History |
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Synopsis |
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Neolithic Era |
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Macedonian Era |
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Roman Era |
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Medieval Times |
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Osmanic Empire |
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1900 - Modern Times |
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The
History of the Sharplaninec
For
more details on various epochs in the history of the Sharplaninec, please
follow the corresponding links or select an era of interest in the History
menu.
The
mighty Sharplaninec is a breed of true antiquity and probably the oldest
genuine molosser in the world. Modern scientists agree today that these legendary
guarding dogs are indigenous to the territory of Macedonia and Southern Serbia,
specifically the Sar mountain range in natural southward extension into Mavrovo
and the northern Pindus mountains. Dogs of this general phenotype have
existed in the region since the
Neolithic, when first agricultural
civilizations discovered sheep farming and established lifestyles of fixed transhumance with an implicit need for big and courageous guarding dogs.
This
created a new selective regime on domesticated village dogs, yielding a fundamentally distinctive
gestalt that remained nearly unchanged in the Sharplaninec ever since. By
the time of the bronze age and explicitly during the era of Alexander the Great,
the revered sheep guarding dogs of this region have been noted for their
unsurpassed loyalty and bravery. Aristotle writes in “History of Animals”,
Book IX, 350BC, “Of the Molossian breed of dogs, such as are employed in the
chase are pretty much the same as those elsewhere; but sheep-dogs of this
breed are superior to the others in size, and in the courage with which they
face the attacks of wild animals”. Indeed, the molossers of the Balkan
peninsula quickly acquired an outstanding reputation as being such
extraordinary canines that by the time of the
Roman Empire, these massive gladiator dogs of
the amphitheaters were consistently referred to as Molossians. Ultimately,
their esteemed status further accelerated their spread throughout the known
world, where they have undoubtedly influenced many of the native dog types.
While many of those relocated dogs subsequently underwent substantial
permutations, the sheep dogs of the original mountain ranges maintained true
to the steadiness of their respective local ecosystem. Well into medieval times, the Sharplaninec
is said to have been repeatedly exposed to wolf blood. This was primarily
carried out to maintain that certain untamed core of these dogs, but also to
improve the breed's overall health. Residual manifestations of such
recurrent hybridizations with East-European wolves are for example the
unusually large teeth of Sharplaninec dogs, which set them apart from most other
dogs, as well as late maturity and periodically prolonged heat cycles in
female Shars that can last 9 to 12 months.
During
the 500 years of Ottoman oppression, the turks likely brought their own dogs
with them, which occasionally interbred with the local breeds, but more
often than not forced the villagers to keep their own working livestock
guardian dogs in strict isolation within the respective boundaries of their
Christian villages.
This
segregation along ethnic lines in turn resulted in the strict breeding
separations with dogs of varying phenotype. In the early 1900s, the ruling
Serbian army decided to recruit these ferocious sheep guardian dogs from the
Macedonian mountains and employ them as reliable guards and war dogs for the
military. Once again, these dogs were revered for their bravery and
strength. In 1931, a Slovenian cynologist and dog enthusiast named Franjo
Bulc selected several specimens from
Macedonia, which he at the time
considered to be exemplary specimens, and brought them to
Ljubljana. Originally, these
giant dogs from
Macedonia were mainly
intended to improve the diminishing numbers of the smaller Slovenian Kraski
Ovcar, as they were initially falsely considered to be of the same breed.
Together with the Krasevac, the Sharplaninec was officially registered in
1939 under the incorrect and in retrospect very misleading name “Ilirski
Ovcar” (Illyrian Sheepdog). Beginning in 1947, they were systematically bred
in professional breeding farms such as the Cattlebreeding Cooperative in
the
village of
Gari on Stogovo
mountain. After World War II, these phenomenal dogs eventually sparked the interest of the
Yugoslav Army, which even promoted them as national icons. The
renowned military kennel “Marshal Josip Broz Tito” methodically bred and utilized them as very
capable service dogs. The Sharplaninec dogs were in fact of such importance
that until 1970 it was absolutely illegal to export these dogs out of the
country. It wasn't before 1975, when the first Sharplaninec puppy was brought down from
the mountains on a donkey's back to be exported to the
United States.
In 1995,
the United Kennel Club officially recognized the Sharplaninec as a pure
breed in the United States.
In 1996,
the FCI breed standard was changed once again to include a slight name change, mainly to pay tribute to the breeds
Macedonian origin. Today the breed is rightfully known as
Macedonian-Yugoslav Shepherd dog – Sharplaninec. |
Arx 2007 |
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