Click here for the Wikipedia article: Central_Asian_Shepherd_Dog.
I've found three different uses of the name CAS - (1) as an aboriginal breed, (2) as localized LGD mixes, and (3) as an FCI standard. These are used interchangeably in the research I read, but I'm trying to sort them out, so I can work with the research info.
(1) "Central Asians most likely originated more than four thousand years ago from natural selection in a geographical area between the Ural, Caspian Sea, Asia Minor, and the Northwest border of China."
(2) "This breed comprises numerous breed types. They differ in size, color, head types, and hair types....This breed bears a strong genetic similarity to other aboriginal breeds of Livestock Guardian dogs from that region such as Caucasian Shepherd (Nagazi), Kangal dog, and Akbash....These breed features, as well as different traditional names for the breed, give grounds for complications with breed standard."
(3) "During the era of the Soviet Union, Russian breeders created the so-called 'Central Asian Ovcharka' by mixing several ancestral breeds of Asian molossers like the Alabai of Turkmenistan, the Tobet of Kazakhstan and the Torkuz of Uzbekistan." [From: wiki/Tobet.]
Breed description: "Purebred Central Asians have unique breed characteristics. Breed-specific dog anatomy includes exclusive features, such as very noticeable extremely flexible joints, false ribs, specific head set, and very strong neck with massive dewlap. Expressive, almost human eyes, revealing inimitable intelligence, finish the portrait."
"It is a large breed of dog recognized by FCI (standard 335), as a Molossoid type dog breed of Soviet-era origin under Russian patronage. Numerous breed representatives reside in Russia, and local kennel club officials refer to Central Asians as one of the most popular dog breeds in the country, rating them as the #1 breed in the country around 2000."
About the family of Livestock Guardian Dogs...
To this day flocks are guarded in the hills of Asia, Europe and Africa* by powerful, robust dogs that are neither clumsy nor pacific. Despite the distances that separate them these breeds have much in common, and the Kuvasz is a member of this extended sheepdog family.”
From: Dr. Buzády Tibor, Dogs of Hungary, trans. Bernard Adams, Budapest, Hungary: Nóra Kiadó, 2002, p. 90.
*(and today also in North America, South America and Australia)
Click here to see the Kuvasz History Klips blog!
