Šarplaninac

The Šarplaninac, or Sharr dog, is a livestock guardian breed named for the Šar Mountains (Šar Planina) of the Balkans, where it is mainly found and is thought to have originated. Its traditional work is guarding sheep or cattle.

History

How the breed began is not known. It belongs to the old system of seasonal herding in which livestock was moved twice a year, up to the high mountain pastures for the summer and down to the warmer plains for the winter. In the southern Balkans very large numbers of sheep traveled this way, with herders and dogs alongside. In Ottoman times dogs of this type spent the summer around the Šar Mountains and the winter in Thessaly, where they were called Greek Shepherd Dogs.

The Fédération Cynologique Internationale recognized the breed in 1939 as a Yugoslav breed under the name Ilirski Ovčar, or Illyrian Shepherd Dog. In 1957, at the request of the Yugoslav kennel federation, the official name became Jugoslovenski Ovčarski Pas – Šarplaninac, or Yugoslavian Shepherd Dog – Sharplanina. The Karst Shepherd Dog, once treated as a sub-type, was made a separate breed in 1968.

The wars that came with the breakup of Yugoslavia in the 1990s cut the breed’s numbers sharply. Afterward the FCI named North Macedonia and Serbia as its countries of origin. Besides the Šar range, the dog is found around the Jablanica, Korab and Pelister mountains. It appears on North Macedonia’s one-denar coin.

The Šarplaninac is one of 13 breeds banned in Denmark. The list is controversial, and has been criticized by dog owners and several political parties, because eight of the breeds on it, this one included, have no recorded incidents.

Appearance

This is a large, strongly built dog. Males weigh about 35 to 45 kg and females about 5 kg less. Average height at the withers is 62 cm for males and 58 cm for females. The coat is double, with long, flat, coarse guard hair over a thick, fine undercoat. Any solid color without white markings is accepted, and iron gray or dark gray is preferred.

Care and health

A Šarplaninac can be expected to live for 11 to 13 years.

Facts on this page were checked against Wikipedia and may have changed since.