Karakachan dog

Since time immemorial, sheep farming has been the main livelihood of the local population on the Balkan Peninsula, and guard dogs have inevitably been used to protect the flocks from wolves and bears. The presence of many predators, as well as the harsh weather conditions in the mountainous areas of the peninsula, contributed to the formation of a relatively large, sturdy, and self-confident dog, unpretentious in terms of food and environment, and an excellent guardian of the flock entrusted to it.

The Karakachans, whose main livelihood until the middle of the 20th century was transhumant sheep farming, played a significant role in the formation and preservation of these dogs in their modern form. Their role did not go unnoticed, and in many regions of the country, people refer to these dogs as Karakachan dogs. As such, they are mentioned in our literature by writers such as Zahari Stoyanov, Yordan Yovkov, Georgi Raichev, Yordan Radichkov, and others.
In 1938, H. B. Peters wrote an article dedicated to the Karakachan dog in the German press.
The first serious studies of the breed were conducted by Dr. Todor Gaitandzhiev, who proposed the first breed standard in the late 1940s.

At the end of the 19th and beginning of the 20th centuries, the Karakachan dog was also used in the Bulgarian army as a guard dog in the border areas of our country.

After the closure of the borders between the Balkan countries and the collectivization of agriculture in Socialist Bulgaria, the need for these dogs decreased and their numbers reached a critical minimum. The periodic campaigns against rabies carried out at that time also contributed to the drastic decline in the population of Karakachan dogs. The breed was saved from complete extinction thanks to shepherds raising small herds of animals in remote high mountain areas of our country.
Targeted work on the search for and preservation of this cultural and historical treasure of Bulgaria began in the late 1980s, when the first kennel clubs for the breed were established.

The Karakachan dog and the Bulgarian shepherd dog are different breeds!!!

In 2005, the State Commission on Animal Breeds in the Republic of Bulgaria registered the Karakachan dog, also known as the shepherd dog or simply the sheepdog, as an indigenous Bulgarian breed of dog for agricultural purposes.

However, the lack of a unified and targeted policy for working with local sheepdogs in Bulgaria had already caused significant damage. Driven by different goals, fashion trends in global cynology, and, above all, the unhealthy egos of certain breeders, many hybrid specimens of Karakachan dogs were created with related and not-so-related breeds, such as the Caucasian Shepherd, St. Bernard, Central Asian Shepherd, Kangal, etc., which were subsequently reintroduced into the breeding programs of the respective breeders, leading to the formation of a large population of very large and rough sheepdogs, patriotically named the Bulgarian Shepherd Dog.

The differences between the Karakachan dog and the newly formed Bulgarian Shepherd Dog became more and more noticeable over time, and the logical conclusion was reached - in 2009, the Bulgarian Shepherd Dog was registered as a separate breed.
It is high time for everyone to accept these facts and limit the mixing of specimens from the registers of the two breeds, which leads to confusion among those who are not familiar with the processes, over the years, lovers of sheepdogs in Bulgaria.

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