Kars dog
Dog breed
From Wikipedia, the free encyclopedia
The Kars Shepherd, Turkish: Kars Çoban Köpeği, is a Turkish breed of livestock guardian dog. It is one of three breeds of flock guardian dog in Turkey, the others being the Akbash and the Kangal.[1]
| Kars Shepherd | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Origin | Turkey | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Distribution | |||||||||||||||||||||
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| Notes | registered with the Turkish Standards Institution in 2002 | ||||||||||||||||||||
| Dog (domestic dog) | |||||||||||||||||||||
It takes its name from the town of Kars in Kars Province, and is also found throughout the provinces of Ardahan, Artvin, Erzurum and Iğdır in eastern Turkey.[2][3][4]
History
The Kars Shepherd is a breed of dog found in the Turkish controlled portion of the Armenian Highlands, and is distributed widely in the provinces of Ağrı, Ardahan, Artvin, Erzurum, Iğdır, Kars and Van.[4]: 101 The first scientific description was that of David Nelson, presented at the International Symposium on Turkish Shepherd Dogs in Konya in 1996.[4]: 101 [5]
The Kars Shepherd was registered with the Turkish Standards Institution in 2002,[4]: 101 but by 2012 had not been registered with the former Ministry of Agriculture and Rural Affairs.[3] The Köpek Irkları ve Kinoloji Federasyonu lists it among the indigenous breeds that it has a duty to protect.[6]
Characteristics
In appearance, the breed closely resembles the Caucasian Shepherd Dog which is native to the Caucasasian countries over Turkey's north-eastern border.[2][3][4] It has a long, heavy double coat (short-coated examples are known) that can be found in a number of colors including black, white, grey, red, yellow and brown. They frequently have white markings on their chest, necks and forelegs; slightly smaller than livestock guardian breeds from central and western Turkey such as the Akbash and the Kangal, the Kars has a mean weight of 44.6 kilograms (98 lb) and mean height of 72.4 centimetres (28.5 in).[3]
