Dog breed · Kurdistan
The Kurdish Mastiff, Assyrian Shepherd, or Pişder dog (Kurdish: سەگی پشدەری, romanized: Segî Pişderî) is a dog landrace native to the mountainous Kurdistan Region in Iraq, especially the Pişder region in Sulaymaniyah Governorate. This dog is often used as a livestock guardian against predators and number around a few thousand heads. They have been compared to the Kangal Dog and the Akbash.
Description: The weight of the adult dogs increases with age and can reach [dose — ask your vet]. The average is at [dose — ask your vet] reaching from [dose — ask your vet] in Sangasar to [dose — ask your vet] in Qira Diza. The average body length is about 75 cm with the back length of aged dogs reaching over 88 cm.
History: In 1892, John Paul Dudley published a medical treatise on dogs and mentioned the Kurdish Mastiff:
In Kurdistan in northern Asia Minor, and that region of Asia, there is a dog much resembling the English Mastiff, which is the constant companion and friend of the Kurd — a shepherd and watch dog partaking much of the character of his half - barbarous master, and will not well bear a change of country and associations. Nothing owned by the Kurd is valued more highly than this fierce and powerful animal, which is to a great extent treated as sacred, at least so far as the hand of a stranger is concerned. In color the Kurdish Mastiff is mainly tawny; has tail long, and head large, and his body is tall, ponderous, and well proportioned".