History of the Caucasian Shepherd Dog – Part 6: The Dogs of the Caucasus

When we speak today about the pastoral dogs of the Caucasus, we often hear different names.

In Armenia, they are called Gampr. In Georgia – Nagazi. In different regions of the North Caucasus, other local names can also be found.

This naturally raises a question: Have different local types of dogs always existed, or did this division appear later?

The answer is not so simple.

When we look through the historical accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries, we find something curious.

Travellers and researchers such as Johann Anton Güldenstädt, Peter Simon Pallas, Friedrich Parrot, Robert Ker Porter, Arnold Zisserman and Gustav Radde described large pastoral dogs in different parts of the Caucasus.

They all spoke about their strength, courage and ability to protect flocks from wolves and, in some regions, even from bears.

But none of them wrote that one breed lived in one region and an entirely different breed in the neighbouring one.

To these observers, they were first and foremost the dogs of the shepherds.

And that is hardly surprising.

At that time, people in the mountains were not concerned with breed standards, dog shows or official pedigrees.

Only one thing mattered to them – that the dog did its job.

And that job was the same everywhere. To guard the flock. To protect people. To survive.

And yet the Caucasus has never been uniform.

The Armenian Highlands, the humid mountains of western Georgia, the harsh slopes of Dagestan, the high passes of Chechnya and Ingushetia, and the plains and steppes of Azerbaijan are very different worlds.

Different climate. Different terrain. Different routes along which shepherds moved their flocks. And different dangers.

The way of life of both people and animals adapted to these conditions. For this reason, modern researchers suggest that over time local dog populations may have developed, adapted to the environments in which they lived and worked.

It is a logical explanation.

But one important clarification must be made.

In the known historical accounts from the 18th and 19th centuries, we do not find clear and detailed descriptions of separate regional types of Caucasian pastoral dogs defined by specific size, build, colour or coat length.

Such distinctions begin to appear much later – in ethnographic studies, cynological works and descriptions from the 20th century.

This does not mean that local differences did not exist.

It only means that the early observers did not describe them in enough detail for us to reconstruct them with certainty today.

History shows us what the travellers saw. Geography helps us understand what may have changed from one region to another. And modern cynology tries to organise and explain those differences.

But there must remain a clear boundary between the historical document and later interpretation.

One thing, however, is beyond doubt.

Whether they lived in Armenia, Georgia, Dagestan, Chechnya, Ingushetia or Azerbaijan, these dogs performed the same mission.

To be the last barrier between the flock and the predator. To guard while the shepherd slept. To make decisions when no human was nearby. To remain with the flock even when danger came out of the darkness.

It was this common task that shaped the qualities we still associate with the Caucasian Shepherd Dog today – independence, courage, endurance and a powerful protective instinct.

Before they were divided by national names, standards and cynological disputes, they were simply the dogs of the Caucasus.

Different because of the places in which they lived. But united by the same work.