Kangal Shepherd Dog
The Kangal Shepherd Dog is a livestock guardian from Turkey, bred to guard sheep and to endure extremes of heat and cold. It is Turkey’s national dog. In Turkish it is the Kangal Çoban Köpeği, named after the town of Kangal, near Sivas.
Could you tell a Kangal apart?
Its ancestors are thought to have come from Central Asia. Which of these is the Central Asian Shepherd Dog?
Another flock guardian. Where does this one come from?
Photo: Sakal33, CC BY-SA 3.0 And this one?
Photo: Pleple2000, CC BY-SA 3.0
Where does the Kangal come from, and what does it guard?
Turkey. Its breed standard warns that the history of livestock guardian dogs is rarely clear. It suggests the breed’s ancestors came west with Turkic peoples from Central Asia, who lived by herding sheep and goats and kept strong dogs to protect them.
The breed took its fixed look in Eastern Turkey, on high steppe ringed by mountains, guarding Akkaraman sheep. The standard notes that dog and sheep seem to share the same black mask on a dun coat, a camouflage suited to that isolated country. The town of Kangal, in Sivas province, became known for especially uniform dogs, and the breed is named after it.
Its job is still guarding sheep. The standard describes a hard-working, active flock guardian, able to endure extremes of heat and cold and capable of great speed. It calls the Kangal steady and bold without aggression, naturally independent and intelligent, loyal to its owners and wary of strangers when it is on duty.
How do you recognise a Kangal?
- Coat: 3 to 7 cm, thick and harsh, with a dense undercoat; longer on the neck, shoulders and thighs.
- Colour: one colour over the whole body, from fawn to wolf sable, always with a black mask and dark ears.
- Size: males stand 72 to 78 cm at the shoulder and weigh 48 to 60 kg; females 65 to 73 cm and 40 to 50 kg.
- Build: large and powerfully built, with a body slightly longer than it is tall.
Which dogs are like the Kangal?
Other mountain guardians from the same family of breeds. Every breed is in the atlas of dog breeds by country.
Central Asian Shepherd DogRussia, Kazakhstan, Uzbekistan, Turkmenistan, Kyrgyzstan, Tajikistan, Afghanistan and China
Caucasian Shepherd DogRussia, Georgia, Armenia and Azerbaijan
ŠarplaninacNorth Macedonia and Serbia
Pyrenean Mountain DogFrance
Facts from the Kangal’s official breed standard (No. 331, 15 June 2018).