Newsletter of the National Club of Aziat - Shepherd's Dog of Central Asia Page 1 vol.1, #1, 2009

Address from President of ANCA, American National Club of Aziat - Central Asian Shepherd Dog

     Dear friends, Club members, and all dog fanciers!

It is a privilege to address all of you as the elected president for the AmericanNational Club of Central Asian Shepherd Dog. Being born in Tadjikistan, I knowand own this dogs for all my life, and I will be glad to share my knowledge andlove with you. I thank you for the trust that you have placed in me and all theofficers of our Club. We all pledge to do our best in the task that we all formedthis club for, and that is to provide the leadership and guidance in developing ourbreed in the USA, to ensure the highest standards of breeding and preserve thebest qualities of Central Asian Shepherd Dogs .

Our responsibility is:

to make sure that the Club provides the positive, supportive environment forour members and their dogs ; to help our members participate in and benefit from the Club activities,educational programms, shows, forums; to ensure that the Club actively promotes the breed and leads it to all-americanrecognition of it's unmatched qualities.

We all look forward to the bright future of our ancient breed, and witheveryone’s co-operation and commitment I am sure we will help it to becometrue.

Latif Latifi,President of ANCA

READIN THISISSUE:

___________________ANCA NEWS

P.1 - Address fromPresident of ANCA

___________________ALL ABOUT AZIAT

P. 2 - Asian ShepherdDogs

(Victoria Evans)

P. 3 - The History of Mistakes

(Eugene Zelenyk)

P. 4-5 - From the Land of Aziat

(Expeditions toTadjikistan)

___________________YOUR DOGS

ANDYOUR RIGHTS

P. 6-7 - An Obituary For Words

(Cindy Cooke)

___________________For more information see

National Breed Clubon the site of

ANCA

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Page 2 vol.1, #1, 2009 Newsletter of the National Club of Aziat - Shepherd's Dog of Central Asia

"The first thing youneed in training a

dog is to be smarterthan the dog"

Charles Spearman

___________________For more information see

All About Aziat on the site of

ANCA

Asian Shepherd Dogsby Victoria Spearman Evans

Max-O-Magic Oaks Kennels,Director of ANCA

Eons before recorded history, in what was then the ancient Persian Empire and its fringe countries, abreed group of dogs developed. It is a proven fact they existed over 4000 years ago, and many fanciers ofthe breed suspect much longer. They were called by specific names according to the region, such asAlabai, Tobet, Sage Koochee, Central Asian Ovcharka, Middle Asian Ovtcharka, Central Asian sheepdog,Central Asian Shepherd, and registered with FCI by the Russians as Sredneaziatskaya Ovtcharka. Thisbreed group was diversified as Mother Nature controlled the breeding and survival of the dogs. It wasbasically untouched and uncontrolled by man. Naturally, this breed group did not recognize country borderswhen it was time to mate, thus the many type variations along with some very basic anatomy, temperament,and talents of the various physical interpretations were manifested along the trade routes.

.................................................. This was the breed type used primarily for herd or flock protection, minus the input or even presence ofman. The dogs had to work as a group, the females constantly patrolling for threats, the males watching andlistening from high ground. The reasoning ability of this group continued to expand, even though theyestablished a roomy territory for the charges they guarded. This gave the herds and flocks mobile grazingareas along with watering spots. Herein lies the controversy of the Central Asian Shepherd, as it is known in America today. The word"shepherd "in the U.S. and Canada denotes a dog that does not specifically guard, but is talented in movinganimals where man commands them to go. Examples are the Border Collie, Dutch Shepherd, Blue Heeler, andthe Australian Shepherd. These dogs take commands from their owners or handlers, but rarely take theinitiative to protect WHILE moving the animals in their charge to safer areas. The Central Asian "Shepherd" discovers a threat quickly, and while most of the dogs meet the intruders,as the instinctive guardian ability shows itself, several show the reasoning ability by safely migrating theherd/flock to a safer area within the roomy territory they have established earlier. They then circle theherd/flock constantly, in the rare case one of the attackers eludes the ferocious rebuttal of the pack to athreat and approaches "their" animals. This is not a true shepherd in the sense of taking their orders from man on how to handle a herd/flock indanger. This is a very intelligent, independent-minded breed who recognizes a threat and confronts it, whilea smaller number of the pack migrate the threatened animals to a safer location within their territory withouthuman intervention. Most of the time, a human is not even present to witness this concerted action of thedogs. Certainly this is an instinctive action, but it is not the prevailing action of this mainly guardian breed. It isan action done out of necessity to maintain the safety of their charges. Thus, the word "shepherd", as understood in the western continents, is a very poor description of thisamazing breed. The Middle or Central Asian Ovcharka or Ovtcharka, a Russian word with no translatableversion in English, is the correct name in English, not "shepherd". Surely they can move livestock or evenpeople if danger is imminent, but their guardian abilities control that action--get their charges to safety andTHEN face the threat without fear of death. Protection, by first moving their charges out of the danger zone,and then meeting the threat head on is the mindset of this nearly invincible breed group. No matter which ofthe three types recognized as Sredneaziatskaya Ovtcharka, Alabai, Central Asian Ovcharka by FCI isspecifically a "herding" dog. They can and will herd if the situation warrants it. However, the herding aspectis merely a part of their protection instincts. This is a guardian breed that CAN act as a shepherd if the conditions are of a protection nature. Calling it a"shepherd" is an insult to the breed. They are far more than that in any situation. They are too intelligent totake orders unless there is a purpose to them that relates to their basic instincts.

Victoria Spearman Evans "Victoria Evans" <VSEVANS@YAHOO.COM>:

Max-O-Magic Oaks Kennel

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Newsletter of the National Club of Aziat - Shepherd's Dog of Central Asia Page 3 vol.1, #1, 2009

The History of Mistakesby Eugene.Zelenyk,

member of ANCA At the beginning of 2nd millennium A.D.in America, with the rise of the interest to theShepherd's dogs of Central Asia, some inexperienced breeders of Central Asian Dogsbegan spreading poorly translated and poorly understood information from different, oftencontroversial sources. In the "History of Mistakes" we will try to clean this mess.

In 1843 Shepherd;s Dogs of Central Asia - as "Turkmen Watch-Dog" - were mentionedin the "Naturalist's Library", published in Great Britain under editorship of biologist William Jardine. For a long time it was almost the only source of information about thesedogs in Western dog literature.

Among many common mistakes there are frequent citations of Vol.19 (2) of the"Naturalist's Library". Usually after some excerpts from the original text (presented on thesidebar) the author is named as W.Jardine - what clearly shows, that no one of those"Internet Breed Experts" ever saw or read the book. Because on the first page we see

Sir William Jardine, 7th Baronet of Applegirth, was a Scottish naturalist, famous formaking natural history available to all levels of Victorian society by editing and issuingthe hugely popular forty volumes of "The Naturalist's Library". Those 40 volumes weredivided into four main sections: Ornithology (14 volumes) , Mammalia (13 volumes) ,Entomology (7 volumes ) and Ichthyology (6 volumes). Sir Jardine himself was studyingbirds, not dogs. For "Dogs" section he found another author - Lieut.-Col. CharlesHamilton Smith. C.H.Smith was an English artist, naturalist, antiquary, illustrator, soldierand spy.

We have to mention, that despite the author traveled extensively (including the WestIndies, Canada and United States), he never visited Central Asia and never saw Aziatdogs (as well as dozens of other dogs he had to describe). Often he was using the descriptions, given by his fellow officers.

The dogs described are hardly recognizable, though description of their functions,diversity and wide-spreading are correct in general. Nevertheless, for the next 100 yearsthat description became the only information about the guardian digs of Central Asia,available on the West. And, unfortunately, it became the source of some commonmisconceptions about appearance, size and origin of the breed.

(To be continued)

From "DOGS", vol. II

Written and illustraredby Lieut.-Col. C.H.Smith

___________________For more information see

All About Aziat on the site of

ANCA

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Page 4 vol.1, #1, 2009 Newsletter of the National Club of Aziat - Shepherd's Dog of Central Asia

In 1972 there were about50 mln. sheep in CentralAsia - territory including 4Central Asian republics of

former USSR and Southernpart of Kazakhstan.

Average size of the herdusually is near 1000 sheep,

average size of theguarding pack - 4 dogs.That gives us estimatedquantity of Aziats on the

territory of former USSR atthat time - near 200.000herding dogs, plus aboutthe half of this quantity in

villages.

Summarizing, we canestimate the main part of

Central Asian population ofAziat Dogs in 1970's as

300.000.

___________________For more information see

All About Aziat on the site of

ANCA

From the Land of Aziat(Expeditions to Tadjikistan)

Materials presented in this issueare courtesy of Arunas Deras, Honorary Member of ANCA.

Photos were taken during his expedition to Tadjikistan in 2006

Arunas Deras, Kennel "Akmenu Gele" (Lithuania), www.akmenugele.lt

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Newsletter of the National Club of Aziat - Shepherd's Dog of Central Asia Page 5 vol.1 #1 2009

From the Land of Aziat(Expeditions to Tadjikistan)

Materials presented in this issueare courtesy of Arunas Deras, Honorary Member of ANCA.

Photos were taken during his expedition to Tadjikistan in 2006

Arunas Deras, Kennel "Akmenu Gele" (Lithuania), www.akmenugele.lt

Today there are stillmuch more than 100.000

Aziats in the traditionalAziat Land of formerUSSR, plus dogs of

Afghanistan andNorthern Iran.

These dogs are spreadover territory bigger than

all Western Europe. As to dogs in

"non-traditional" regions,including Europe itself,

we estimate Aziatpopulation there as

20-30.000.

And there also are about200-300 Aziats in

America...

___________________For more information see

All About Aziat on the site of

ANCA

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Page 6 vol.1, #1, 2009 Newsletter of the National Club of Aziat - Shepherd's Dog of Central Asia

Breeding dogs isexpensive, andgetting more so

daily. It’s just plainsilly to pretend thatnone of us needs

the moneygenerated by

puppy sales andstud services. ... Our dogs must, at

least in part,support

themselves ormost of us wouldhave to get out of

the game.

___________________For more information see

Dog Owner Rightson the sight of

UKC

An Obituary For Words

by Cindy CookeUKC Legislative Specialist

You can’t really ban a word. In fact, an attempt to ban something often backfires,particularly in the United States, where we don’t like people censoring our speech. SoI’m not going to tell you not to say "puppy mill". I’m going to give you some very goodreasons for not using that phrase.

I speak to a lot of dog clubs and frequently hear dog breeders supporting so-called"anti-puppy-mill" laws. When I ask these people to define "puppy mill," invariably thedefinitions given include:• People who "overbreed" their dogs;• People who don’t take care of their dogs;• People who have too many dogs;• People who breed dogs "just for money"; and• People who don’t take health issues into account when breeding their dogs.

Let’s look at these definitions in turn. What is "overbreeding"? In the wild, most canidscan only reproduce once a year. Most domestic dogs can have two litters a year. When Ifirst became a dog breeder, it was almost a religious belief that no female dog should bebred more than once a year. We were told that it was important to "rest" the uterusbetween litters. Today, however, thanks to advances in veterinary medicine, we know thatan uterus is actually damaged by the elevated progesterone levels that occur in eachheat cycle, whether the dog is pregnant or not. Veterinary reproduction specialistsrecommend that dogs be bred on their second or third heat cycle, that we do moreback-to-back breedings, and that we spay the dogs at around age six.

The "overbreeding" argument also treats reproduction as something that female dogswouldn’t do if they had a choice. Dogs aren’t people - female dogs actually want to bebred when they’re in heat and, with few exceptions, enjoy raising their puppies. It’s notan unwelcome event for dogs.

People who don’t take care of their dogs are already guilty of a crime in all 50 states.There is nowhere in the United States where it is legal to neglect or abuse dogs. Sadly, asmall minority of all dog breeders - commercial, home and hobby - commit neglect andabuse. Some of these do so out of ignorance, some out of laziness, and some out ofmeanness. All are already breaking the law. It just needs to be enforced.

One of our biggest problems now is that animal radicals insist that every dog be raisedlike a hothouse flower. One bill proposed this year would have required every kennel to beair conditioned. Many owners of working dogs prefer that their dogs be acclimated to hotweather so that they can work when the temperature goes up. Likewise, sled dogs in thenorth often sleep outdoors in the snow. Dogs can live and thrive in a wide range ofenvironments. The Arctic Circle, the jungles of Africa, and the deserts of Arabia have allproduced breeds of dogs that can live happily in conditions that might not suit all dogs. Itis important that we not let activists redefine the needs of dogs to the extent that we areforced to provide a brass bed and a down pillow for every animal in the kennel!

(continued on p.7)

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Newsletter of the National Club of Aziat - Shepherd's Dog of Central Asia Page 7 vol.1, #1, 2009

(continued)

An Obituary For Words

by Cindy CookeUKC Legislative Specialist

What is "too many" dogs? Most of our breeds were developed by wealthy peoplewho kept large numbers of dogs. Hound breeders traditionally kept good-sized packs,and early show breeders did as well. Now that our sport includes more mainstreampeople - people with jobs or people who need jobs - it’s hard for many of us to keeplarge numbers of dogs. There is no inherent link between numbers of dogs and neglect.People who have the resources to keep big kennels provide a service for all of us,particularly if they maintain a good number of useful stud dogs.

Breeding dogs is expensive, and getting more so daily. It’s just plain silly to pretendthat none of us needs the money generated by puppy sales and stud services. Withoutthat income, the vast majority of middle class breeders could not afford this sport.When our sport was solely in the hands of rich people, it was the norm to sneer atpeople in "trade", and part of that attitude was handed down to us with the culture ofour sport. Today, however, the majority of us in the sport are "in trade", in the sensethat we have to work to support ourselves. Our dogs must, at least in part, supportthemselves or most of us would have to get out of the game.

We have among us a small but vociferous group of people who think that breedersonly care about producing great hunting or show dogs, and nothing about health. Infact, I’ve never met a breeder who wasn’t concerned about the health of his dogs andthe health of his breed. Most health problems in dogs don’t have simple solutions, so itis only natural that breeders are often going to disagree about how to address healthproblems. When there’s no right answer to a question, then breeders who follow adifferent path than you might choose are not necessarily wrong or unconcerned. I knowthat many believe that commercial breeders don’t care about health, but the fact is thattheir professional organizations provide some of the most sophisticated healthseminars in the country for their breeders.

Twenty years ago, animal activists created the phrase "puppy mill". Back then, itwas only applied to commercial breeders, and then only to those who were breakingthe law by neglecting their dogs. In a futile attempt to placate activists, many hobbybreeders adopted the term "puppy mill" and used it to separate "them" from "us". Itwas a mistake then, and it’s rapidly becoming fatal today. Every one of these so-called"anti-puppy-mill bills" has a definition that could easily include breeders of hunting andshow dogs. Every time you use that phrase, you’re contributing to the idea that dogbreeders need to be regulated out of existence.

The message we need to send to America is that purebred dogs are good, not justbecause they have pedigrees, but because of their predictability, and that peopleshould shop at least as carefully for a puppy as they do for a car. We don’t need tohelp the animal radicals spread their message by using their favorite term: puppy mill.

http://www.ukcdogs.com/WebSite.nsf/Articles/LegislativeUpdate06012009

The message weneed to send toAmerica is that

purebred dogs aregood, not justbecause they

have pedigrees,but because of

their predictability,and that peopleshould shop at

least as carefullyfor a puppy as

they do for a car.We don’t need tohelp the animalradicals spread

their message byusing their favorite

term: puppy mill.

___________________For more information see

Dog Owner Rightson the sight of

UKC

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