips I made to Central and Eastern Anatolia, observing and collecting Anatolian Shepherds. During the four years I spent working with these dogs, and my three years as Director of the Center, we developed the largest and most intensive project in the World on the genetics, physiology and behaviour of a variety of breeds of livestock guarding dogs. All of this was a part of our program to test the ability of such dogs to reduce predation on US sheep; a program which has been supported by the United States Department of Agriculture. In all I collected 15 dogs from Anatolia, and bred or observed many others in Turkey, and from other countries where related breeds still work. In addition, as you know, I visited many villages, searching for dogs, observing dogs, and interviewing shepherds, veterinarians, and local breeders. My conclusions with regard to color of Anatolian Shepherds is as follows:Color in these dogs is extremely variable. They can be white, tan with darker ears and muzzles, brindle or tri-color. Breeding in Turkey is generally left up to the initiative of the dogs, but occasionally a breeding will be made by humans. I have never heard of such a breeding where color of the dogs was considered a factor. Similarly, villagers will select pups within a litter; usually killing about half of the litter so as to get larger, stronger pups remaining. This is often on the basis of sex, and occasionally size. I have never seen color be a factor, although litters will often be quite varied in color and markings. In interviewing shepherd on the performance of these dogs, I have heard many theories about how to choose or produce a good dog. Shepherds have emphasized to me the importance of cutting the ears, utilizing the proper collar, training, what type of food is best, which dogs should work together (in terms of age and sex combinations), and sometimes docking the tail. I have never heard a shepherd (or Turkish veterinarian) ascribe any importance to the color of the dog or imply that there were any differences as a result of color.

There are two Turkish terms used to denote the breed. The most common one is 'Coban Kopegi' which means 'shepherd's dog'. Also used is the term 'Kurt Kopegi' meaning 'wolf dog'. Although foreigners have tended to pick up the term 'karabas' meaning black head, this is not generally used to denote the breed. It is often used as a name for an individual dog with a dark muzzle - dark ear type; almost always for a bitch. (This is interesting because bitches are more apt to be given humorous or lighthearted names). Given the Turkish emphasis on linguistic symmetry, I would expect the term 'akbas' meaning 'white head' to be used similarly, although I have never happened to hear that term used by a Turk. It is interesting to note how variable color is in working livestock guarding dogs in many countries. This is certainly true in Italy as well, where working Maremma-Abruzzi dogs are of all colors; a great surprise to those of us who have been led to believe by foreign fanciers that they are all white! There are a few breeds of truly working dogs left today. The Anatolian Shepherd Dog represents such a breed. As one would expect of a breed spread over such a vast and variable area, and subject to intense selective pressures by humans, availability of food, disease, climate, parasites and predators, there is a fair amount of genetic variation in the gene pool. I hope that British breeders decide to keep the breed, as it is in its native habitat; rugged and variable. With best wishes, Professor Susan Goldhor

Photo taken in Turkey by Professor Sue Goldhor Natalka Czartoryska (3rd from left) writes: "Yours truly, in a snowstorm, with kind hosts, having finally obtained the bitch Melemez Yigit of Yazurdu, as the second try. Note child bare footed! We had just had tea with the school teacher and his wife."

Guvener Isik's Interview with Dogan Kartay

(first published in Choban Chatter)
The following interview with Kartay took place on 29th of April and on12th of May 2006 in Izmir. It took two days to complete the interview. I had to take notes as we spoke, and videotape him as he explained. I also had to rely on my auditory memory and his personal notes. Kartay was not that comfortable with question and answer type of interrogation! We talked as we visited dogs at different locations as we drove and during a long lunch. Since I also know Kartay since 2000, I had accumulated his opinions and attitudes over the time. He also advised me to read his books for more information in detail as I have already gone through his books several times, a fast scan of his books was enough for me to fill the gaps. Why was Kartay chosen for an interview but not someone else? The reason I conducted the following interview with him is because Kartay has been traveling in the rural Anatolia for over 30 years for basically airport projects. He has worked on these projects as a head engineer. He had chance to observe these dogs in along period of time at various locations. Although he does not consider himself as a breeder, he kept as many as thirty shepherd dogs, including brindles, fawns and whites to observe their breeding, development and behaviors. He is the first selfmotivated shepherd dog enthusiast who launched a comparative observation programme finding that brindles are not any different than the fawns as opposed to hard core Kangal fanatics' claims and he also integrated historical data into his interpretation of understanding these dogs in Turkey. All the other shepherd dog people in the cities have been operated with second or third hand information on these dogs. He educated so many breeders in the cities. I do not have his several years of extended Anatolian experiences, but my research style is in a way similar to him since I've been obtaining my information directly from the shepherds and the dog wrestlers. That is why I felt comfortable recording his opinion as opposed to the kennel owners'.

There are several experienced shepherd and dog wrestler masters that they have much deeper and hands on experience on these issues than him or me and these people's opposing statements against Kartay's will be brought here in the future. Kartay and I do not agree on some subjects, but we both believe that we should be able to communicate as civilized people without raising our voices. After all we both are aware that not only he and I, but also ASD and Kangal people have something in common; the shepherd dogs of Anatolia/Turkey. No matter what we call them and how we define them. We are all students on this path. We learn when we share and we lose when we hide. - Guvener Isik May 2006 in Izmir ISIK: I am interested in the progress of FCI Kangal recognition and what kind of breed standard has been planned to come up with for that? KARTAY: Currently all breeds of dogs are going to be registered with FCI. An application has been filed. It looks like they need to fill a quota in terms of a certain number of applications. My choice would have been filing an application for Kangal and Akbas separately. Registering the entire dog breeds including the hunting dogs is a mistake. We have to make the definitions in the very beginning; otherwise more problems are awaiting us. My breed standard includes the Karayaka (brindle or black) as a strain of Kangal. They are also karabas dogs.

ISIK: What will happen to the dogs that are now called Guard dogs or mastiffs or that are pinto? KARTAY: There is no Turkish Mastiff. These dogs are called malakli, but today we see some very exaggerated forms of Malaks. I suspect some English Mastiff blood in some of them. The Guard dog term was used to differentiate the active shepherd dogs from city or kennel dogs. Active shepherds are leaner and they have scars and not bulky. It was fair to have these dogs compete in a different class. ISIK: Are you planning on trying to get recognition of several breeds? KARTAY: Several members say different things. I am focused on research currently rather than politics. Kangals are pretty much covered by me. I started spending time on Akbas. I do traveling for that purpose. ISIK: What are the things that you envision for the future if you had a say in all theTurkish breeds? KARTAY: The Turkish shepherd dogs historical task is guarding the flocks or their masters, although they are not aggressive dogs. They do never pose threat to human life, but they can fight for the safety of their owner. Since these dogs are large and heavy they cannot be used for search and help. These dogs sniff the air not the ground; therefore they also cannot be used for narcotic purposes. They can be used in the military barracks, factories hotels, schools and farms as night guardians. These dogs guarding skills are indexed to the night. Trying to train them for any task before dusk is a mistake and waste of time. They will respond better after sun goes down. Repetitive tasks are not for these dogs. ISIK: How many breeds should there be? Would all the fawn dogs be the same as Kangal? KARTAY: In terms of shepherd dogs there are Kangal and Akbas. Anatolian Shepherd could also be included. ASD can be considered as multicolored shepherd dogs from Anatolia, which are basically Kangal and Akbas crosses. ISIK: Should the ones with brindle or much white on the leg or face be another breed or should they just be disposed of? KARTAY: No. White spots are the reminders of Akbas. Kangals have Akbas blood in them too. We cannot trace back everything. We are saying that white is allowed as long as it does not overtake the base color. White should not cross the knee lines and white in the chest is all right a long as it is not larger than a hand. These limits are artificial ones and I am aware of it. I am focused on the major qualities of the dog not the minor white spots. If the dog is half white and half fawn/brindle/black it can be classified as Anatolian Shepherd Dog. The crosses of Kangal and Akbas are sometimes superior to both breeds. They can be excellent shepherd dogs. ISIK: However in the rural Anatolia, the shepherds and especially the dog wrestlers do not care about the color of the dog. What is your take on this? KARTAY: True. They are focused on the outcome. color does not play a role when a dog wrestles or guards. However the dark color dogs are better for night jobs. Karayakas (brindle or black Kangals) are better suited to night jobs. They have perfect camouflaging. ISIK: How is Kangal then a purebred dog? KARTAY: It is because it is a natural dog. The natural dogs have more variations compared to artificial breeds. ISIK: Is ASD a natural dog? KARTAY: Its ancestors are natural and historical crossing between Kangal and Akbas is natural, but the outcome is a natural crossbreed dog. ISIK: I consider the entire Turkish shepherd dogs as semi natural , but lets do not get distracted. However, when we say pintos are crossbred dogs, we automatically accept that self-color dogs are originally purebreds. Am I correct? KARTAY: In a way Yes. ISIK: But is it not a relative definition? The percentage of white areas versus fawn areas in the body becomes the determining factor of the purity. Could we say from a wolf standpoint that a fawn dog is more pure since it is close to a wolf and a white dog is less because it is potentially weaker because of its lack of color? Or the darker the better perhaps?

KARTAY: I understand your point. We have to start with a certain chronology. Ilhanli people were originally Mongols who invaded the Eskisehir region and they brought their white dogs with them. We do not know where they got these white dogs from, but we know that they brought them along with their war like migrations. They settled down in Eskisehir and were mixed with Turkmens. The situation at the time did not allow them to go back to their steppes in the Central Asia. They had to stay. They stayed and their dogs stayed. ISIK: But we see white dogs as further as South East Turkey. KARTAY: Yes we do, but we see more white dogs in the Eskisehir region. ISIK: What do you think decreased their numbers? Why cannot we see a homogeneous Akbas population in that region anymore? We can see numerous villages with 90% Karabas population, but we can hardly see the opposite! I see more white dogs in Afyon, Izmir and Denizli that I have seen in Sivrihisar/Eskisehir. KARTAY: One of the factors is that the sheep flocks are shrinking. The other one is migration from villages to the cities. This is not the entire explanation definitely, that is why now I devoted my time to find more about Akbas.

ISIK: Do you think we can leave some room for the color geneticists for them to say something about the relationship between the color and the body structure and breed standards, since we see the same migration trends heavily in Sivas region? KARTAY: I agree. I am not a scientist or a biologist. I am an engineer and if the science of biology evaluates all the data as objectively as possible than I also will go along with them. For now I have to use my own observations, historical data and basic biology. You should keep in mind that one has to know Turkish to understand these dogs true nature. Years ago I was flying and there was a gentleman sitting next to me in the aircraft. We started chatting in Turkish and I think he was either an Englishman or an American. I complimented him that he speaks good Turkish and I asked him why he needed to learn Turkish. He said he is an archeologist and he works on Hittites. I told him that we do not speak Hittite language. His response was but Turkish is the key to understand them because Turkish borrowed words from them unknowingly. He further explained that he needed to speak with the locals one to one when he tries to understand the local customs. That is why I say, the research language of Kangals can be only Turkish because the language is key factor. Dont forget that Turkish shepherds were not scientists but pure shepherds who spoke Turkish and bred Turkish Shepherd Dog Kangal. ISIK: Is the style and build of a dog important for breed differentiation? KARTAY: Sure. Kangals have thicker bones and Akbas do not. The climate and the selection have a role in their body formation. Akbas is a fast dog and can take more heat. ISIK: Could you explain for the ASDI readers in your opinion why Akbas and Kangal are different breeds? KARTAY: We need to look at the history of the people who bred them first. Lets clarify a point about whether Karabas and Kangal are the same dogs. Karabas is a historical name for the dogs that have black mask in the Turkish culture. The name Kangal was introduced later replacing the Karabas and there is no need to fight against it. It is accepted. Kangal is type of Karabas that can be seen in the Uzunyayla region. This Kangal type is longer than taller, whereas the Western Taurus Karabas Kangals are taller than longer, which is they have a more square body type although we see a mixing recently. All right what is a karabas right? Karabas is a shepherd dog and its roots can be traced in Central Asia. Calling or defining the shepherd dogs by their head color is our centuries old tradition. For example: Karabas, Akbas, Saribas (yellow head), Alabas (piebald head). As far as I know we do not see this kind of naming in the other societies. Karabas dogs can be found wherever the Turkic societies live in the Central Asia. These dogs are large, powerful and black-headed dogs, which also can be found around Kangal town of Sivas. Some European clubs call these dogs as Karabas Shepherd Dog. However the black mask is a dominant trait and this trait expresses itself when there are cross breedings. We can see karabas dogs all over Anatolia and sometimes we see breeding untrue to their origin, because of mixing of breeds or bloods. What Anatolian Shepherd Dog Clubs needs to grasp is all the Kangals have black masks but not all the karabas dogs are Kangals. ISIK: Then what is a Kangal and how did it pop up?

KARTAY: Some observers and some researchers that we cannot take them as experts have encountered this breed in the Kangal region. By considering the presence of the best Purebred Karabas dogs in this region, they introduced these dogs as the Kangal Shepherd Dog in their own country. The founder of the Kangal Shepherd Dog Vermont Club David Nelson had worked in Turkey for several years, and he was able to speak Turkish. However he could not have acquired the entire truth about these dogs because of the lack of information at that time. He was not an expert on history, geography and genetics. He advertised these dogs with missing information. That is how this breed received lots of undeserved criticism internationally. Although he had made mistakes about this subject, he helped this breeds publicity around the world. ISIK: What do you think about ASDs and ASD clubs? KARTAY: Let me first talk about whether we can get along with ASD clubs. I have been thinking for a long time whether it is possible to communicate instead of quarrel and be on the same page with clubs who took our dogs, and possessed them and did not learn about their true roots. To me it is possible. The condition is to observe the discussed subject objectively, to avoid all the prejudices and feelings and to employ the science. Then we could analyse all the givens starting from the very beginning and by defining the boundaries of the outcomes of the synthesis.Biology and genetics will point the right path. I believe that once the scientific knowledge is attained, then resisting against its results would be irrational. The history of Turkic people and the language are also as important as the science of biology. Natalka Czartoyka had observations on these dogs in 1960s then Dr. Malcolm Willis supported Natalkas observations. Natalkas observations are not totally wrong, but they are missing and not satisfactory. There are 80 cities, 800 towns and more villages that animal husbandry has been practiced for centuries. How long did these people spend time to cover all these places and draw meaningful results out of their observations? What are name of the cities that they had their researches? Did Natalka know about the Oguz-Turkmen traditions? Or did Willis himself cover Anatolia? There are mixed types in Anatolia and if you choose to ignore the mixed breeds it is your choice. If you choose to take a close look at the traditions in dog breeding and keeping special strains, then you can see how important they are and somehow still are. We also cannot pretend that there are no mixed breed shepherd dogs. We also cannot ignore that they are sometimes superior to Akbas and Kangal. These two breeds can be found all over the Central Asia, Afghanistan, Iran and Anatolia and they are natural breeds. You cannot simply brush them off. These two breeds are not endemic to Anatolia. Anyhow ASD clubs accomplished something we have not like forming clubs, but they should work on developing the ASD breed. This breed will not be like natural Kangal or Akbas breed but it could be as good as they are. This new breed will be accepted without opposition in Turkey, but Kangal ASDs will face resistance. ISIK: What if I say that when Ballard founded the ASD club there was no Kangal name in sight and his first imports were pinto dogs. One could have told him look you cannot take karabas dogs out of Turkey and register them as ASDs; as you know they are Kangals. Can he be blamed for that? KARTAY: No he cannot be blamed, but mistakes must be corrected. Just because he started his club before Nelson does not justify his mistake or Natalkas mistake as I do not justify Nelsons mistakes about the Kangal breed standards. Karabas exists whether Nelson says so or not. He called Karabas as Kangal because of the region that he located best Karabas dogs. There are also perfect specimens of Karabas dogs in Konya and Denizli. ISIK: How about Kars dog? KARTAY: Kars dog does not exist as a purebred dog. It is a mixture of Karabas and Caucasian Ovtcharkas. We can work on standardizing it, but currently it is not a breed as far as I am concerned. Nelson believed it was and I know it is not.

ISIK: What are your other plans in the next 10 years? KARTAY: Sky God knows how long I will hang out here, but we should plan a long trip together in the South East and North East Turkey to document these dogs. Id like to put more time on Akbas and black Kangals. (Kartay will not use Allah an Arabic word for God. He chooses to use Sky=blue God, which is Gk Tanri (sky God) that is a Central Asian Turkish word. This is a word preference that we both share) ISIK: Thanks for your time and your explanations.

The Heritage of the Dog

by Col. David Hancock Article first printed in Choban Chatter, Vol 7, Issue 1, Spring 1997. Many books have been published concerning the origins and development of many of the current breeds of dogs, but few go into such common sense detail as Col. David Hancock's The Heritage of the Dog, published by Nimrod Press in 1990 (hardcover, 317 pgs.). This book is based upon a great deal of original research, and, unlike most books which tend to focus on the dogs of the gentry and nobility, this book has excellent sections on all sorts of dogs, including the pastoral breeds (flock guardians and herders). To give you an idea of this author's style, I have below an excerpt from the section on flock guardians, where the author is discussing his views on their development, and on the importance of breeding for a functional dog, and not losing sight of a breed's origins and purpose. This section, lauding functionality over frivolity, is particularly intriguing as it uses as an example the Anatolian Shepherd! (pp. 42-44) "It was during the eighth and seventh millennia B.C. that man first began to domesticate sheep and goats within the region of western Asia. Man, sheep, goats, and dogs have a social system based on a single dominant leader and tend to base themselves on what have become known as home ranges, unlike say gazelles, antelope and bison. They have therefore become inter-dependent. The herdsman becomes the leader and the dog protects man and sheep against the privations of such wild predators as lynx, lion, wolf, tiger, jackal, leopard, cheetah, fox, civets and in some places, huge eagles. Flock-guarding dogs therefore had to be brave, vigilant, determined, alert, resolute and above all protective. Their role, the climate and the terrain demanded excellent feet, tough frames, weatherproof coats, great strength, good hearing and eyesight and remarkable robustness. These dogs operated in the hottest, coldest, stoniest, thorniest, windiest, most mountainous and most arid areas of Europe and western Asia. Physical exaggeration does not occur in any of the flock-guarding breeds, shepherds must have entirely functional dogs. Hunting ability is not desired. The size and bravery of these dogs however has lead to their being used in bear hunts in Russia and boar hunts in central Europe where they were used at the kill not as trackers. Breed historians of the really big breeds make much reference to Molossian dogs in their writings. But the flock guardians and, indeed, the hunting mastiffs predate the dogs of the Molossian people, who probably got their mastiffs from Assyria and merely had their huge flock guarding dogs just as every other sheep-owning community did. Much is made too of the coat color white, as is found in the Maremma, Kuvasz, Greek and Polish breeds, on the grounds that the sheep can quickly distinguish such dogs from wolves. This is a strange theory since most of the flock guardians are wolf-grey. We have of course lost most of the flock guarding dogs, including some distinct breed-types, through economic change and extinction of many wild predators. It is surprising that so many of the breeds have survived, for the dogs of the shepherds have been undervalued, underrated and ill-used down the centuries, despite their remarkable service, considerable intelligence and commendable faithfulness. If you take the Anatolian shepherd dog as an example, this breed has survived the dismissive Turkish attitude towards the domestic dog, the traditional Moslem contempt for all dogs, the harsh terrain and demanding climate of its native land and many millennia of contrasting cultures. The greatest threat to its future, paradoxically, lies in its Kennel Club (note: the all breed club in England) recognition which, sadly, brings with it deterioration in physique and loss of working use. This breed has survived because of its value to sensible shepherds in remote areas, rather than through the interest of the urban intelligentsia. If it is not to go the way of our own pastoral breeds, it will demand an exceptional breed council or collection of clubs and devotees more interested in sound dogs than a cabinet full of trophies. Dogs from such a distinguished heritage merit honourable custodianship in the future. There are dangers in the wording of the approved breed standard in such a breed. Phrases like 'heavy head', 'slightly pendulous black lips' and 'rather small eyes' tend to encourage faddists who prefer to pursue such breed points rather than overall sound dogs. In twenty years time you could see Anatolian shepherd dogs as loose-lipped, slobbering, shortmuzzled specimens with tiny piggy eyes, quite unlike their ancestors. Look at the bulldog's muzzle, the bullterrier's skull, the bloodhound's forehead and the chow's eyes for the evidence of such 'improvement'. Working dogs which wore spiked collars, had their ears cropped, fought wolves, gave birth to their pups in a hole in the ground and slept out of doors in the snow and chill wind deserve a better fate than becoming victim to misguided Western beauty-show breedpoint faddists. Arguments about coat colour and mis-marking, shape of ears and carriage of tail are petty relative to the need to breed strapping, soundly-constructed, correctly-moving, congenital disease-free dogs of good temperament. The Anatolian shepherd dog is a truly magnificent breed thoroughly deserving of being perpetuated in its time-honoured mould and not subject to the whim of a dominant breeder or misguided clique. It is depressing therefore to learn of problems in the breed, largely created by fanciers. Would a hard-working Turkish shepherd think colour at all important? Would he want a mastiff, developed to pull down big game by primitive hunters in charge of his flock? Would he retain sickly pups, unmanageable dogs or 'angstbeissers'?

If we have the privilege of owning a dog from one of these flock guardian breeds, we should respect its origins, revere its lineage and honour its heritage. Humble shepherds from Iberia to the Caucasus have for thousands of years bred these dogs to a high standard and we owe it to them and their splendid dogs to continue this work. We must remember the essential criteria which has lead to these dogs developing as such magnificent examples of the canine race. All the breed enthusiasts should keep in mind the plea on behalf of working dogs made by 'Ikey' Bell the famous foxhound breeder. 'Cherish us for our courage Instead of our looks; Look on us more as comrades, And less as Picture books.'" It is obvious this author's respect and admiration for our breed - and there is more information on flock guardians in this book, as well as a wealth of information about other breeds. The warnings against losing sight of the "total dog" are timely, as our breed becomes more well-known - there is no reason why a dog cannot work and show, as long as one does not pursue either to the point of exaggeration. Both enterprises should call for sound, handsome, intelligent, even tempered dogs - not caricatures. This entertaining and informative book is available from specialty dog booksellers, such as 4-M Enterprises (1800-487-9867).

Collecting Dogs

By Dr Susan Goldhor (first published in Choban Chatter) Long long ago, I spent part of 1977 and 1980 in Turkey collecting sheep guarding dogs. I had lived in Turkey so I knew the language and the countryside and the customs. What I didnt know anything about was dogs. I wasnt collecting because I wanted to own an Anatolian Shepherd. I was collecting because two colleagues at Hampshire College and I wanted to start a sheep research station, and we had decided that our first project would be testing Old World sheep guarding dogs on American flocks. Having lived in Turkey, I was a natural to do the collecting in that country. Our thought was that we would acquire likelylooking pups, since those would be easier than adults to handle and transport, and bring them back to Massachusetts to breed. It all seemed quite simple. Id travel around eastern Anatolia; bargain for the pups that struck my fancy, and bring them back. Ive always liked dogs and this project sounded like fun. Looking back, I can say that it was the most interesting project Ive ever done. But it wasnt always fun, and it sure wasnt easy. I think that it would have been impossible, if it hadnt been for my companion, guardian and native informant on every trip: Ahmet Kilic. During the time I lived in Turkey, Id been adopted into a family of antique rug dealers. The first time I wanted to travel to the East, my adoptive father assigned Ahmet, his younger brother (who was close to sixty at the time) as my duenna. Ahmet and I had made rug buying trips around eastern Anatolia together, and had discovered that we shared a love of travel, a sense of humor, and a willingness to put up with rough conditions. We traveled by bus and train, staying in cheap hotels, and acquiring huge (and extremely heavy) bundles of rugs. So when I decided to look for dogs rather than rugs, the first thing I did was ask Ahmet if he would be willing to go with me. Our first collecting trip was a learning experience, to say the least I also lost eleven pounds, since I often missed things like sleeping and eating. Its an understatement to say that I didnt really know what I was doing. I knew one thing, which was that we would find working dogs in areas where there were still wolves; i.e., the wildest, most isolated and most mountainous villages. Our project had not yet received any funding, so this was done on the cheap. We traveled by bus, which had the upside of costing almost nothing and the downside of going to towns, but not the mountain villages we needed to reach. Probably these were some of the reasons why I couldnt find any pups. However, I am nothing if not persistent, so I kept on pushing north and east, until we came to Kars, where we were up against what was then the Soviet border and could go no further. Here, by repeated interrogations of rug dealers and their pals, we met a Kurdish villager who said that there were two pups in his village which he thought might be available for purchase. We immediately hired a taxi to take him and us to his village where, while a posse of men dragged the unwilling pups out from their hiding place under a house, the village women dragged all their tapestries out in the hope that Ahmet would buy them. I will skip over the trip home except to say that we managed to get the pups (brother and sister, named Gneghis and Hatun) back to Ankara by bus, in a vegetable crate, and I air freighted them back to Massachusetts where, after 48 hours in a crate, Genghis, who I apparently had named accurately, emerged and instantly grabbed hold of an adult dog (a small one, it must be admitted) and could not be pried off until he was lassoed and hoisted into the air. At this time, Genghis had probably been weaned about a month earlier, and was still in the small fuzzy stage so that the net effect was of an adorable toy who also happened to be a crazed killer. It turned out that Genghis and Hatun were not Anatolian Shepherds. I had somehow gone past the borders of that breed and had imported into the U.S. what may have been the first Caucasian Ovtcharkas to ever enter the country. This incredibly tough breed of dogs, stretching across parts of the Soviet Union,

Iran and Afghanistan, bred to run alongside a horse all day, seem to have a built in desire to kill every other canid in the world. In fact, they were good with people, and all the students who worked with them loved them as did I. But not only could they get over a five foot fence from a standing start, they were not trustworthy left alone with sheep. The one and only time we had them out with a flock for observation, we watched with horror as a ewe tried to nose Genghis aside to get at some hay he was lying on, whereupon with no warning he reached up and bit off half her face. On my next collecting trip, I was a bit more experienced. And, we were getting to be known in the Anatolian Shepherd community (although goodness only knows why since I still had not collected any Anatolian Shepherds), as a result of which Quinn and Marilyn Harned, Anatolian Shepherd lovers from Alpine, California, had generously offered financial help with my trip in exchange for increasing the breeds gene pool in the U.S. Plus, through them I had made cont act with Natalka Czartoryska, head of the British Anatolian Shepherd Club, who was going to be collecting dogs in Turkey at the same time that I would be there. Natalka and I had corresponded and made a necessarily vague plan to meet in Ankara. Necessarily vague because of the state of the roads, travel and the fact that neither one of us would have easy access to a telephone. I did give her the rug shops number and my adoptive fathers address, and hoped her Turkish would be adequate for basic communication. It was. What follows are my recollections, a quarter century after the fact, of collecting with Natalka. We only did one short trip together, and I didnt keep my usual journal (anyone whos travelled with Natalka will understand that at the end of a d ay with her, one simply collapsed into bed and couldnt possibly stay awake long enough to make a journal entry), so apologies in advance for any vagueness or errors. But the essence of Natalka has stayed with me all this time. She was a force of nature, and I was in awe of her. It was the wettest spring anyone could remember in Turkey. We met on a street in my neighborhood in Ankara, where Natalka arrived in what I recall as a Landrover, along with two much younger men, who were driving and assisting in various ways. Probably, they had signed on for the sake of adventure and, after wrestling the Landrover through the mud of various Turkish villages, had had it with adventure for a while. ,Both they and the car were in dire need of rest and repair, and they made a non-negotiable demand that they and the car spend some time in Ankara. Natalka, who had more energy than four or five average people, was totally unexhausted and was having none of this, so she asked me if I wanted to share the cost of a taxi to go to a village she had seen, where there was an adult female she wanted. Plus, we could go to some other villages along the way, and maybe Id get lucky. So the two of us strongarmed some unlucky taxi driver into driving us into the country at the rate of $100 (U.S.) per day, which sounded exorbitant but turned out to be pathetically inadequate, given what we put the poor guy through and what the trip did to his vehicle. I did collect dogs that spring (more on that later), but my memory doesnt recall any dogs that I got while I was with Natalka. I do remember that she got her bitch; I cant imagine Natalka failing to get what she wanted. Id been told that Natalka had been a member of the Polish aristocracy before she emigrated to England, and it made sense. She had the bearing and directness of that class. She was someone I liked; someone I enjoyed spending time with (although too much time would have left me exhausted), but she was always in charge. Heres my favorite recollection of Natalka. The taxi driver had managed to get his cab through the mud to an isolated village which Natalka was determined to visit. But the cab could only get so far. Ultimately, we had to get out and squelch through thick mud for the last few hundred yards. I remember that Natalka was well equipped with sturdy British Wellingtons; lacking boots, I had ordinary shoes on and the mud kept trying to pull them off me. As we approached the village, making loud sucking noises at each step, three or four large dogs started running towards us, barking aggressively. Natalka saw me hesitate and Im sure she sensed my fear, so she gave me the following instructions. "Dont stop walking, keep your arms at your side, and fix your eyes on the middle distance." I think that I was more in awe of Natalka than I was afraid of the dogs, so I obeyed. And we were fine. Ive given the same advice to others numerous times since although, in my own defense, I have to say that since village dogs were essentially never immunized against rabies, my fears we re reasonable. But Natalka was fearless (Ive learned from her online journal that she also had been inoculated against rabies), and a great role model as a collector. I remember us riding back to Ankara triumphantly, with Natalkas big bitch in the back s eat, the taxi drivers terror (both for his skin and his upholstery) notwithstanding. Of course, we talked continuously throughout the long trip. What Natalka brought home to me was the difficulty faced by British residents who wanted to import dogs. At that time, the U.K. was officially rabies-free and the government had the irrational and cruel rule that any dog that had been abroad had to spend six months in government-approved quarantine facilities. Government-approved didnt mean that these facilities were either good or caring. It was a sensory deprivation environment for the dogs, who lacked exercise and companionship, and an agony for the owners. Natalka had lost at least one valuable dog this way, and she would have to put all the dogs she brought back into quarantine at significant expense and risk. (Plus, being Natalka, all the time she spent visiting them.) It was easy to understand why people would hire small boats to land them and their dogs illegally on some isolated coast, and I felt my luck at being able to simply put my dogs onto an airplane and have them cleared to me without their even passing through Customs (a loophole that was taken advantage of by at least one

person who imported Tibetan mastiffs in cages with specially built hollow floors holding significant quantities of drugs).

The Gentrification of Working Breeds

by John Burchard, Ph.D.

List question: I have a question: with these breeds that are very much still 'working' breeds, or 'landrace' breeds, are we doing any favors at all by collecting them, breeding and registering them apart from their working and/or land areas?

Mr Burchard: IMO that's a good and legitimate question, and my first answer would be "probably not" if by "registering" you mean "bringing them into the show culture." I would be very happy to go on with our little group of Saluqis, bringing in "new blood" as needed from tribal sources. The way things are now set up in this country, that makes registration and showing impossible. That doesn't bother me, but it does bother a number of other people who breed registered stock and would like to be able to use our blood lines for their performance and personality traits. In a good many other countries this would not be a problem, since they make provision for registering native- import stock, but I happen to live in the U.S. where that is impossible. The rub is that in the regions of origin the breed is declining in numbers and it is not clear how much longer good tribal stock will be available. Wildlife management in those countries is often guided by foreign advisers who are unsympathetic to hunting and to the traditional nomadic culture. The human populations are increasing very rapidly and pastoral nomadism is being phased out for multiple reasons ... "progress," because nomads are independent minded and politically unreliable, because of overgrazing and competition between livestock and wildlife, etc. The game *has* been severely overhunted in most of those areas and the scope for traditional hunting practices is increasingly limited, both by prohibitions and by a real shortage of game. I don't think a great decline in *quality* of the tribal stock has yet taken place but it will be more or less inevitable if traditional hunting practices are phased out entirely. The people charged with conservation of vanishing wildlife are often opposed to hunting and not interested in preserving domestic dog breeds or antiquated lifestyles. The nomads themselves, quite understandably, don't want to be left out of progress and prosperity. The Bedouin cling to their freedom, but not to the very real hardships of their traditional life. There's nothing romantic about starvation. Most of the people in our breed think it can be conserved adequately by paying careful attention to "pure breeding" (which means excluding "native" stock whose ancestry is not documented by a recognized registry) and to "correct type" as defined and maintained (supposedly) by the show ring and the written standard. Most of those people pay a certain amount of lip service to the original hunting function of the breed and cherish more or less romantic notions of how that was carried out ... supported by a certain amount of "historical" literature not unlike that surrounding the Arabian horse. Only a very small minority have actually been in the hunting field with their hounds. Those who do go into the field commonly experience a radical change in their ideas about the breed and even about points of conformation. It is, however, a sign of the times that all mention of hunting has been expunged from recent revisions of the standard. Coursing competition, Western style (i.e. coursing live game, mainly hares) is a function test of sorts, but I would be the first to agree it is not equivalent to, nor a proper substitute for, the native practices. Like the show ring it fosters a competitive attitude and the desire to have the "best" hound or the most points, etc. There is of course rivalry among native hunters but it has a very different flavor from what we encounter in American coursing competition (I cannot really speak to the British version). At any rate the hound which truly excels in this context might or might not be the same one that would stand out after five years or so of hunting in the native context. The subset of hounds exposed to such testing in the Western world is, furthermore, a tiny fraction of the total population - at a guess around one percent. There has been a recent upsurge of interest in coursing on the part of the "main stream" Saluki fancy. Along with others, I have done what I could to encourage this development, by persistently advocating function testing. I have run "coursing camps" for novices in the New Mexico desert. Actual participation is, however, still a drop in the bucket. The future of this activity is, moreover, threatened by animal rights activists who want to put an end to all hunting in the U.K. and to any use of dogs in hunting in this country. So perhaps it is totally quixotic of me to attempt to maintain our breed in a foreign country, under circumstances so different from those under which it arose and persisted for so long. I do not see any reasonable alternative to trying, however. Perhaps more than any other, this breed has persisted in very different climates, in the hands of very different groups of people, and used for the pursuit of many very different kinds of game. In spite of all the diversity which has arisen during this long and variegated history, the basic type has remained stable and recognizable. So perhaps it is not, after all, utterly unreasonable to hope it will also survive on these foreign shores.

The real best hope for survival of the authentic Saluqi would be for hunters in the native countries to band together and implement a game management program which included traditional hunting (but not Western-style shows or formal coursing competitions) as one of its objectives. The realities of most of those countries are, however, that only the government can take initiatives of that kind. The formation of private clubs or societies is actively discouraged, if not actually prohibited. Such a scheme has indeed recently been proposed to one of the most important governments concerned. They (or perhaps their Western environmental advisers) were not interested. Realistically we can expect these things to survive as "folklore" ... there are already official organizations in some Arab countries charged with preserving cultural traditions, including falconry, hunting, camel husbandry... but whether that will suffice to maintain the genetic integrity of an entire breed population, is another question altogether. I have my doubts. A footnote on terminology: "Saluqi" is a transliteration of the name by which these hounds are known wherever Arabic is spoken. The same hounds are called "Tazi" in regions of Turkish or Iranian speech, including the vast expanse of Central Asia. The Arabic name "Saluqi" has given rise to the Western names "Saluki" (used by the British for imports mainly from the Middle East) and "Sloughi" (used by the Dutch, French etc. for imports mainly from North Africa, but also from the Middle East) which in Western practice have come to denote slightly different "breeds." The Arabs make no such distinction and indeed the native hounds, in the respective regions to which these names are thought to refer, are not different enough that they could reliably be distinguished. Their Western derivatives have, predictably, become somewhat more differentiated from each other, although there is still a great deal of overlap in phenotype. Our own hounds are mainly of Saudi Arabian derivation and so wear the "Saluki" label in the West. The hounds known to Westerners as "Azawakhs" represent a rather more distinctive Saharan phenotype. They are still called "Saluqi" by Arab tribes in their area of origin. In the non-Arabic language of their principal breeders, the Touareg, now scattered and decimated in the wake of a genocidal civil war, they had a complex nomenclature expressing both the quality of the hound and the degree of confidence in the purity of its ancestry. The name "Azawakh" is derived from a geographical feature (the Wadi Azouag) of their homeland and is not used by any locals, except those instructed by Europeans, to refer to hounds. The ones bred by Europeans are very striking, but this is due at least in part to selection of particular, extreme phenotypes among the range found in the region of origin. It is to be expected that the Russians will insist on having the "Russian Tazi" (phenotypically indistinguishable from "Salukis" of the northern parts of the Middle East) recognized as a distinct Russian breed, although these hounds are not native to Russia at all, but rather to several of the former Soviet subject states in Central Asia, especially the now independent countries of Turkmenistan, Uzbekistan and Kazakhstan. The enthusiasts of these various breeds maintain fervently, of course, that each is entirely distinct and could never be mistaken for any of the others. Some of the more fanatical even claim there is no historical or genetic relationship among them, or that the presently observable geographic variation represents the mixture of originally pure breeds by ignorant natives. In the next breath they will say their breed is defined by its written standard, forgetting that all those standards are products of the 20th century and the hounds have been around much longer than that ... several thousand years according to most accounts. Whether all this fragmentation of the gene pool is desirable is, at least, open to some debate. There is merit in preserving the distinctive features of local populations, but doing so on the basis of very small samples from each one has obvious disadvantages, as also does (IMO) the application of the "pure breed" model of rigorously separated gene pools, as well as the general practice of "defining" each "breed" in terms of written standards, of questionable accuracy, which anyway are largely limited to describing the appearance of the animal. This I believe was the core of Pat's original question. The most intractable aspect of the problem, for many if not most of the old working breeds, is that the original functions and circumstances which produced and refined them are rapidly disappearing. In an increasingly overpopulated and regimented world it is becoming more and more difficult to find opportunities to test their function in ways even approximating the original. The other problems I touched on ... breed nationalisms, gene pool isolation, inadequate or biased sampling, conformation fetishes and myths, mystical belief in the value of written standards, etc. ... could all be addressed by enlightened owners and breeders, but I don't see any great eagerness, on the part of the "pure bred dog" fancy, to tackle these issues. I hope I'm wrong. John
The AKC Saluki Parent Club has voted overwhelmingly in favor of opening the studbook to "desert bred" imports. The AKC has followed up by recognizing the SPDBS (Society for the Perpetuation of Desert Bred Salukis) as a Domestic Registry. John Burchard, Ph.D. serves on the board of Directors of the SPDBS.

The Sheep of Turkey

by Catherine de la Cruz Originally published 1985 reprinted with permission of Author
"The Sheep of Turkey" was written in the spring of 1985 - Catherine was a substitute teacher at Utah State University in Logan where she was assigned to teach classes for the professor who had taught the sheep classes. "I happened to be there preparing for an international conference on "Wool On A Small Scale" to be held there that June. While preparing classes, I was overjoyed to find the old livestock books in their library and wrote several articles at that time for dog, sheep and fiber publications. Finding both the Lydecker and Mason books in the same library gave me pre- and post-world-wars statistics on sheep in the Mediterranian area, since both studied the same region." - Catherine de la Cruz

To truly understand the history of the Livestock Guarding Dog, regardless of breed, we must first understand the history of the animals they were selectively bred to guard. Throughout Asia, Europe, the mid-East, on American and Western ranges and suburban farms, the Anatolian, the Pyrenees, Maremma, Komondor, Kuvaz and Sar as well as other less familiar breeds do the job they were bred for ninethousand years to do; protect their sheep. The word 'sheep' has a very ancient origin. It is traced through the Anglo-Saxon 'scaep' or 'sceop', through the old German 'saf' and 'awi'. The old Teutonic 'avis', the Latin 'ovis' and all derived from the Sanskrit, 'avi', a modification of the root 'av', signifying 'to keep or to guard'. 'Sheep' accordingly means that animal that requires to be carefully tended or guarded in contrast to cattle, which are able to take better care of themselves. The Sanskrit origin of the name is taken as proof by some that at least some of the domesticated sheep to Europe trace their ancestry to an eastern source. Sheep are mainly an Old World group, of which the earliest evidence of domestication seems to be found in the areas of Iraq, Iran and the Taurus Mountains of Turkey. There is speculation that the genus 'Ovis' also evolved from the common ancestor of the goats and antelope, 'Rapicaprini'. Their natural migratory habits made them a fairly predictable source of food for early hunters, and patterns of seasonal migration of both humans and sheep appear in northwestern Iraq, about 10,800 BC. Evidence from middens at Tepe Ali Kosh and Tepe Sabz, in southwestern Iran, show an increase in numbers of sheep and goat bones from the earliest period (7500-67500 BC) through the pre-pottery Neolithic (6750-6000 BC). After that period, while sheep and goats remained an important part of the diet wild game such as gazelle and Onager increased in availability and actual number of sheep bones decreased. The percentage of sheep bones, which were those of immature animals (lambs), increased however - a strong argument for the presence of a domesticated flock. The wild-type coat color in sheep (with the exception of the Alaskan Bighorn) is a dark upper body, and a lighter belly, a pattern which is designed to render the animal inconspicuous as possible when standing in full sunlight. The wild-type coat is also a hair coat, instead of the fiber we know as wool, which is present in wild types primarily as an undercoat. The earliest use of sheep was as meat, but with domestication came their use as dairy animals. A clay tablet from southern Mesopotamia records a farmer's production of milk, butter and cheese, more than 4000 years ago. It is not uncommon, even today, to see sheep being milked in many less developed parts of the world. There are projects being developed in such diverse places as Europe, England, Utah and California to re-develop breeds of sheep primarily selected for there milking ability. Because of the importance of sheep as a food source, little emphasis was apparently placed on the fleece until historic times. The pelt of the sheep was probably used for covering from earliest times, just as were the pelts of ot her hunted animals. And although some experts claim that weaving was an early method of clothing construction, it is the opinion of this fiber-artist that felt was the earliest and therefore probably the earliest construct from wool. Thus, when the loom made its appearance in the Middle East around 6500 BC, the evolution of the sheep's hair coat from hair to wool had probably already taken place. Evolution Of Sheep Color The evolution from wild color (various shades of black, gray and brown) to white took place at different rates in different areas, and again, we can turn to what we know about fiber arts to explain the difference. While the natural range of color is wool lends itself to a pleasing array of neutral shades, the ability to dye the wool depends on the availability of appropriate plants for dyestuff, and a quantity of water for both dying and rinsing. The steppes of Eastern Asia and the arid plateaus of the Middle East often lacked both items. Water was scarce and what there was, was needed for drinking. Often, water that is considered drinkable for livestock is too full of minerals (particularly iron) and organic matter to be useful for good dying. So the nomadic peoples of the Middle East and Asia followed their sheep in their annual

migrations from the lowlands to the hills and back again, using the meat and milk, the hides and wool, making felt and spinning yarn, weaving rugs and garments, and giving little thought to changing the color of the wool. The beautiful blues, reds and greens seen in Old Turkistan textiles used the most available liquid with which to make the dyes; urine. But the regular use of water-soluble dyes most likely developed in the river valleys of Asia and the Middle East. And with the ability to dye wool came a demand for the color of wool most easily over-dyed; white. Thus, the valleys draining into the Mediterranean became known for their white sheep, as well as their vibrant dyed colors. In the 9 th century BC, the poet Homer praised the whiteness, thickness and quality of wool produced in Thessalia, Arcadia and Ithica. Selection Of Dog Color And what has all this to do with Livestock Guarding Dogs? It is now a well-accepted theory that the original LGD's evolved from a wild-type dog, and such the common wild-type colors of agouti, black and tan, and fawn were most common. The occasional white or spotted pup in a litter was probably singled out for saving as a pet, given the human trait of choosing and saving the unusual. (Witness the campaign to save the white tigers; a color useless in the wild.) And so a variety of colors became available in the gene pool at a fairly early stage of breeding these dogs. Columella, writing in Spain in the 1st Century AD, assumed all LGD's to be white, as were the dogs he saw. Spain, being generally well supplied with water, developed white sheep shortly after their introduction to that area, sometime prior to 4000 BC. Columella wrote, "The dog should be white like the sheep lest the shepherd, in driving off the wolf at twilight, mistake his dog for the wolf". The key words there are 'white like the sheep'. In investigating the usual color range of LGD's throughout Europe and Asia, we find them to be just about any color 'except that of the local wolf'. So it is most logical to reason that the shepherd picked his dog on factors other than color - size, stamina, thriftiness, courage, but possibly also noticed that it was easiest to introduce a new dog to the flock when it was generally 'sheep colored'. And in many parts of the world, that meant something other than white. Colors Of Mid-Eastern Sheep Lydekker, writing 'The Sheep and its Cousins' in 1912, described breeds of sheep, common in his time, now generally replaced by 'improved' breeds. "In the Arabian or Bedouin sheep, the body is covered with long, fine, soft and silky wool. In the matter of color, there is considerable variation, but as a rule, the head and neck are white and he whole body black. Self colored individuals, ranging in tint from yellowish white to black are occasionally met with". This sheep was said to range in Syria, Mesopotamia, Turkestan, Afghanistan and even northwestern India. The Colchin long-tailed sheep are kept for both their mutton and their wool. The skin of the young lambs is known in commerce as Astrakhan, used for fur purposes, generally black, rather coarse and curly and sold for the manufacture of cheap coats. These sheep were exported from Greece and Turkey in Classical times and were considered by Dr. Lydekker to be the fabled 'Golden Fleece' sought by Jason. Comparisons made between descriptions made by Lykekker (1912) of the ranges of various breeds of sheep, and those made by Mason (1967) show a rapid decline in the range of the colored breeds and a large increase in white flocks, due in part to the importation of Spanish Merinos. As remote regions became more accessible by truck and train, the demand for white wool for industrial urban and foreign markets has increased. Colors Of Turkish Breeds Of Sheep Mason describes the White Karaman as the most numerous breed in Turkey. It is a fat tailed breed, ranging about 26-30 inches at the shoulder and weighing from 95-110 pounds. He describes the boundaries of its territory thus, "In the west, a line from Bolu through Eskiseher to Kase; in the north from Bolu through Kastamonu to Erzincan; in the east from Erzincan to Lake Van in the south, it goes as far as the Mediterranean coastal plan". Then he describes the Red Karaman, known in Turkey as the Kizil Karaman, Kizil being the Turkish word for 'red', "East and south-east of Erzincan in eastern Turkey, up to the borders of the USSR and Iran, the White Karaman is replaced by the Red Karaman. It thus occupies the vilayets of Erzurum, Kars, Karakose (Agri or Bayazit) and also occurs in Mus, Bitlis and Van. Some are exported to Syria where they are called, Turkish Brown". The alternative name of Mor-Karaman is in reference to its dark purple-brown color, 'Mor' being the Turkish word for Maroon. The variety in Rize and Coruh Vilayets in the extreme northeast has a smaller body and tail. It is called Hemsin, after a mountain village in Rize. The Red Karaman is larger, with a bigger tail than the White Karaman. It merits classification as a separate breed and not merely as a color variant. Height is 26-30 inches for females (ewes) and 30-32 inches for the males (rams). Females weigh about 125 pounds and the males 155-165 pounds. (Read any good LGD standard lately? Sound familiar?) The all White Karaman is most common west of Ankara; in the Ankara and Konya Vilayets, black markings predominate. The occasional piebald animals is said to be the result of a cross with the Red Karaamn.

The Kerik of Amasya is raised in the mountainous regions of northern Turkey. The majority are white, with dark spots on the head. In the east, dark individuals occur, as a result of crossing with the Red Karaman. Most of the sheep of Turkey belong to the fat-tailed carpet wool breeds. The common breed of European Turkey (Thrace) and of northwest Anatolia is the coarse-wooled Kivircik, of which 85% are white, but 15% color indicates a still-ongoing evolution from color to white. Merinos have been used for some years to 'upgrade' the Kivirciks and a Turkish Merino is not recognized. Karakuls have only recently been imported into Central Anatolia. Colors Of Livestock Guardian Dogs So, what do the colors of sheep breeds have to do with the color of Anatolian Shepherd? Originally, that was probably the determining factor in the prevalent color in dogs. But as the demand for white wool replaced that for colored wool, the sensible Turkish shepherd was not about to replace a good line of working dogs simply on the basis of color. He knew that the fawn dog would throw white and piebald pups if he had a desire for a particular color. And so, because he had a sound economic reason for replacing the colored sheep with white, he did so. But no such reason existed for replacing the colored dog. The connection between the colors of dogs and sheep is no longer obvious, so has been overlooked by most visitors to Turkey in recent years. Thus, dog-fanciers tend to make the same mistake made by the Roman Columilla nearly two thousand years ago. They assume that what they see locally is true throughout a given region, but just as the boundaries of countries are generally artificial, ignored by wandering shepherds (unless guarded by armed soldiers), so the boundaries of 'breeds' of animals, whether sheep, dogs or cattle, are artificial and the researcher who disregards this fact risks making unwarranted generalizations. Perhaps the formulators of the Beagle standard said it best; "A good hound cannot be a bad color!" It is time we realized neither can a good working dog!

Description Of Sheep Breeds In Turkey

From Mason, "Sheep Breeds Of The Mediterranean"

Mektup Putting the record straight . . .

of

Obruk

Mektup of Obruk
Mektup was imported from a shepherding village in Turkey in 1971 as a puppy by Dr.Nicholas Flemming and Miss Natalka Czartoryska. She was bred by the shepherd Ali Ozturk from the village of Obruk, just south of the Central Anatolian Lake Tuz Golu. It is Dr Flemming's recollection that a great deal of bargaining took place between them and the shepherd to obtain the puppy they named Mektup.

Dr.Flemming and Miss.Czartoryska were on archeolical field trips to Rhodes, Crete, Cypress and Turkey. They travelled Turkey extensively between 1969 and 1974, and Dr Flemming recalls how thorough Miss Czartoryska was ith her selection process, and the length of time spent with the shepherds and dogs before bargaining for their best working dogs!

When Miss Czartoryska and Dr Flemming returned to the UK, Mektup was registered with the UK Kennel Club as an Anatolian Karabas Dog. (Karabas meaning black mask and ears, of which Mektups was perhaps one of the blackest I've seen!). Deeply pigmented

In 1975, Dr.Flemming and Miss. Czartoryska acquired a male Anatolian from Dr.Whittof-Keus, this dog was registered Anadol Yali, and in May that year, Mektup and Yali produced their first litter of 5 all fawn puppies (Aslan Temmuz, Bayan, Bir, Karina, and Saranda Pat.). Mekkie and baby Yali

Fawn puppies The next year, Mektup and Yali produced another litter of 5 all fawn puppies (Dev, Raki, Sanli, Tolgar, and Zarif).

In February 1977, Dr Flemming and Miss Czartoryska invested in taking Mektup back to Turkey to mate her to a suitable working dog. On the 13 th February 1977 Mektup was mated to a fine white working Anatolian Shepherd Dog, Akkus of Oltan.

The notes on this dog made at the time say "Outstanding top flock guard in the area. Special expedition made from village with owner into mountains to sheep station finally mated Mektup to Akkus after 5 hours of courtship!".

Mektup was then re-imported to the UK, and in quarantine, on 15th April 1977, a litter of 6 fawn puppies were born. They were registered under Dr.Flemmings Havuz affix (Bokiz, Dalga, Kaplan, Tarak, Yosma, and Zinde). Interestingly, Havuz Zinde was acquired by Miss Pauline Hosker of the Truvas kennel, and then went on to Mr & Mrs Broadhead of the Seacop kennel for breeding, records showing that Zinde whelped at least three litters. There was a further Havuz litter out of Mektup, before the first Hisar Litter was registered in 1979 after the separation of Dr Flemming and Miss Czartoryskas partnership. The first Hisar litter was the pairing of Havuz Dalga, with a Turkish import Arilan, owned by Mr John Lloyd. The mating resulted in a litter of 4 fawn puppies registered under Miss Czartoryskas Hisar affix (Ates, Karaman, Tugla, and Yavuz). The same year, Miss Czartoryska produced another litter by Mektup and Yali, this time, a litter of 6, still all fawn! (Simar, Yagma, Yakin, Yanar, Yatagan and Yesim). One of the most well known Mektup

daughters is Hisar Yarin, who was a big show winner. She went to Miss Pauline Hoskers Truvas Kennel, where she whelped at least 5 litters.

Mektup whelped a total of 8 litters between 1975 and 1982 (43 Progeny). Mektup produced dogs which were sound, long lived and adaptable, and she herself was hip-x-rayed HD clear and lived a long happy life with Natalka ruling the roost until her death in 1987 from kidney failure.

This article is compiled using my own personal experience with Mektup, whom I had the pleasure of knowing for the last 7 years of her life, along with Kennel Club Records, and communications with Dr.Flemming (Oct.2004). I hope that this information will help to put to bed the myths, rumours and fantasies about Mektup and her origins. Caroline Southen

Hisar Anatolian Shepherd Dogs (UK)

web: www.kehlibar.netfirms.com Havuz Anatolians 1975 1979 Dr Nicholas Flemming OBE Hisar Anatolians 1979 - 1998 The Late Miss Natalka Czartoryska Hisar Anatolians 1998 present Mrs Caroline Southen Dog Breeds of the World The Anatolian Shepherd Guest Writer: Mary McDaniel The actual origins of the Anatolian Shepherd Dog are unknown. He is probably descended from the Tibetan Mastiff by way of Roman war dogs brought to Turkey a few thousand years ago. As their use in war became less necessary , the dogs became pastoral guardians of flock and family, capable of repelling or killing the large wolves, jackals and even lions found throughout many parts of Turkey. A Mastiff-type dog very similar to the modern day Anatolian Shepherd may be seen at the British Museum in London, on Assyrian has reliefs dating back to 2000 B.C. The very name, Anatolian Shepherd, is a bit misleading. oban kopek, or "shepherd dog". is the name given the breed in Turkey, indicating a dog that works with the shepherd, not one that herds a flock. It is a member of the mastiff family of livestock guarding does that includes the Tibetan Mastiff, Spanish Mastiff, Komondor, Great Pyrenees, Kuvasz, Polish Tatra Sheepdog, and many others. Other names that the Anatolian has been known under include Turkish Sheepdog, Anadolu kopek, Sivas-Kangal dog, Akbash (white variety), and Karabash (fawn with black mask variety).

ASDI CH. Maranda's Baskin exhibits the classic "Akbash" look. He was bred by Mary and Randy Ewald and is owned by Betty Hayward. In addition to the "Roman war dog" theory , some people believe that the breed is partially or wholly an evolutionary product of the large Asiatic wolves that still populate the Anatolian Plateau covering most of Turkey, and into Russia, Syria. Iraq and Iran. (I personally believe that both of these were progenitors, with some influx of the sighthounds still in Turkey. This would help explain their distinct tuck up at the loin, their sensitivity to anesthesia. and incredible speed.)

Although the Anatolian Shepherd is exhibited at cog shows and obedience trials, its primary objective is as a livestock guardian dog, and he must keep his centuriesold instincts if he is to survive as a real breed, and not just as a "show machine". Shown here in the midst of his flock is Destan's Rexa, owned by Kathy Desjardins [Conn] and John Conn of Clarksville, Tennessee.

Aslan of Murted was imported from Turkey and is owned by Paul and Nancy Lane. Note the cropped ears; this is a common practice in their native land.

Great variation in size and body type can be found in Turkey. This makes sense, since many areas of Turkey have been isolated from other parts due to lack of transportation, communication lines. and cultural differences. Yet, even with the diversity. there is a basic structure and temperament that set the Anatolian Shepherd Dog apart. Those dogs found in the mountain regions tend to be large. long-coated, and of most coat colors. The dogs around central Anatolia are not usually as heavy of body since they must have great speed to run down the wolves. Colors tend to be regional, which also can be explained by an inbred gene pool and personal color preference. It is illegal to take Anatolian Shepherd Dogs (Sivas-Kangal) out of Turkey, but this law is sporadically enforced since there is no concrete description of the Sivas-Kangal Dog. (The Sivas-Kangal is said to be found only in the area of Kangal, a village in the Sivas region of Turkey. and it is supposed to be some shade of fawn, long or smooth-coated, with or without white markings, depending on who is describing the dog. In fact. the dog that is most commonly used to illustrate the dog is found on a 1963 Turkish postage stamp labeled as the "oban kopek". it is a medium-coated fawn with black mask, very little angulation, and no apparent white. The socalled Kangal promoted in the states is overly-angulated through the hocks, and is allowed to have white on the chest.) Anatolians were first brought to the United States by military personnel. The first recorded Anatolian arrived in the 1960's, and by the 1970's a club had been formed, It was during the late 1970's and early 1980's that the breed started to find its way in great numbers to ranches and farms across the United States and Canada as a means to prevent predation of flocks by coyotes, wolves. bear and other carnivores.Although the breed is exhibited at dog shows and obedience trials, its primary objective is as a livestock guardian dog, and he must keep his centuries-old instincts if he is to survive as a real breed, and not just a "show machine".

This photo, taken in Turkey in 1988, illustrates the tolerance of the breed. Note the black Anatolian in the background.

The temperament of the Anatolian Shepherd Dog is key to its ability to work. It is generally a serious dog that is devoted to its human companions. "Laid back" is a description I most often hear of my dogs He doesn't waste his energy on needless aggression or over-enthusiasm, yet he is capable of running, up to 40 miles per hour when called to do so. He is strong-willed, independent and very territorial. When used as a flock guardian, the Anatolian will find the highest viewing point and park himself there so that he can easily see the flock and anything going on around it. He is most alert at night, when most predators would strike, and will create a perimeter around his territory that he patrols and marks each day at dawn and dusk. Stray animals (or people) that intrude on his territory are given warning with his deep bark, giving them ample time to leave. If they do not do so, the dog will give chase. Surprisingly, even after the Anatolian catches an intruder, he will often force him into submission and allow him to leave, if he will. This is not a breed that goes looking for a fight..

Although most Anatolian owners stress the preservation of the working instincts of the breed, they do enjoy exhibiting in Conformation events as well. Shown are Sheri Floyd and "Duke". That very same dog (assuming socialization has taken place) will exhibit none of these behaviors when away from home turf. In fact my most protective male is my best Therapy dog, being the first Anatolian Shepherd dog to win a Canine Good Citizenship certificate. I have used him to visit nursing homes. where patients have rolled wheelchairs over his toes, put iron-lock grips on his ears, and taken all types of liberties with him. Not once did he react other than to give me a long-suffering look. With his great size and beautiful looks, he is always the center of attention at shows or on walks. He patiently allows children and adults to stroke and admire him This is the temperament that all Anatolians should have -- willing and capable of guarding their flocks, families and property when at home but approachable and calm (if not aloof) when away. Judges should always be able to handle the dog to check bite, muscle tone, etc. Anything else is not acceptable. When the Anatolian is kept as a pet, heavy socialization is required. The dog is naturally distrustful of strangers, so it is important to expose him to as much stimuli as possible. A group obedience class is the ideal place to expose the dog to other dogs, strange people, and to teach him manners.

The temperament of an Anatolian on its own territory is very different from one away from home (like at a show). At home, he is very protective and will seriously bark at anyone (it anything out of the ordinary. If your mail person comes at 2 p.m. daily, the dog will recognize this as normal, but if they come at 11 a.m. one morning, the dog will alert you to the schedule change. Strangers are warned off of your property at any time of day by a dog that will bark. stare, and go up on its toes, with hackles raised. 'This is enough to make most people think twice about entering your property. (continued below)

ARBA, ASDI, ASDCA, RBKC Ch. Shahbazin Alp Arslan C.D., P.C., C.G.C., V.C.C.X.
Few Anatolians have been shown in obedience. but this is not because of lack of intelligence. Instead, it is because most owners themselves lack the knowledge to train any dog in obedience. The Anatolian requires an enthusiastic owner, who will make obedience training fun, and will not bore his active mind with constant repetition.

The Anatolian requires an enthusiastic owner who will make obedience training fun, and will not bore his active mind with constant repetition. ARBA, ASDI, ASDCA, RBKC Ch. Shahbazin Alp Arslan C.D., P.C., C.G.C., V.C.C.X. is owned by Jennifer Floyd of Jamal, California.

The well-bred and properly socialized Anatolian is wonderful with children. Here is Sheri Floyd's Duke with her one and a half year-old niece.

The well-bred and properly socialized Anatolian is wonderful with children. In twelve years of breeding, I have not heard of a single pup of mine growing into a dog that showed any aggression towards a child. In fact, the most common statement by owners with families is that the dog has endless patience and often tries to stop sibling fights by using a very quiet and deliberate body block. Even the children of friends, or strange children, are recognized as non-threatening strangers and ignored.

Because of the great size and dominant nature of the dogs. it is advised that families prevent "sibling" play between the dog and family children. In other words, the dog must recognize the child as it master and not its littermate. Tug of war games, food stealing, and other such behaviors should be stopped. There are few health problems in the breed. This breed has evolved naturally from a population that is heavily culled. For example, in Turkey, if a bitch whelps ten puppies, only one or two are needed as replacements. The others are killed or allowed to starve. This is not very humane by American standard, but it must be recognized that the average annual income in Turkey is around $100, making the feeding of extra dogs impossible. Any dog showing a physical or mental weakness is eliminated. Unfortunately, hip dysplasia may not cause problems until the dog has already produced a litter, so it has not been eliminated from the gene pool. It is up to breeders outside of Turkey to take advantage of x-ray machines and our knowledge of genetics to eliminate these problems.

Over 300 Anatolians have been OFA evaluated with an Excellent rating of 12.1% and a dysplastic rating of 16.6%. The number of Excellent ratings has increased one percent point and the dysplastic ratings have decreased on percent in the past year [1992-1993], sending us in the right direction. but we still have a way to go. It should be noted that one breeder has consistently been producing over 39% Excellents, skewing the figures somewhat. That breeder is 20-year veteran Ruth Webb of Masallah Anatolians in Loon Lake, Washington.

The Anatolian Shepherd's athletic ability is wellsuited to obedience work. Hypothyroidism and entropianism also appear in a few lines of Anatolians. As with any breed. we have a few unethical breeders who have bred dogs with these problems, expanding the gene pool for these hereditary diseases. Ethical breeders will give a full, written, money-back or replacement guarantee for Hip Dysplasia, entropianism or hypothyroidism. Buyers are urged by Anatolian Shepherd Dogs International, Inc., to demand these guarantees from breeders in order to protect our breed. Copies of the OFA certificates for parents and grandparents of puppies should also be available to the buyer. I have made two trips to Turkey, bringing back a total of 21 dogs. Of those, two have turned out to be dysplastic, and three others did not grow up to meet our standards for breeding. These five have been neutered. Still, I am looking forward to returning, to Turkey and its remote regions to search for new bloodlines. The Turkish people are friendly, generous and extremely hospitable to strangers. They do not really view their dogs as something special in most areas, and view foreigners looking for dogs as a bit odd. Unfortunately, some entrepreneurs around Kangal have been "puppy-milling" the world-famous Sivas-Kangal dog for foreign visitors, resulting in dogs with bad bites, bad hips, and a myriad of other health problems. Few of these dogs have made their way to the States, but their influence is being felt in

parts of Europe. it is hoped that anyone importing Anatolians from Turkey will avoid these unscrupulous sellers and seek dogs from working shepherds.

Yal The Traditional Dog Food In Anatolia

by Guvener Isik (first published in Choban Chatter , Spring, 2009 Vol 19, Issue 1) It was 1990 when I visited Scotland for the first time. I stayed with my Scottish friend Jill, and her family, for a week. One morning, they served me hot porridge for breakfast.. They sprinkled salt in the porridge and I told them it tasted great and added, I did not know that the dog food could taste so good! Years later, I realized what I said and was embarrassed by my comment. It was too late to apologize for my comment, but I did not consider my comment offensive at the time it was said. I hope the family forgave me and now I wish Turks would eat porridge too. Yal is the basic dog food for the shepherd dogs in Anatolia. The basic ingredient is either flaked or broken barley; oats, wheat or it could the combination of these grains. In some regions, broken corn is also used. Barley is the most common grain used since it is cheaper and works better than the other grains. Alternatively, only bran can be used. Either one of the above-mentioned grains or bran is mixed with hot water and some salt. If the above grains are only available in flour form, then cold water is added to the flour and heated until it comes to a boil. The flour or grain must be boiled in order to be digested by the dogs. The salt adds taste to the mush and protects the teeth. It is served to the dogs when the mixture cools off enough to be eaten. Whey, milk, yogurt, various left overs, oil, tomato and/or pepper sauce can also be added to the yal. Whey works great when it is added after Yal gets cooler. Whey proteins fortify grain-based products. Whey by itself is also given to the dogs and reason is its protein structure, which is the best feed. Whey proteins include beta lactoglobulin, alpha lactalbumin, bovine serum albumin, immunoglobulins, lactoferrin, lactoperoxidase, proteose peptones. Whey may work better than other forms of protein for the Anatolian. In some regions, bread biscuits are made for the dogs as it is done in Central Asia. The dough is baked and dried for future use. I recently learned from a shepherd in Denizli, who is in his sixties, that his family used to prepare dried dog bread before they move to the highlands. Dough could also be given, but it is not well digested. Yal is the basic dog food in Central Anatolia more so than it is in the Taurus Mountain range. In the Taurus Mountains, dogs receive milk products in addition to Yal, yet Yal is still the main diet in traditional shepherding. The texture of Yal should be that of a thick soup. Yal should not be watery. It should have the consistency of melted ice cream when poured. City dwellers that want to prepare Yal must not use white bleached flour, as all the protein and the fat of the wheat are removed from the flour. In addition to the loss of nutrients in bleached flour, the shells of the whole grains contain B vitamins that are essential for protein synthesis. Whole flour must be used. If whole flour is not available, white flour should be mixed wheat bran. This mixture should be half flour and half wheat bran. When I prepare the above-described Yal, I occasionally use raw eggs and any type of left overs. I also add any vegetable that I did not eat into the yal. Dogs can eat old or spoiled food. Dogs know what is or is not edible. Adding animal protein in terms of milk and milks by products is the best of proteins. Adult dogs can live a long life with just eating basic Yal. I have seen 10-year-old dogs in the villages whose food rations consist of 95% Yal. Anatolians have been built by several factors. The Anatolian is a semi-natural dog, bred and managed with minimal human intervention. Feeding is one of the few human interventions reflecting the mindset of the owner and his overall raw material production for a living. Yal feeding is one of many factors of Anatolian conservation. As grass-fed cows build a different meat structure than corn fed ones, an Anatolian will grow differently when fed with various nutrients from different sources. Anatolians that have been raised with Yal for hundreds of years may continue eating Yal. Accordance with its past will help maintaining Anatolians original raising methods. In a fast pace society, it may not be easy to create all the traditional Anatolian raising conditions, but whatever is accomplished is a gain for the Anatolian. Every drop of ancient practice will help fill the level of quality in the Anatolian bucket. The price is so low and the benefits for the dog are great. I avoid dog food as I avoid fast food for myself. Only good quality bread and water will do for shepherd dogs. These dogs are not Nordic dogs; Anatolians have been raised on cooked grains for several centuries. These dogs are not meant to go after a hare but to defend a flock; they do not have to have animal-based protein although scientists and dog food companies may advocate so. There is a living outcome in Turkey and it works. My own dogs ration is 90 % yal; the rest is raw meaty bones and then dog food only when I am lazy. I like to feed raw meaty bones whether it is chicken, beef, or lamb as they clean the dogs teeth better than anything else does. Goat or sheep heads could also be substituted for bones. When I fed my dogs Yal in Texas, several people made fun of this practice. Once one of them said, These are dogs not horses. I did not respond to his comment since he did not know what he was talking

about. If I tried to correct him by comparing sheep or mules eating meat, he would have thought I was insane but it is the same premise for the dogs to eat grains (Yal). Dogs on livestock farms or in the Turkish villages eat fresh goat and sheep feces. The feces contain minerals and some undigested protein. This may be the main reason why these dogs can live a healthy life by mostly consuming Yal. I have observed my dog Gandolf gorging on deer manure in New Mexico even when he was not hungry. Yoruk nomads who do not produce grains but only livestock and byproducts of livestock cannot always feed their dogs Yal. This is especially true when they are on the move. Dogs scavenge on camel, horse, sheep, goat, and even human feces. I have not tried this, but it is a belief in Anatolia that dogs fed only with meat will not grow. The term that is used for this is burned. This happens when a city person acquires a dog and feeds it only meat. The scientific explanation might be protein poisoning if the meat contains no fat. An old gentleman that I know has bred Dobermans, GSDs and Anatolians and wrestling dogs for over 30 years. Currently, he only keeps shepherd dogs. According to his experience, the meat/bread ratio should be 1/3 for Anatolians and 3/1 for Dobermans and GSDs. His smallest shepherd dog was 31 a t the shoulder and his average shepherd dog is about 33 at the shoulder. He has bread and dog cake cooked for the shepherd dogs and they eat meat on special occasions. I know another man, who is a veterinarian and a GSD person, and he started breeding Kangals recently. His observation was that unlike GSD puppies, his Kangal puppies preferred barley Yal to kibbles. Last year he made a move towards barley Yal and he told me that Kangals loved Yal and it made them calmer. I can confirm this observation. Whenever I fed my dogs kibbles, I have observed more nervous activity in them. It was like feeding a five-year-old chocolate. A third person that keeps about fifteen dogs, uses rice pilaf as the main course with salt and olive oil or lard added to the mixture. He uses boiled eggs as treats and his dogs receive weekly raw bones. A fourth person, who is a veterinarian, uses mainly broken corn and corn and barley flour mix. He serves this Yal to shepherd dogs and St. Bernards. Puppies fed with Yal will grow very slowly and might not get very big, but they will have better skeletons and temperament. A slower growing dog is generally stronger and physically more resistant than a faster growing, larger dog. A shepherd dog needs strength and stamina not only size. I know modern LGD owners who advocate a high protein diet for the working shepherd dogs, but no Turkish shepherd would advocate such a diet. Anatolians must be tested for whether they are fuel-efficient or not, because they must be able to live with meager food rations. Overfeeding an Anatolian is abusing what the Anatolian inherited from its ancestors. Anatolians have been selected and evolved over time to thrive on low calorie, low protein diets. . High protein food causes an Anatolian to grow too fast and then it ends up with hip problems. Feeding Yal helps slow growth and development without negatively impacting the overall development. One of my own dogs, Gandolf, 31 at the shoulder, has been fed with Yal and his father, who is nine years old, is healthy and looks like he has at least five years to go. Another dog of mine, who lived for eight years, his main diet consisted of Yal. He did not die due to old age, but because of a dogfight. He was badly injured by two younger dogs. He was about 29 on the shoulder and he was a superb jumper. A 7 fence was not a problem for him to fly over while the other larger dogs could only watch him. I have seen village dogs as tall as 34 on the shoulder. Several breeders in Turkey expressed that dogs they collected from the villages were initially not as large as the ones they have currently. The bitches they collected used to be an average weight of 35 kg (77 lbs) and the dogs were 50 kg (111 lbs). At the present, these breeders bitches now weight over 50 kg (111 lbs) and the dogs weight over 70 kg (150 lbs). The change in weight indicates the effect of the recently introduced diet on the size of the dogs. Lack of internal parasites and an easier life are additional positives, because I know that some city breeders who have the same size dogs are fed a basic Yal diet and these dogs are free from parasites too. Additionally, the prenatal development can have an impact on the later development of the dogs. No matter how well they are fed after birth, the dogs will carry the scars of malnourishment from the embryonic stage. The parents, especially the mother, should be in perfect shape before breeding takes place for maximum growth and development of the embryos. However, maximum growth is not necessarily healthy growth. The real shepherd dogs do not eat more than once a day and it is not abnormal if they skip Yal for a day. My grandmother, who kept shepherd dogs, told me recently that they used to feed the dogs once every two days but feed the bitches every day. The reason behind this practice has nothing to do with health. It is about guarding. This practice ensures the dogs stay awake by giving them less time to relax. This practice may contradict with the need for strength, but it works. We do not have to rationalize every practice, but if we have to we can try: dogs should be able to imitate the behavior of sheep grazing. If the dogs behavior blends in with the sheeps behavior, then the dog does not have spend more energy than it needs to guard the flocks. Low energy food helps the dog scale its energy level down to the sheeps energy level. The dog should mirror the pace of the sheep and, if necessary, be able to sprint from one end of the flock to the other end for a quick patrol. This pattern of behavior is economizing energy. When the flock is an area where wolf attacks are abundant, the shepherd knows that there will be a constant

chase all night and then he feeds the dogs accordingly, because they will need the extra food. Feeding rich food when it is not justified will cause roaming or hyperactivity among the dogs. The point here is not letting the dog go hungry and suffer. Dogs must be fed well and properly. . My grandmothers dogs were fed well once they returned from herding. Her dogs always had energy reserves. An empty stomach is not equal to lack of reserves. Dogs without protein and fat reserves may end up with a weak immune system. A dog can eat un-boiled Yal all day long and it will not benefit form it. This dog will have diarrhea and it will not guard well. A well-fed dog is not a fat dog; it is lean and athletic. An Anatolian in its traditional land, working with a flock is 20-30% lighter than an average American or European Anatolian. Puppies with excess weight are prone to degenerative hip disease. Pushing puppies with rich feed in order to produce larger dogs is greedy. An Anatolian will grow well with the same quality and 30-40% less food then what a Labrador of the same weight receives daily. If the dog is kept in a small yard, that is another reason to feed it Yal, because Yal feces do not stink like dog food feces and, if it is stepped on by mistake, it breaks down and disappears if it contains 50% bran. Whereas feces composed of dog food will remain unspoiled for several months without fungi, bacteria and bugs touching it. Chickens love Yal feces. They literally line up behind the dog. One needs to taste their eggs! The word Yal is similar to the word yalamak, which means licking in Turkish. Yal eating dogs are not attack dogs. Interestingly, they are not biters. Yal may be making them peaceful and confident guardians. After all, shepherd dogs are not there to eat the lamb but to protect it. If a sheep dies for any reason, including for an illness the carcass is given to the dogs, Anatolians should not eat it right away if they are in the village. This shows the dogs reliability. I have seen this occur on various occasions in Denizli and Konya villages. The carcass is punctured after it is offered to the dog. After the blood runs out of the carcass, the dog eats the entire sheep, including the skin. Then he is full for about a week. The dog will still not refuse Yal a week later. Skin eating may be part of their guarding instincts. Anatolians does not want to attract predators to the rotting carcass. Therefore, their behavior in the pasture is different towards dead lambs.

Dog Days

by Dee Brown (first published in Choban Chatter Vol 4, No 1&2 with permission from The Washington Post, Aug 1993) JUST BEFORE WORLD WAR II, THE U.S. GOVERNMENT CONDUCTED A TOP-SECRET EXPERIMENT IN A BELTSVILLE LABORATORY TO FIND THE WORLD'S GREATEST SHEEP DOG. NOW AT LAST, THIS SHAGGY TALE CAN BE TOLD. At one time or another, it seems, most famous Americans have had a brush with Washington. Some stayed. Some moved on. For Dee Brown, author of 'Bury My Heart at Wounded Knee' and numerous other books, 15 years in the city was enough. Just out of Arkansas State Teachers College, Brown came to the capital in 1931. Washington was knee-deep in the Great Depression. He worked as an elevator operator, a custodian and a gas station attendant. He also oversaw curbside service at one of the city's first Hot Shoppes. Eventually he began to take night courses at George Washington University's library school and landed a Position as a librarian for the Food and Drug Administration, which at the time was a division of the Department of agriculture. In this excerpt from his memoirs, When the Century Was Young. - A Writer's Notebook, he recalls one of his most remarkable Washington experiences. THOSE WERE EXHILARATING TIMES in Washington during the early 1930s. President Roosevelt surrounded himself with several brilliant men and women of good intentions, as well as a few eccentrics who made life interesting. During this same period, the voters out in the states were electing congressmen several notches above the old-line politicians who had let the country slide into economic stagnation and despair. Most of these lively newcomers to the federal government made themselves available in frequent meetings large and small, so that everyone ir, Washington had a sense of participation in the various New Deal programs that we seriously believed were keeping the nation from collapsing. One enterprise that especially appealed to me was the Federal Writers' Project. If I had not been fortunate enough to receive promotions and transfers into better jobs within the Department of Agriculture library system, I would have made an earnest effort to join the Writers' Project, which eventually created a considerable body of badly needed American source materials, including those wonderful Work Projects Administration guide-books to the states. After more than half a century, these books are so esteemed that most of them are kept continuously in print. Several friends worked in the Writers' Project, so that I was often invited to their Sunday gatherings and occasional weekend jaunts and hikes into the Blue Ridge Mountains. Best remembered are Ben Botkin, the folklorist; Jack Conroy, the proletarian author and editor; Jerry Mangione, who eventually wrote the project's history; John Cheever, before he became famous; and Vardis Fisher, who occasionally came in from Idaho. I admired these people, and it was largely through knowing them that I began submitting manuscripts to the numerous 'little magazines' that were springing up to set the world to rights. A short

story I wrote that was based upon experiences at a drive-in barbeque was published in one of them and noticed by a literary agent, Mavis Macintosh. An inquiry from her as to whether I might have a novel in progress inspired me to start one immediately. I decided to try a satire on the burgeoning bureaucracy of New Deal Washington. Compared with our present governmental bureaucracy -- which is so pervasive that it would be impossible to satirize -the New Deal's was a fairly lighthearted state of confusion rather than total bedlam. The phenomenon of bumbledom was new to almost everybody, and I thought it had its amusing aspects. And so in a novel I pummeled the government in a broad way. During the months that followed, my novel and World War 11 moved simultaneously into unforeseen climaxes. JUST AS I WAS beginning to devise a plot and develop the characters, I received a promotion and was transferred to the Beltsville Research Center. My assignment was to build a library from scratch to serve several different research stations and laboratories spread across a wide expanse of Maryland countryside. This new responsibility, of course, slowed down my literary endeavors. The four years that I worked in the Beltsville library were the most interesting of the various periods I spent in federal agencies' Scientists in the biology, chemical and medicinal fields were on the verge of discoveries that would bring immense changes not only to American agriculture but in many other areas of American life. A sense of exciting discovery was evident among many of the people I worked with, and this acted as a spur for us to furnish them with the best informational service that we could. Because they expected to be kept up to date in their various endeavors, we circulated a large number of current scientific journals and newly published books. To keep these publications moving about the research center, we first tried a motorcycle. In order to keep in touch with the scientists that I was serving, I frequently joined our motorcycle driver in his reckless deliveries to the scattered laboratory buildings. Hunkered down in the sidecar with heaps of books and journals piled around and on me, I more than once thought as we sped along, What a hell of a way to run a library. But I met several fascinating researchers, some of whom were making their marks in the world of scientific agriculture. There were also frequent visitors from everywhere around the world, as well as magazine writers and photographers in search of stories. The most famous columnist who came occasionally was Eleanor Roosevelt, looking for interesting things at Beltsville to put into her syndicated column, "My Day. Mrs.Roosevelt did not always get the correct spin on the research that was revealed to her, and the Beltsville administrators, who were always eager for good publicity that might bring additional appropriations from Congress, were sometimes uneasy about her comments. For a year or so, one research project was kept off limits to Mrs. Roosevelt and to almost everyone else. I would probably have known very little about the Sheep Dog Project had I not taken a sidecar journey over there one day and won the confidence of Dr. Morton, the chief, and his animal psychologist, Dr. Katz. A few weeks later, I learned about the Turkish sheep dogs that came very near creating an international incident in the critical days just before our entry into World War II. MY FIRST awareness of these Turkish dogs came one morning when Dr. Morton swept suddenly into my office in the Beltsville library. Morton's specialty had been sheep breeding, but he had been drafted into the Dog Project by the secretary of agriculture, Henry A. Wallace. Secretary Wallace was an extraordinary man, as were most of the New Dealers. He had a large role in the development of hybrid corn, a triumph of genetics, and after he became Roosevelt's secretary of agriculture he kept up his interest in the transmission of genetic traits. Wallace liked dogs. believed them to be unusually intelligent animals, and decided to establish a project at Beltsville in which their intelligence traits could be studied through many succeeding generations. He knew that Congress would never appropriate money for so pure a scientific project as this; therefore he disguised it as research to determine what breed of dog was the most efficient sheep dog. In those days man-made fibers were in their infancy, and almost every state in the Union had numerous sheep raisers who were hard at work producing honest wool. They were all interested in good sheep dogs. Wallace named this research program the Sheep Dog Project, and as further camouflage he placed the chief sheep husbandman, Dr. Morton, in charge of it. The morning that Morton entered the Beltsville library, his face was flushed, he was short of breath, and obviously in desperate need of some specific Piece of information. When People appear in a library in such condition, librarians usually wince inwardly. Overeager seekers of information tend to follow one about, peering over one's shoulder as the search goes on. Librarians have precious few trade secrets, and some of them may inadvertently be revealed to a client who is desperate and in a hurry. I'm looking for a parasitic worm, Morton explained, Cestode, probably, I must identify it right away. The problem seemed simple until he added: Not known in this country. Probably Middle Eastern, Turkey. He was still breathing hard. Very dangerous, they say. When transmitted to humans. By one of those strokes of luck that keep reference librarians from losing their jobs, I found what Morton was looking for in a thick old volume that had been published early in the century. He peered at a drawing of a cobra-shaped worm and read the legend beneath it. I was afraid of that, he said, shaking his head. The Turks won't like it if we have to destroy one of their dogs.

I knew about the Scottish border collies and the Hungarian pulis over at the Dog Project, but Turkish dogs were something new. Whose dogs? Turks, you said?" I asked, but Morton was already in motion, his fingers thrust into the book to hold the proper page, as he disappeared through the entranceway. It was a fine sunny day, and as soon as the noon break came, I collected my sack lunch and bottle of milk from the biological chemist's refrigerator down the hall and set out for the Dog Project on the adjacent rise, In those days Beltsville was rolling meadows and trees, and if we didn't play an inning of softball during the lunch hour we usually walked somewhere to see what was happening in other areas of the search center. With appropriations received from Congress, Secretary Wallace had already built two rows of kennels, with exercise yards adjoining. and the Scottish border collies and Hungarian pulis were well into their second and third generations. As I walked past I could see that all pens were occupied, and I wondered where space could be found for another breed of dogs, At one end of the kennels was a small office building. The first door bore it sign: JUNIOR DOG KENNELMAN AND UNDER DOG KENNELMAN, (These are actual job nomenclature titles and can be found in the Civil Service Commission's list of government options for the 1930s, but would be considered sexist today.) The office of the junior dog kennelman and under dog kennelman was empty. The kennelmen were probably over in the sheep pasture testing some of the dogs. The next door was labeled DR. KATZ, He was in and was just opening up his lunch. On the wall behind him was a large handmade poster with dozens of names of dogs laid out in genealogical charts. At that time Dr. Katz had not yet changed his name, but a few months later he did. The Dog Project had a daily round of visitors from all over the country, some of them being accornpanied by Secretary Wallace. Several times each day whoever might be conducting the visitors would gleefully say to them: This is Dr. Katz, the dogs' psychologists. After suffering the inevitable repeated joke about Katz and dogs until he could no longer endure their monotony, Katz had his name legally changed. He was an energetic, enthusiastic, very jolly young man who knew every one of the dogs in his care as thoroughly as a mother knows the individualities of her children. He was especially fond of the Hungarian pulis, and could tell very amusing stories about their cleverness. They are too intellige nt, really, he would say. Like most sensitive personalities they have days of moodiness. At such times they tend to neglect their duties and permit the sheep to stray. Hungarian pulis just don't make good bureaucrats. They get bored watching dumb sheep sleep all day. I think they would like to do something creative if we would only let them. I'm working on it. I told him about Dr. Morton and the parasitic worm. What's all this about Turkish dogs? I asked. You haven't heard about the Turkish sheep dogs? he asked. No, I suppose not. We just learned about them yesterday. Secretary Wallace handled the details himself, and he's been too busy to keep us informed. Katz proceeded to fill in the background, referring occasionally to a heap of letters and cablegrams that had been sent out from Washington. As he did not seem to mind, I scanned a few of them while he talked. Some weeks before, Wallace had attended a formal White House dinner where he was seated next to the Turkish ambassador. During the dinner he happened to mention the Dog Project, explaining that one of its objectives was to determine what breed made the best sheep dog. But that has already been determined,' declared the Turk. The best sheep dog is our Turkish sheep dog. Wallace confessed his ignorance. I was not aware of the Turkish breed, he said. Perhaps that is because we consider them to be so valuable that we do not export them from Turkey, the ambassador replied. However, in the interest of science which is international, per haps I can arrange for a male and a female to be obtained for your project. That would be splendid, said Wallace politely, and then soon afterward forgot all about the conversation. During the next few weeks he was away from Washington much of the time, making speeches in the agricultural states in support of Roosevelt's embattled farm programs. He was not available, therefore, the day a mysterious cablegram was received in one of the offices of the State Department: HOLDING TWO TURKISH SHEEP DOGS ISTANBUL REQUIRE CUSTODIAN BEFORE SHIPMENT CAN BE AUTHORIZED UNITED STATES The message was signed by a Turkish port official, but the State Department people evidently believed it to be some kind of code. They bucked it around, hoping it would reach an official who might understand it, until at last somebody decided to telephone the Turkish Embassy for a clarification. After some delay, the ambassador himself explained the situation. He had personally arranged for the gift of a male and a bitch to be sent from Turkey to the Department of Agriculture's Sheep Dog Project. Animals as rare and valuable as Turkish sheep dogs, he insisted, would require a full-time attendant for so long a sea voyage. Perhaps an American naval vessel might be cruising somewhere in the vicinity of Istanbul?

No, he was informed politely, none of the U.S. Navy's ships was available at the time, and even if one had been, the State Department could scarcely order an admiral to take a pair of dogs under his command. The problem was one for the Turkish government and the Department of Agriculture's Sheep Dog Project to resolve between them. At this juncture the State Department washed its hands of the affair by sending the cablegram over to Secretary Wallace's office for action. Wallace was not there, of course, and as none of his assistants knew anything at all about the dogs, the message was put in a suspense file to await his return. About a week later another cablegram arrived in Washington from Istanbul: TURKISH SHEEP DOGS DEPARTED THIS DATE IN CUSTODY TWO SAILORS ABOARD SS OCHRIDA. BOTH IN GOOD HEALTH. When Wallace read this one during a short stopover in Washington between speeches, he apparently made no comment to anyone in his office, nor did he find time to notify the Sheep Dog Project about the forthcoming arrivals. He may have called the Turkish ambassador to thank him and perhaps comment on the health of the dogs and/or sailors, but there was no record of it. During succeeding weeks, cables arrived at Wallace's office from Italy, North Africa and Spain-wherever the steamship Ochrida happened to put into port-each one giving brief descriptions of the sheep dogs' dispositions, their appetites, weight and coat conditions. Then finally a telegram came from New York, announcing their arrival on American soil, their passage through customs, and the approximate time they would reach the Beltsville Research Center. A few hours later the Dog Project heard for the first time of the Turkish sheep dogs. Dr. Morton immediately notified the official station veterinarian, and the two men met the express train that brought the Turkish dogs into the quiet Maryland railroad stop. Tests on the male showed that he was in perfect health, as the cables had claimed, but the bitch was afflicted with that rare and dangerous cestode which Morton later identified in the library. This was as much as Dr. Katz could tell me, and he was not surprised by my informing him that Dr. Morton had left the library in a distraught condition, clutching the book on parasites in his hand. Next day I happened to meet Morton in the parking lot. "How is the Turkish bitch doing? I asked. Not good, not good, he replied. Can't the veterinarian rid her of that parasite? He shook his head. "Not positively without risking her life. But we're calling in a research man from a private laboratory--he's supposed to have something new. You know, we simply must admit that bitch to our Sheep Dog Project or we're going to cause international trouble. The Turkish ambassador is pressing us for news photographs and a big publicity release about the universality of science and the part Turkey has played in advancing knowledge by presenting us with these dogs. The Turks have gone to a lot of trouble and expense to get the dogs to us, and if we destroy the bitch they'll think we're not decent people." He sighed and shook his head again sadly. "With that war heating up again in Europe,' he added, 'everybody knows we're bound to get involved, and we'll need all the friends we can find around the world. We can't afford to anger the Turks. "What does Secretary Wallace think about the problem? He doesn't know about it. He's out in the Nebraska farm country mending political fences. I talked with his wife last night, and she says I'd better not let the veterinarian destroy that dog before Henry comes back to Washington. I could see that Morton was becoming distraught again. He looked as if he hadn't slept for two days. Perhaps you can keep the bitch in quarantine indefinitely, I suggested. 'That would be complicated, he replied solemnly. "She's pregnant. Fortunately, the Dog Project's last hope, the research scientist from out of town, saved the situation. He had a new and secret chemical formula for completely eliminating internal parasites, and after a three-way telephone conversation with Secretary Wallace on the line from Nebraska, it was decided to risk the formula on the Turkish bitch. After a few days, results were pronounced satisfactory, and the veterinarian admitted both animals to the Sheep Dog Project. It was a gala occasion, with newspaper photographers and the Turkish ambassador present for the formalities. ONE MORNING not long afterward I went over to the kennels to have my first look at the Turkish sheep dogs. I had to wait several minutes in a line of curious people outside the exercise yard. The Turks were housed in the largest of the kennels. A length of heavyweight wire fencing had been hastily fastened over the original thin wire. But even this added safeguard did not forestall a sudden jab of awe that seemed to affect each spectator when he or she first saw the dogs. They were gigantic, about the size of young colts. Their coats were dull gray and they had large bushy tails; their heads were wolflike and their feet were great heavy pads as large as dinner plates. After several days, the commotion over the arrival of the Turkish sheep dogs gradually died down , but it was revived when the bitch gave birth to 12 puppies. It was not so much the number of the litter but rather the size of offspring that aroused comment. I found Dr. Katz staring moodily at the puppies in their sunny yard, an area that had been more than adequate for the collies and pulis but was far too small for these 12 young giants, padding about on feet already as large as saucers. Theyre bigger than most full -grown dogs, I said.

And no discipline, Katz commented. Absolutely no discipline. The young Turks, were squirming about like monstrous worms, mouths open until they touched a neighboring ear or flesh, whereupon the jaws would clamp shut savagely. This litter is very late establishing a chain of dominance -- pecking order, you know. Until a chain is established, their anarchistic tendencies will keep the veterinarian busy patching up wounds." The dogs paused momentarily as if they had overheard, staring at us in an unusually hostile manner. Katz shouted a jolly profanity at them, but there was a troubled look in his eyes. What did you do with the young pulis you had in here? I asked. That's another problem, Katz said. We had to move them over to the sheep barn. These Turks are crowding us out. One might have thought that Katz and Morton, like proper government bureaucrats, would have been happy to have their project grow so rapidly. Instead, each time I saw them, they had bitter complaints to make about the Turks. The overcrowding was making all the dogs and the men who worked with them very nervous and irritable. Some weeks after the birth of the Turkish pups, Katz showed up in the library in search of all the data we could find on nutrient requirements for dogs. For an hour or more he scribbled into a notebook; then he came into my inner office to light up his pipe. 'We're in real trouble," he said. The Turks' food consumption is rising exponentially. The 12 pups are eating more than all the other dogs combined. By the end of this month we'll be completely out of rations." Can't Secretary Wallace set up an emergency fund for you? I asked. No. There's a temporary freeze on because of the military crisis. Dr. Morton persuaded the director of the center to shift some sheep funds to carry us another month, and then he sent a memo to the secretary's office suggesting that the Turks be sold as government surplus in order to save the rest of the Dog Project. But the administrative people are afraid that would offend the Turkish government. He shook his head gloomily. 'What're you going to do now?" I asked. He shrugged. "I'd hoped we might be able to borrow foodstuffs from other Beltsville projects, but it won't work out. All we can do is fend off starvation. Dr. Morton scrounged some scraps from the Meats Division. but that just whetted the Turks' appetites." He knocked out his pipe and squinted through my office door at the book stacks. 'I envy you librarians. You don't have to feed your damned books, and they stay put when you want them to." He got up and walked away, his shoulders hunched forward, hands clasped behind his back. NOT LONG AFTERWARD I chanced to meet one of the kennelmen, who told me that an epidemic of dysentery had broken out in the border collie kennels. Poor nutrition and too much crowding, he explained glumly. Dr. Katz is working 18 hours a day trying to keep his record of experiments from being washed out. The dysentery wouldn't have been so bad if it had hit the Turk pups. They seem to thrive on dysentery germs. The Turks not only survived but grew larger day by day, demanding more and more food. In the midst of this crisis, we suddenly entered World War II. Secretary Wallace was immediately drawn into the emergency food programs vital to the war effort, and neither he nor anyone else in Washington had time to consider the plight of the Sheep Dog Project. A brief note from the secretary's office informed Dr. Morton that operation of the Sheep Dog Project would thenceforth be the joint responsibility of the Beltsville Research Center's director and himself. Morton waited no time in arranging a meeting with the director. Out of stark necessity they quickly decided to declare the Turkish sheep dogs government surplus and hold a discreet public sale. Surely in the wake of Pearl Harbor, they hoped, neither the press nor the Turkish Embassy would take notice of their action. A few mimeographed announcements of the sale were run off and mailed out to a select list of sheepmen in nearby Maryland and Virginia. All of us who knew about this waited hopefully the morning of the advertised sale and were quite relieved when the first sheepmen began arriving on the main parking lot. Morton and Katz escorted them in small groups to the kennels. Out of curiosity I joined one of the groups -- five men from western Maryland -- and went along to see how the bidding was going. When we reached the 'Turks' kennel, the sheepmen stared with dismay at the monsters behind the heavy wire. It was obvious from their comments that the last thing they were willing to do was to allow one of those Turkish dogs within 10 miles of their herds. No one offered to bid, and from Dr. Katz I learned that none of the other sheepmen had made an offer. Late that afternoon I was in the director's office. I had received my draft notice from Selective Service, and he wanted my recommendations for a possible replacement for me from among the librarians in the Department of Agriculture. While we were going over the names, Dr. Morton barged in, angry and dejected. 'Not a single bid on the Turks,' he said. 'Nobody wants them.' The director was equally disappointed. Why don't you make up a press release? I suggested.

You know we can't do that! Morton shouted. The Turkish government would surely see it and take offense. He glared at me. You're getting out of it the easy way by going into the Army. Here we are stuck with 14 dogs eating up our last rations, and you're running off to the Army. I couldn't see the logic of this, but I said soothingly: Well, anyway, you've kept Turkey neutral in the war. I won't have to fight Turkish soldiers. The next week I went into the Army, and it was some months later before I returned to Washington on a brief furlough. Occasionally, through the rigors of basic training, I'd given thought to the dilemma of the Turkish sheep dogs, and one of the first telephone calls I made after I returned home was to the Dog Project. An unfamiliar voice answered. K-9 Corps. Sergeant Breen here. I asked to speak with either Katz or Morton. They 'are no longer here, the sergeant said. Sir, this is a military dog operation now. K -9 Corps. The sergeant did volunteer the information that one of the kennelmen had been held over from the civilian project. I asked to speak with him. When I heard the familiar voice of the underdog kennelman, I identified myself and asked how everything was going. Nothing like the old days, he answered. Strictly GI now. All German police dogs. We're training them for combat and guard duties." I've been wondering, I said, whatever happened to the Turkish sheep dogs. Oh, them. Not long after you left, we received an unexpected bid from a m an who lives in the Virgin Islands. He showed up one day and carried off all 14 of the Turks in a big truck. What did he want with them? I asked."All 14?' There was a momentary pause. Hell, I guess nobody thought to ask him, we were so damned glad to be rid of them. After I hung up the phone, I sat down and thought about 14 full-sized Turkish sheep dogs roaming over the verdant beauty of the Virgin Islands. And even now, all these years afterward, when I hear of or read about the Virgin Islands, I don't visualize green hills or clean sandy beaches lapped by rolling waves under azure skies. Instead I think of 14 mammoth Turkish sheep dogs and all their hungry offspring overpopulating that tropical paradise. RUNNING PARALLEL with my continual surveillance of the Sheep Dog Project were my writing efforts-particularly the satirical novel about Washington. By working late at night I managed to bring it to completion, and to my surprise the literary agent, Mavis McIntosh, placed the manuscript rather quickly with a small publisher in Philadelphia-Macrae-Smith. My editor-to-be was Edward Shenton, who was also an artist and had done illustrations for some of Marjorie Kinnan Rawlings's books about Florida. Shenton evidently liked my novel. He suggested only a few changes, and had it copyedited for the printer late in November 1941. On December 8, the day after Pearl Harbor, I received a telephone call from Shenton, a hurried and brief statement that he was coming down to Washington the next day on government business and would like to meet me in the bar of the old Willard Hotel. At the agreed hour I met him, and after a few preliminary remarks about the shock of war that had come with such suddenness upon us, he told me that his company could not publish my book. In wartime, he explained, especially when the nation appeared to be so unprepared and disorganized, any criticism of the government, no matter how mild, would be considered unpatriotic. You must have some plan for a second novel. he added. Perhaps something patriotic. I had nothing in particular in mind, but I told him that I did. Stung by the loss of my ill-starred contemporary novel, I resolved to retreat into the 19th century, where I have remained ever since.

The Kuvasz Akba Relationship

by Guvener Isik (first published in Choban Chatter, Spring, 2013 Vol 23, Issue 1) -inline footnotes can be read with mouseoverLINGUISTIC ORIGIN According to Andras Kovacs, a Hungarian veterinarian, "a high proportion of words specific to agriculture in the Hungarian language are of Chuvash/Chuvac origin." The Chuvash were Hun origin people. Based on historical and linguistic evidence and simply because of the similarity of the words "Chuvash, "Kuvasz" and "Chuvach," it may be supposed that the Kuvasz was originally "Chuvash" and, if so, bred by the Hungarians for about 2,500 years." In Kovacs article "The Kuvasz," dated 1988, he asserts that "Ku vasz" could have been pronounced as Chuvash. Kovacs and does not claim the term Kuvasz originated from the Ottoman Turkish word Kavas or precisely Kavvs, meaning soldier with arrow or bowman. Kavas means paper in Urdu language. In old Turkish Kavan meant chaser or person who makes an effort to resist or who fends off an attack, which sounds complementary to a guarding sheep dog, but not exactly.

Kavvs is Arabic actually and it means protector or defender. The root word "Ka" is used to compose several Turkish words that refer objects with volume, are hollow or full inside, and they always have a round shape. Kabuk is used for tree bark, which covers a tree. Kaynamak is used for boiling; kabarcik refers the foam on the top part of boiling water. Karpuz, the watermelon takes its name because of its round engulfing shape. Kardes for example is brother or sister produced in the same womb. A pregnant womans belly deserves to be called with a word that starts with Ka or Ga. When the skin forms a convex, bubble like shape, it is called kavlanmak. If Kavas were Turkish in origin, the "Kav" part of Kavas would have ended with "er" as it does for ask-er (soldier), yaz-ar (writer), or with "in" as in gezg-in (traveler), or din-gin (restful; peaceful). What is empty or filled up inside cannot be effective by itself. An effect should be externally generated. Protecting on the other hand requires actively partaking in an activity. Once it is understood that Kavas is an Ottoman word borrowed from Arabic, and the Huns/Kuns immigrated to Hungary at about 500 BC, it then follows that it would be impossible for the Huns to have borrowed Kavas from the Ottomans or Arabs, because at that time Islam was absent and Turkic people had not yet been linguistically and culturally dominated by Arabs. Thus, Kuvasz, as Kovacs believed must be a Chuvash origin word. KINSHIP The leading Turkish promoters of Akbas believe that Kuvasz is from the same genetic base or were even the same breed as Akbas centuries ago; moreover, Akbas is the ancestor of Kuvasz. Although these claims do not explain why Akbas is a breed in the first place, the biological kinship between Kuvasz and white Anatolian sheep dogs can be investigated further. Comparisons of different DNA samples could be one of the choices for investigation but before that, there seems to be no reason that the kinship between Hungarian and Anatolian sheepdogs would exceed the Hungarian and Anatolian Turkish kinship. Likewise, the relationship between Bulgarian Karakaan, Anatolian Yrk, and Iranian Kasgay dogs could be similar since the terms used for these dogs are Central Asian in origin and the dogs are from nations who speak Turkic languages. However, arguing that the Kuvasz is solely descended from Akbas would be not a realistic claim, just because two populations may have descended from shared ancestors does not necessarily mean they have exactly the same forebears. DISTRIBUTION The presence of white sheep dogs stretches from Spain to Anatolia and from there to Afghanistan. White dogs for the first time in history had been collected under the breed name Great Pyrenees in 1907. FCI accepted Kuvasz in 1934. Maremma was officially recognized in England in 1936. The American Kuvasz club was founded in 1966. It is possible to infer from looking at the developments in this period that Anatolian white dogs were descendents of the European white sheep dogs. However, this would require some effort as a mental exercise, because the direction of the white dog march was eastward. Additionally Magyars and Huns arrived in Hungary around 500 BC, which was prior to the Turks entering Anatolia in 1071 AD. Vikings predominated every land mass so there is no reason why the Central Asian origin Kuvasz could not be introduced to other countries via migrations in 1500 years. Yet if it were the case, long before white dogs of Anatolia were called Akbas by their American founders the dogs could have been initially called Kuvasz and later Kavas in Anatolia by the Turkish shepherds. Turks did not come across those terms and used Akkus and Akit instead for white-coated dogs.1 COLOR The main reason the Akbas is thought to be a breed is because of its color, since it is impossible not to notice the structural differences in the Akbas population in the USA. The Kuvasz does not have to be snow white like Akbas. Very pale yellow dogs are accepted as Kuvasz and historically pintos were part of the population. Additionally, the Kuvasz can have wavy hair but this trait is not approved for Akbas. The Italian Maremma, used to be seen in any color, but the related breed clubs require the dogs to be white in order to be acceptable. The original landrace Maremma did not mind exhibiting a rich diversity as a population in terms of hair types, and skeletal structure in different regions, had been converted into a breed. Before kennel ideologists from Western Europe took the Samoyeds future in their own hands, it was seen in various colors. In Anatolia, sheep dogs can come in any color, because shepherds are not in the color production business but are in the dynamic sheep guardian business. HISTORY In Turkey, there are claims that the Akbas breed created after 1983 was related to Mongol nations. All that can be said against this claim is that no statues or drawings have been recovered regarding white dogs either before or after the Mongol Altinorda government that emerged in 1300 AD. However, drawings of large Moloss looking dogs with spiked collars on stones have been found in Hittite relics. Altinorda founded in the northeast of Anatolia had lost its Mongolian characteristics after interacting with Turks and native Anatolians. Nonetheless, Ilhanlis who are a continuation of the Altinorda people are the partial progenitors of Ottomans. Continuation of one government in to the next one is

observed in Turkish history. Employing a perspective at looking at history only through the governments founded is misleading because the presence of governments are limited by a beginning and an end. For that reason, searching for Akbas, whether in the Altinorda or Ilhanli eras requires we look at history in periods with disconnections. Since Mongols, a nomadic nation, had built their economies on livestock it could be inferred that they had sheep dogs yet there are no writings or drawings about the colors of the dogs recorded in history. Mongol sheep dogs today are dark, wooly, and long coated. If the Mongol dogs were white 1500 years ago, then it somehow has to be explained. Why did they raise white dogs and why did they bring only the white ones to Anatolia? If color harmony is sought between sheep and dogs, it has to be considered that although there are black headed white sheep breeds in Mongolia, Karakul sheep and Kazak sheep breeds are dark red and black. It is necessary to proceed further and look at Tibet. Tibet is one of the most specialized regions in the world when it comes to nomadic livestock shepherding. It is curious that the European kennel men who acquired the black and tan, Tibet Mastiff from the mountains and highlands of Tibet never encountered a white Mastiff since it is widely accepted in Turkey as fact that Akbas had been brought to Anatolia from the snow covered steppes of Siberia. According to this claim, the ancestor of Akbas is the White Arctic Wolf. Consequently, it is white. Since this is the case, it must follow that the wolves of Tibet must be black and the wolves of Sivas must be yellow, but they are not. This is how another hypothesis about Akbas becomes baseless. Although we do not come across any significant presence of Akit, the white dog among Mongols and Turkmen whose main livelihood was small livestock, Roman historian Lucius Iunius Moderatus Columella who lived in 1 AD talked about sheep husbandry and sheep dogs in his work De Re Rustica. The sheep dogs he mentioned were white. Even though Mongols of Altinorda and Turkmen possibly talked about Akits, Columella wrote about them 1200 years earlier. However just because he wrote about white dogs does not mean that there were no other colored sheep dogs, because otherwise all the sheep dogs of today could have been white without exception. Columella could have been mistaken and called the pale fawn dogs whites. Pale yellow and extreme pinto dogs are called white dogs in the villages of Anatolia. The first impression or the dominant color determines the color of the dog. Dogs that are coal black, smoky, or brindle are called dark dogs. Dark colors are black and pale colors are white for the villagers. What an urbanite calls white is very different from a rural persons perception of white. Likewise, a 1st century historians white might not be milk white. The white nordic wolf is not milk white but its dominant color is white and so it is called white. The Red Wolf of America is not actually red but the density of reddish colored hair helps determine its name. SHEEP According to Kovacs, domestic sheep were present in both Europe and Turkistan in 5000 BC, which historical findings corroborate. Since sheep dogs evolved with sheep, both Kuvasz and Akbas were supposed to be in Central Europe and Turkistan at the same time around 5000 BC. In this case, they cannot be each others ancestors but relatives only. When the fact that sheep were domesticated in Anatolia in 7000 BC and in Upper Iraq in 9000 BC are considered, both Kuvaszs and Akba ss origins are revealed. TURKISTAN White colored sheep dogs have been created artificially in Western Europe for the last 100 years. No participation took place regarding this development in countries east of Anatolia, because the notion of a breed as formulated in Britain was absent in those countries. No white breed was detected and manufactured in Caucasia, Iran, Armenia and Turkmenistan regions where the Altinorda government was in control from 1300 to 1600 AD. This is because the cultures of these lands were not in the habit of race creation. Additionally, no sheep breed, based on color was created in the aforementioned countries except for Karakul and this term covers more than one color. The fact remains that white dogs were called Aggus in Turkistan. It is interesting to see the sudden appearance of color based dog breeds when one enters Anatolia after 1983! Akit is not endemic to Eskisehir in Anatolia. After the persistent breed creation work of the new breed miners, Akits also known as Akkus became Akbas. The same dog is present in Aegean, Mediterranean, South East Anatolia, Upper Iraq, and Iran. White dogs are born to fawn dogs in Sivas, which is the official country of Kangal dog. If and when orum or Siirt, two unrelated provinces in two separate regions, are found to be the places where the Akit populations are heavily concentrated then the historical side of the issue has to be restudied. Doubtlessly, a new handle for the same cup will need to be designed. As it was done when claiming the Kangal dogs origin was in Sivas, then the same approach will be required in locating a center for a new breed of dog. Additionally, imaginative, yet historically relevant explanations will be concocted, but these explanations will only muddy the water.

SIZE So far, there is no claim about whether the Kuvasz or the Akbas is larger, but it has been noted in the earlier publications that Akbas are smaller than Kangal. This was a sad attempt at creating another distinction in these two artificial breeds. In order for this to be safely asserted, a statistically significant number of fawn and white dogs must have been sampled in order for color and size based comparisons to be taken seriously. Unfortunately, although the presence of Akbas was declared in 1983, no concrete studies have been done until 2007 and any previous research was an attempt in formulating shallow and arbitrary standards. As of today, the claims are still just claims. Lets say if the number of fawn dogs used were ten times more than white ones, naturally it could have been possible and statistically meaningful to have both smaller and larger dogs in the fawn dog sample than having them in the white dog sample. I can confidently claim that there are no size differences between the white and fawn dogs in western Anatolia although there are some other structural differences. There are certainly very large dogs in western Anatolia. To illustrate this point, in 2006 Kartay called me and talked about a white dog from Ktahya that it was 93 cm (36.6 inches) high at the shoulders. We intended to go and get the dog but he had to cancel the trip for health reasons. In addition to that, a good friend of mine, Blent ok DVM and I came across a kaba white dog while hiking around the wolfram mines in Bursa in 1985. This kaba white dog was easily 90 cm at the shoulder compared to the other three dark fawn sheep dogs next to him. The accompanying dogs were about 70 cm and they were all from the same sheep flock. Although colder climate animals are larger than warmer climate animals as a rule, and this rule has been used to formulate the claim, it is not meaningful to say that all white dogs of Eskisehir are smaller than fawn dogs of Sivas because they live in a relatively warmer region than Sivas. 2 All can be said about size is that "In general Sivas dogs are larger than Eskisehir dogs. Examples generated to prove it otherwise are without foundation. At this point I will claim that in actuality Konya dogs are larger than Sivas dogs because not only are there more flocks in Konya, wrestling used to be a big deal there which perpetuated a larger size. Moreover, the Arctic Wolf is larger than all the other wolf subgroups, so if it was the actual ancestor of Akbas then Akbas would have been larger than Kangal by default. Based on the above example, notice how the two interconnected arguments have canceled each other. Just like the shepherds in other regions, the shepherds I spoke with in Ankara and Bolu in 2007 explained how the sheep dogs of older times were much larger than the modern day sheep dogs. Generally, the sheep dogs are on average about 70-75 cm at the shoulder today, and I have not seen a male dog over 80 cm in these regions since 2007. Local shepherds have suggested that thirty years ago the dogs were about 85 cm with an upper limit of 90 cm at the shoulder. The reason for this possible downsizing trend will be investigated in a separate article. 1983 In 1981, Akbash Dog Association International, Inc. (ADAI), founded. Akbash Dog Association of America Inc. (ADAA), was founded in the USA in 1983. The Kangal dog was brought up in 1983 and the following year in 1984 the Kangal club was founded. These two terms were registered as names of breeds for the first time in the world. The founder of the American Akbas club, Nelson, claimed Eskisehir was the center of origin for Akbas, a province that was only one hour away from where he lived. The breed and the name he proposed had been accepted by the so called Turkish experts. 3 The same year, in 1983, Genral ncl DVM published a book on dogs that covered Turkish sheep dogs yet it did not cover Akbas or even mentionthe Akbas dog as a breed. Although there were white dogs in the war dog breeding and training center in Bursa/Gemlik, which was under his administration, he did not talk about white dogs in his book even though Gemlik was only 148 km away from Eskisehir, and is worth mentioning when you consider the subject in more detail. Either ncl not know what he was doing or the Americans were in a hurry to pack up a new breed of dog. Thinking ncl who was an experienced veterinarian and dog aficionado was not aware of the so called Akbas center, which was located right under his foot, is taking him frivolously. How could ncl, who was aware of the Karabas in Sivas, and Karayaka in Thrace, turn a blind eye to the presence of Akbas especially when he had three white dogs in his breeding program? 4 It is because they were Akits, Yoruk dogs and their only difference was their color. Most likely ncl knew that white dogs were in reality not as colorless as they were perceived, but were only a few tones lighter then fawn dogs and for this reason the same litter of puppies with different colors did not surprise him. It is incomprehensible that the terms Karabas and Karayaka5 proposed by ncl were not welcome, yet the terms Kangal and Akbas of Nelson 6 were not only warmly welcome but also hysterically embraced by Turks. Nevertheless, when thoughtfully revisiting the issue, it will be apparent that the second group of names were only accepted because of cultural inferiority complex. Even today, various Turkish fanatic dog groups anxiously try very hard in order for their dogs to be accepted in the international arena. Sadly, this mentality mixes up convincing and being convinced, thus compromising authentic traditional values in order to receive any kind of approval from FCI. The term Akbas finds its connotation as a kind of plant or a migrating bird. Akbas just like Kangal for sheep dogs is one of the terms that Nelson found it proper to use and register. Hence Turks, with their general lack of curiosity, which must be related to the militaristic education system, adopted without wondering where the term came from originally. What is contradictory are the Turks accepting everything with a nationalist mindset and learning their first lessons from foreigners, yet not feeling dreadful about it.

After they, the followers opened their doors to the limited and skewed information of visitors; who make limitless and baseless estimations and guesses with those and then market their estimations as if they are facts. In 23 years, from 1984 to 2007, neither the Turkish government that registered Akbas as a breed, nor sheep dog fans provided any solid and deeply rooted explanations for this breed. The explanations that are now being provided are most likely forced and creative ones. Nowadays Kangal and Akbas breeding is a business that does not describe the whole but serves only in collecting the falling pieces of the main, putting them under the microscope, speculating on the observed, and after piling the explanations on top of each other, calling the synthesized whole "details that did not catch the eyes". Fake identities manufactured with fake history, will fade when the misleading layers are torn away and worn down. The color issue, like size and shape, distracts and wastes time unless it is related to functionality of the dogs. The main concern has always been the skills, courage, and performance of sheep dogs when raised by their original developers: sheep and goat herders; and it should stay that way provided the dog needs to be preserved in its original qualities. The aforementioned three qualities are subjective but completely practicable and testable. At the end of the long debates and studies on color, one finds no progress has been made towards building effective dogs. Issues outside of the three qualities only serve exhibitionists and scientists because color is an effortless subject to speculate and play with. An Anatolian becomes the oban when it guards, not when it is white or black. 20071017 ps: This article was originally written in Turkish for Turkish readers. _____________________________________ 1 It should have been an attention grabber that white-coated dogs never reached the popularity level that black-masked fawn dogs reached in modern Turkey. One would have expected that when white rams are specifically chosen as breeding males for sheep flocks, exclusively white dogs along with white rams should have been used. To clear the mind of the confused, dog wool had never been commercial! 2 Winter temperatures are important for real sheep dogs who live 24/7 and 365 days out in the open. Although the winter temperatures of Sivas are lower than they are in Eskisehir, the differences are not major and the fact is that both provinces are located in the Central Anatolian region of Anatolia. 3 If they were really experts on this field as much as Nelson, they could have found it themselves in their native country without needing Nelsons reminding them. 4 I had seen his white dogs. They were long coated and handsome; the typical kaba Yoruk dogs of Western Anatolia and Taurus Mountains. 5 ncl coined the term Karayaka and accepted Karabas as a term as it was initially used by British. 6 It is not intended to launch an assault on Mr. Nelson here. He made the introduction; initially it was received with obedience; later on with hysteria. It is every free mi nds responsibility to check the validity of arguments and the truth-value of the conclusions.

SIRTLAN

(first published in Choban Chatter)

The authentic Anatolian in traditional rural Anatolia is not about the color, dog farming, conformation, or standards but is simply about practical shepherding. Nevertheless, people in the West have been immersed in color related discussions for several decades. For this very reason it would be beneficial to clarify and thus articulate the unusual but perfectly normal and natural dark coated Anatolians. The belief that the standard color for the Anatolian being fawn is not accurate. There used to be no standard color before the sheep dogs of Turkey grabbed the attention of westerners. Golden colored dogs with black masks were advertised as the pure stock by international visitors. This attitude painted the entire canvas to fawn and labeled the other colors as deviations. General ncl, DVM used the term Karayaka first in 1983 and considered it a breed. He referred to the dark colored shepherd dogs as a variant of Karabas dogs and observed that they had wolfish heads. Brindle, dark gray, and black ASDs are technically Karayakas. Prior to General ncls book, two other Turkish books written in 1936 and 1979 about the dogs both used the term oban Kpegi for the shepherd dogs of Turkey and no other specific breed names were mentioned in those books. Currently, while some of the urban sheep dog fans in Turkey call dogs with dark stripes Sirtlans, the term Karayaka, which is coincidentally and only technically, is correct. The same term was used later on by Kartay (2000) in his Kangal book and applied to the dogs with black stripes especially from the Sivas region. However, ncl meant a different type of dog other than Sivas dogs with the term Karayaka. ncl did not mention a specific location for Karayaka dogs. He could easily have seen them even in Thrace. I have seen several brindle and black dogs in the province Bursa where his military kennels were located. Subsequently, it is possible that he observed them in Bursa.

Goat Dog. Sirtlan Father of the two pups.

Kartay noted in his observation that Karayaka is probably a brindle or black Kangal since he saw brindle puppies in the same litter and he saw no behavioral and structural differences between brindle and fawn Kangals. It is not surprising that Kartay observed no anatomical differences of fawn and brindle dogs, because his observation took place within the same region: Sivas. Had he looked at them in Denizli or Diyarbakir, he would have observed a few phenotypic differences. Had he also looked at the nearby regions where he lived he would have heard the use of the term Sirtlan. Kartay reported he had seen brindle pups in a litter from fawn parents. Although his observation does not match up with the conventional genetic rules of the canines, I also have seen brindle pups produced from "visually" fawn parents. The fawn parents of brindle pups that I have seen could have been brindles with unnoticeable stripes. Rules of canine genetics are limited to the facts that the researchers collect. These observations negate the fact that brindle is dominant to fawn. However, it is possible there are different genetic patterns for both fawn and brindle Anatolians which the biological inheritance science does not yet know. The brindle color can possibly be masked by traits, which come together in a certain order that are not expressive by themselves. I prefer to argue that brindle is "usually dominant" over fawn with exceptions under polygenetic factors in relation to threshold traits and I would not be upset to find some fawn dogs with additive traits are, in fact, dominant to brindles. I have seen brindle puppies with and without black masks within the same litter. It is possible that pups without an apparent black mask had very pale masks. I have not come across any brindle with a reversed mask yet and it may not be genetically possible because the presence of stripes is dominant over lack of mask or the stripes simply cover the reversed mask area. I had come across a vet in Antalya in 2004 when I was interviewing the Geyikli Mountain Yrks of Antalya, and he mentioned the presence of dark fawn, dirty fawn, or smoky fawn colored Karabas dogs in Afyon. According to him, those dogs were definitely a distinct local strain and their sharpness was valued by the shepherds. So the wolfish skulls of ncls Karayakas and the wolfish Yrk dogs of Afyon are possibly of the same strain.

Goat dog. Brindle with dark grey base from Cal.

Sheep dog from Cal.

No matter whose Karayakas they were, they did not capture the attention among urban shepherd dog people in Turkey because of the heavy fawn Kangal publicity. Kartay, although he used the term and talked about them initially, later gave up on the dark dogs and finally eliminated all his "Karayakas" while trying to publicize Akbas by indiscriminately collecting dogs from unrelated strains, including white pups from Kangal dogs. He also did not keep his red dogs called Kizilyaka from Sivas in the following years. He continued working with pale fawn dogs with fewer white spots in accordance to his belief and advocated "improved purity," therefore serving the public better with the politically correct color! The meaning of this problematic term can be explained by dividing it into two separate words. "Kara" usually means black in Turkish and "Yaka" is collar or side. Yaka has several meanings in Turkish and local meanings vary. Yaka is used as if it means body. Some dogs have grey chest colors but this does not qualify them as dark dogs. It looks like the term is not accurate in terms of exact meaning. Kara in Anatolians does not have to be a genetically dominant true black color as it is seen in Labradors. So far I do not know if a dominant black color exists in Anatolians, but I see no reason for its absence. Kara, not always literally black, refers dark colors in folkloric Turkic cultures. Some brindles have thick and dark stripes that make it very difficult for an untrained eye to tell the difference. Mostly, the paws and the adjacent area give the clue about the true color of the dog. Shepherds are not interested in the genetic background of the dogs. They appoint color names, as the dogs colors are perceived. The opposite of Karayaka is Akyaka, meaning white or pale colored body. Certain cultures or practices prefer certain colors to others. Sometimes the color of the flocks can be a determining factor. At other times it is the terrain that determines the color choice of the dogs. I have seen not many solid black Kangal type dogs so far. One of the few I had seen was in a village in Bala, Ankara and the others were in Diyarbakir. An active and influential Kangal person shared an old photograph taken in Erzincan where two of the three dogs were fawn; one them was black. I suppose they were all recessive agouti blacks as it is observed in black GSDs. I was told by a few

shepherds who were from Malatya province that after the firearms became more available, people started shooting dark dogs especially at nighttime mistaking them for wolves. This had an impact on their decreasing numbers, in addition to the fawn shepherd dog mania. While no Kanman group agrees on what Kangal is, fawn colors are taken as Kangals in Turkey as in the west. Subsequently, most dark colored dogs were kept out of the gene pool in the last thirty years; especially the dominant brindle color which almost became extinct in Sivas and Kayseri regions. Although currently solid black dogs are not favored in Western Turkey, I remember large black shepherd dogs of my childhood as far west as Aydin and Izmir as these regions seasonally experienced heavy Yrk migrations. I came across some Yrk type black dogs in Isparta, Antalya, Manisa, Balikesir, Bursa, Denizli, and Konya in the last five years. I have also seen black nomad dogs in the region of Karacadag Mountains in Southeast Anatolia. Brindles are still more numerous than black dogs; however, their numbers must be at the lowest point in their 6000year-old history. Black dogs, if taken as a dark color factor only, can be easily observed in the North East Anatolia among in the Anatolian Caucasians. However they show Caucasian traits and most shepherds and experienced sheep dog people are able to tell that they are not quite the same dogs of Sivas, Kayseri, and Malatya. Since agouti black and brindle dogs are observed among Yrk and Kurdish nomad dogs as well, it is not realistic calling all dark coated dogs Karayaka as a breed. The term only can be correctly used when it intends to indicate a range of colors. I must interject here that the breeds of Turkey are basically Anglo-American made classifications. Landrace animals are not breeds. While Karayaka indicates the body color, Karabas indicates the head color. Yet Karayaka sheep from the Black Sea region are generally white sheep as is the so-called Akbas, "dog with a white head," another wrongly coined term, as it has a white body along with a white head!

Black Goat Dog with siblings.

I have seen more dark colored dogs in the goatherds and some shepherds call them "goatherds- Gei Iti/Kpegi". These dogs, with narrower chests, are supposed to have better stamina than sheep dogs. Some of these dogs are agouti black and dark gray, but most of them are brindle and girik (short coat) or gaba (wooly coat). I saw a few very dark tan dogs, which some suspect they are mixed with import dogs, but since they can be seen even in remote regions and no counter argument is available to prove they are mongrels. Besides, there is no such thing as a mongrel in the landrace concept. It is nothing more than a rare color. Black and tan is seen in the Tazi and it is almost the norm for the hare flushing hunting dog of Anatolia, the Kopay. I have witnessed one black and tan pup produced by two fawn parents in a Yrk camp in Izmir. Another one was in Cal, Denizli produced by two fawn wrestling dogs. Generally, black and tan dogs are simply called black, because of the dominant color. I have no doubt there was a specific name for this color when the black and tan dogs were numerous, because black and tan brush goats with specific color distribution patterns are termed as Ger among Yrks. Apparently, the free Anatolian does not play by the arbitrary standards. As I have never heard of the term Akbas used by Turkish shepherds, I also have not heard the term Karayaka used by shepherds, which it is still merely possibly probable. Nevertheless, I suspect it is a kennel mans fabrication as usual. Shepherds of different regions use various terms for the same brindle color such as Sirtlan (hyena), Sirtlan Alasi (pinto hyena), Kaplan (tiger), apar (mixed color), Sarma (stripes wrapped around the body), and Alazli (fiery; flammable). Even a dog with a few stripes and dots is technically termed Sirtlan. All the above terms point to striped markings on the coat, which indicates the term Karayaka does not necessarily mean black stripes but the darkness of the coat color in relation to yellow and red colors. Neither the originator nor the endorser of this term mentioned the presence of the stripes that the shepherds always knew existed. A dog that is not dark coated cannot be Kara, because of the lack of a dark coat. A Sirtlan dog could technically be called Kara-yaka if the stripes are noticeable, but the reverse is not always true. Shepherds call the brindles Sirtlan, not Kara. The term Sirtlan however, whether the coat and stripes are dark or pale, red or gray, thick or thin, includes all kinds of brindles. Some Sirtlans have very few stripes or the stripes are so pale they can go

Goat Dog with Saddle

unnoticed and Sirtlan pups can appear unexpectedly. It is hard to notice pups with stripes either when the pup is very dark, when the stripes are very apart from each other, or when the stripes are thin. Sometimes Sirtlans with pale stripes on a grayish gaba coat are hard to detect and they are called Kiril whether they are gray or brindle dogs. Some Kirils are simply dark fawns and they can be called Isli" meaning smoky. In the Anatolian steppes perception matters, not the biological codes. Blue is not used for shepherd dogs in Anatolia or at least I am not aware of it. However if Yrks used it a generation ago, I would not be surprised. At present, I have a blue brindle pup. It has the color of blue volcanic soil. I call her Gkenik, meaning the Blue Pup. I call the dark brindle pup, Karaenik, meaning black pup. The terms do not have to be literally correct. The terms are used to make distinctions within the litter; I and the shepherds who saw the pups all knew the dark pup is actually Sirtlan. There is a large gaba black dog living in a village on the other side of the mountain where I live. When the subject turned to that dog, one of the shepherds said Gapgara, Kapkara, meaning jet-black, the blackest of black like coal. Pale fawn dogs or dogs with extreme white spots can easily be called Akit or Akkus-white dog, although they are not snow white. Blue was considered sacred and had been used for a sacred wolf called Gkbr by the early Turks of Middle Asia and it can also be used for a goat or a pigeon but not for a horse or sheep. For example Gk Gei - Sky-Goat, meaning a goat that receives its color from the sky, a blue goat. Urbanites see it differently and they say "grey" goat. Turks, before Islam, made a distinction between grey and blue when they used them for animals.

Light Sirtlan Sheep Dog.

fawn

base.

Wrestling

Dark dogs in a certain area could have become distinct from another relative population of fawn dogs and the longer the isolation persisted the more diverse they could have become. Therefore, Karayaka could have been a type if a concentrated population with similar structural and behavioral traits was located in a certain geographical location, but no isolated region has been reported so far. Alternatively, dog farmers may come up with a Karayaka recipe in the future as they did with Karabas, Akbas, Anatolian, and Kangal. However, as always, shepherds of Anatolia know better; they are well aware of the various strains but they do not mix the color with breed as they do not play with the genetic codes since knowing how the colors are transmitted to the next generation has nothing to do with functionality of the dog and knowing the color map of these dogs is unproductive. Nevertheless in this sense, the term Anatolian is relatively forgiving and uniting when the subject is the colors of sheep and goat dogs of Turkey. It is the urbanites who love pairing impressions with myths. After all, breed construction is preparing different dishes with the same ingredients. 20080405 Walkeringham, UK; 20120411 al, Turkey Note: I have seen six pups from a fawn bitch and a black male of which three of them were fawn in Gabalar
village of al in Denizli on May 3rd 2012. One of the black pups showed no agouti coloring visually and looked solid like its father; the other two black pups exhibited dark fawn shades. After I acquired the black male pup, I have seen an agouti pattern appear on the pup. The owner of these dogs was a goat shepherd and he liked black because it was hard to recognize a black dog in a black goat flock and he found black dogs hardier. I have to agree with him that pigmented animals are hardier which is why one can see more stray black cats in the cities compared to the villages, because being a stray city cat is harder than being a village cat in terms of germs and cats per unit area. The same is applicable to stray black dogs.