My view on the Caucasian shepherd dog

[Southern by choice]

Thank you very much everyone, I'm glad you all liked my description of this breed.
Straw Hat Kikos, you are too kind. I don't know if I should contact elevan because I don't want people to think I'm bragging with my knowledge somehow.
Plus there is a lot of bad blood between CO breeders in U.S.
I mean I don't have a problem with any of them, but just hearing about their arguments makes me want to stay off the radar as much as I can lol

Grazer I really think it would be great for you to contact elevan. IMO you IN NO WAY sound like you are bragging. For a breed that very few have even heard of let alone seen, I think you have given us some wonderful information about this very rare breed in the US.
Breeders of any breed can be ... well, "catty" it seems.

 

[Straw Hat Kikos]

Straw Hat Kikos, you are too kind. I don't know if I should contact elevan because I don't want people to think I'm bragging with my knowledge somehow.Plus there is a lot of bad blood between CO breeders in U.S.
I mean I don't have a problem with any of them, but just hearing about their arguments makes me want to stay off the radar as much as I can lol

Well you did a great job and put alot of thought into it. I think that you should also put it into a page that way people can go right to it. Like on here it can get buried and hard to find and everyone has their comments on it. Put it in a page and it would be great!

And you are not bragging at all. And I agree with Southern. I had never heard of the breed and knew nothing about it. You really should.

And a page is real easy. Just copy and paste that stuff in it.

 

[CocoNUT]

Grazer - the first photo labeled Gurhan is my favorite...similar coloring to Gus but more fluffy!

I showed your photos to my husband and all he could say was "woa...those are some BIG dogs!"

I was thinking about the ear cropping and tail docking being illegal in EU countries...does that mean that dobberman pinchers are 'natural'? I've seen an unaltered dobie once and that was quite unusual to me! I'm thinking of all the dog breeds that have docked tails or cropped ears and wow...that's kinda weird as the "look" is so part of recognizing those breeds. I personally think the cropped CO ears make them look even MORE imposing...

 

[boothcreek]

@ boothcreek, what a funny and interesting story! Everything that you wrote sounds so familiar to me.
I've never owned a SRO and I don't know just how closely SRO and CO are related (some say CO's and Komondor's were used to "perfect" the breed).
But I've met a couple and from what I hear CO's and SRO's share many similarities.
Maybe if you still have pictures of your old SRO's you can post it on here

I will have to see if i can find a picture of Barinya somewhere, I know we have no digital ones, gotta look thru our albums. I think the SRO are a little less attached to people(they are geared more towards being left alone in the mountains with livestock and no people) than the COs. But all in all any of the ovtscharkas are very independant, stubborn but devoted intelligent guard dogs. You do not train them, if they like you enough they honor you by doing as you ask.
Not sure if its the same with the CO but with the SRO being spoken to harshly never gets you anywhere, I think it goes a bit with being less dependant on people with the SRO. I know ours did anything we asked as long as we did not get a harsh tone about it.

 

[Grazer]

@ boothcreek, what a funny and interesting story! Everything that you wrote sounds so familiar to me.
I've never owned a SRO and I don't know just how closely SRO and CO are related (some say CO's and Komondor's were used to "perfect" the breed).
But I've met a couple and from what I hear CO's and SRO's share many similarities.
Maybe if you still have pictures of your old SRO's you can post it on here

I will have to see if i can find a picture of Barinya somewhere, I know we have no digital ones, gotta look thru our albums. I think the SRO are a little less attached to people(they are geared more towards being left alone in the mountains with livestock and no people) than the COs. But all in all any of the ovtscharkas are very independant, stubborn but devoted intelligent guard dogs. You do not train them, if they like you enough they honor you by doing as you ask.
Not sure if its the same with the CO but with the SRO being spoken to harshly never gets you anywhere, I think it goes a bit with being less dependant on people with the SRO. I know ours did anything we asked as long as we did not get a harsh tone about it.

I think you are right, I would say the CO's are overall more inclined to work with their people.
Probably because the breed was selected in such large numbers for military purposes at one point (and to this day there are still many CO's that guard prisons and factories in Russia).
The CO's are trainable to a degree, but if they are not in the mood or don't see how you asking them to sit/lay down etc will benefit them, they will not follow your command.
But above all having a good bond with your dog(s) really matters the most in LGD breeds. The more they like you, the better results you'll get.

Yes with CO's as long as you are not screaming/yelling at them, they'll listen. If their owner would tell them with a firm tone to leave something or stay back for instance, they respond quite well.
Unless there is an intruder on their property; then they take matters into their own paws lol and act completely independent of their owner.

@ Straw Hat Kikos, Southern....you two are absolutely right. I'll message elevan then.

@ Yes and the face of that female is so similar to Gus's too.
It took me a while to get used to seeing Doberman's, Boxers, Great Dane's, Rottweilers etc au naturel lol
They just look so different then.
The CO's definitely look better with cropped ears. And it seems a lot of CO's that are left with natural ears at some point develop an ear infection.
Far more often than other LGD breeds from what I hear.
Ours had an ear infection when he was 6 months old, but thankfully hasn't had one since then.
A possible explanation for that could be the fact that they have had their ears cropped for centuries, which then resulted in CO's developing lots of hair around their cropped ears.
But then when their ears are left uncropped, their floppy ears prevent the air access to accumulated moisture.
That's at least the theory our vet came up with at the time.
As long as the owners of CO's with natural ears regularly check and clean their ears, their dogs should be fine.

 

[ylevitin]

Grazer - the first photo labeled Gurhan...

"Gurhan" is a name and a Copyright of a photographer, and not identification of the dog.
These pictures are from May 1, 2012 annual national CO specialty show, held in Moscow.

 

[Grazer]

That is true Yelenna, I already explained that to CocoNUT in one of my previous messages here:

I agree they are just stunning. There are two labeled Gurhan (it's the name of the person who took the picture), which one is your favorite..the first one or the third one?

The first picture with Gurhan stamp on it is indeed from the 2012 annual CO specialty show.
The second one (the one of Sherpskij Vlastelin) is actually from the 2011 annual show.

I'm just glad people are so nice to take the time to post all the pictures & video's from that annual CO specialty show on Russian CO forums. So people like me who love the breed but live so far away, still get to see something.

 

[babsbag]

My LGD that is due to have pups this week is 1/4 Ovcharka. Her Dad weighs in at over 150 lbs. She is much smaller, probably about 75 and looks like an Anatolian. Last year she had 2 pups that were black and white and I wondered where that came from...now I know.

A friend of mine has one of her pups and he weighs over 100 lbs and barely a year old.

Thanks for sharing that great information about a breed that most people have never heard of.

 

[Grazer]

My LGD that is due to have pups this week is 1/4 Ovcharka. Her Dad weighs in at over 150 lbs. She is much smaller, probably about 75 and looks like an Anatolian. Last year she had 2 pups that were black and white and I wondered where that came from...now I know.

A friend of mine has one of her pups and he weighs over 100 lbs and barely a year old.

Thanks for sharing that great information about a breed that most people have never heard of.

Thank you
Your dogs are really good looking and from what I read in your topic they have very good temperaments too; those pups are going to make their future owners very happy
Do you know if your female is 1/4 Caucasian Ovcharka (Ovcharka is a Russian word for shepherd dog) or a Central Asian Ovcharka (closely related to the Caucasian shepherds but they are a separate breed)?

 

[babsbag]

I don't know which Ovcharka but you now have me curious. I will have to ask the owner, but she may not know either.

Thanks for the compliments on my dogs, I never knew how much they would fill a space in my barn or my heart. I debated long and hard, but I am glad we did get them. (not sure the neighbors agree)

We have really good fences, thanks to DH, but it just makes me more comfortable having them on guard.