Dog breed · Greece
The Karakachan dog is a breed that originated from Bulgaria. It is related to the livestock guardian dogs of the surrounding countries: Romania to the north, North Macedonia and Serbia to the west, and Greece, and Turkey to the south. The dog is named after the Karakachans, Greek nomadic shepherds. Due to their conservative stock-breeding traditions, they have preserved some of the oldest breeds of domestic animals in Europe: the Karakachan sheep, Karakachan horse and the Karakachan dog.
This dog was used as a livestock guardian prized for its intelligence and fearless nature. It is known as the "wolf killer". The Karakachan dog was also later used in Bulgaria as a border army watchdog. The breed was almost extinguished, and was only preserved through the fierce protection and dedication of the Bulgarian shepherds in the mountain regions. Nowadays it is used primarily as a livestock guardian dog and property guard dog. The most numerous populations of working purebred livestock guarding Karakachan dogs are found in Bulgaria and the United States. The Karakachan was officially recognised as a Bulgarian native breed in 2005. They are part of the origin of the Bulgarian Shepherd, but should not be confused as the same breed.
History: The Karakachan dog is a typical livestock guardian dog, created for guarding its owner's flock and property; it does not hesitate to fight wolves or bears to defend its owner and his family in case of danger. Its ancestors started forming as early as the third millennium BC. The Karakachan dog is a descendant of the dogs of the Thracians, renowned as stock-breeders. The dog is named after the Karakachans. Due to their conservative stock-breeding traditions, they managed to preserve some of the oldest breeds of domestic animals in Europe – the Karakachan sheep, the Karakachan horse, and, of course, the Karakachan dog. It is with this name that the Karakachan dog appears in the works of some of the classics of Bulgarian literature, namely Yordan Yovkov, Georgi Raitchev and Yordan Radichkov. In 1938 H. B. Peters wrote about it in the German cynological magazine, "Zeitschrift für Hundeforschung". The first researcher of the breed was Todor Gajtandjiev, who proposed the standardization of the breed in the 1970s.
