Two True Stories by Tetiana Polozhentseva
Updated: Sep 22
Tetiana Polozhentseva is the owner of Star Escort Kennel and has bred Caucasian Shepherd Dogs for more than 30 years.
Over the many years she has lived and worked with Caucasian Shepherd Dogs, Tetiana has collected countless stories. Some sound almost like legends, yet they are part of real life. These two stories are very different, but both reveal something important about the breed: true working ability is not always shown through constant barking, throwing itself at fences, or openly displaying aggression.
Sometimes a dog appears completely calm — until the moment it decides that there is truly something to protect.
Pasha and the Bouquet of White Roses
One of Tetiana’s graduates was Agbash Pasha Star Escort, a large white Caucasian Shepherd Dog.
He was purchased by a man from Azerbaijan on the recommendation of a friend who already owned dogs bred by Tetiana. At first, everything was quite ordinary: a few photographs arrived, short messages, and the owner was happy with the puppy.
In a week, we are going into the mountains.
After that, communication almost stopped. Pasha went with his owner into the mountains of Azerbaijan, where he lived and worked alongside a flock of sheep.
About two years passed. One day, Tetiana received a telephone call from a man she did not know. He had a noticeable accent and asked for her home address and a working telephone number for a courier. Tetiana gave him the details, although she had no idea why he needed them.
The following day, a courier arrived carrying an enormous bouquet of white roses.
Tetiana was completely puzzled. She called back the man who had asked for her address. That was when she learned the reason: Pasha had saved his owner’s life.
The white roses had been chosen deliberately — a symbolic clue pointing to the white dog who had once left Tetiana’s kennel as a puppy and was now living and working beside his owner in the mountains.
A post from May 2021 still remains, showing Pasha in the mountains beside the flock and the bouquet of white roses sent to Tetiana. The card carried words of gratitude for an excellent dog and a loyal friend.
Tetiana was never given many details about exactly how Pasha had saved his owner. But she knew the most important thing: one of the dogs she had bred had saved a human life.
“Your Dog… Bit Off an Ear”
The second story began very differently. The telephone rang. The man on the other end sounded as though he did not know whether to laugh, cry, or simply remain in shock.
Your dog… bit off an ear.
At first Tetiana did not even understand which dog he meant. Her own dogs were at home. None had escaped. Then she realised he was talking about one of the young dogs bred at Star Escort.
Everyone had considered this young Caucasian Shepherd almost ‘soft as plasticine’. He rarely barked unnecessarily and did not throw himself at people. Construction work was taking place on the property, and workers regularly came and went. The dog had become accustomed to seeing people working in that part of the grounds and generally paid little attention to them.
Gradually, everyone began to assume that perhaps he was not much of a guard dog after all.
Then, for around two weeks, no workers came. When new workers finally arrived, the owner introduced them to the dog and went to show them the tools and explain the work. Less than a minute later came a bark, then shouting.
One of the new workers had entered a part of the property where strangers had never previously gone and reached for something — perhaps a tool, a bucket, or another item. The dog reacted immediately.
For Tetiana, the important part of this story was not the bite itself. It was why the dog had previously accepted the workers calmly, and why his behaviour changed at that particular moment.
He was used to seeing people come to the construction site and work there. A stranger was not automatically an enemy. But when the man crossed a different boundary and reached for something the dog perceived as belonging to his owner, the situation changed.
Tetiana compares this with the traditional life of shepherd dogs in the Caucasus. When shepherds move a flock through villages, people are everywhere around them. The wolfhounds do not attack every unfamiliar person simply because they are a stranger. But everyone knows one simple rule: do not touch the sheep.
This is the kind of working instinct you cannot teach.
A dog can be trained to bite a protection sleeve. But in Tetiana’s view, that alone is not enough for genuine protection. A Caucasian Shepherd needs to live beside its people, observe everyday life, understand the territory, recognise normal visitors and normal situations, and learn where the real boundaries are.
Sometimes the dog everyone calls ‘soft’ simply has not yet been given a reason to show what it truly is.
Tetiana has bred Caucasian Shepherd Dogs of many colours over the years. When the subject of white Caucasians came up, she expressed it simply:
White is only a different coat.
Underneath that coat is the same Caucasian Shepherd Dog — independent, observant, deeply attached to what it considers its own, and carrying the instinct to protect what has been entrusted to it.
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