The Basque Shepherd Dog (; ) is a traditional Spanish

breed A breed is a specific group of breedable domestic animals having homogeneous appearance (phenotype), homogeneous behavior, and/or other characteristics that distinguish it from other organisms of the same species. In literature, there exist seve ...

sheepdog A sheep dog or sheepdog is generally a dog or breed of dogs historically used in connection with the raising of sheep. These include livestock guardian dogs used to guard sheep and other livestock and herding dogs used to move, manage and con ...

originating in the historic Basque Country. It is one of five Basque breeds of dog – the others being the Erbi Txakur, the Pachón de Vitoria, the Villano de Las Encartaciones and the Villanuco de Las Encartaciones – and one of fourteen animal breeds native to the País Vasco.

History

The Euskal Artzain Txakurra is a traditional breed of the

Basque people The Basques ( or ; ; ; ) are a Southwestern European ethnic group, characterised by the Basque language, a common culture and shared genetic ancestry to the ancient Vascones and Aquitanians. Basques are indigenous to, and primarily i ...

, and dogs of this type appear in

Basque mythology The mythology of the ancient Basques largely did not survive the arrival of Christianity in the Basque Country between the 4th and 12th century AD. Most of what is known about elements of this original belief system is based on the analysis o ...

. Similar dogs appear in

frescoes Fresco ( or frescoes) is a technique of mural painting executed upon freshly laid ("wet") lime plaster. Water is used as the vehicle for the dry-powder pigment to merge with the plaster, and with the setting of the plaster, the painting become ...

in churches and monasteries of the Basque country from the sixteenth century onwards, and later also in the drawings and paintings of artists such as Luis Paret y Alcázar,

Gustave Doré Paul Gustave Louis Christophe Doré ( , , ; 6January 1832 – 23January 1883) was a French printmaker, illustrator, painter, comics artist, caricaturist, and sculptor. He is best known for his prolific output of wood-engravings illustrati ...

and Adolfo Guiard. The breed was recognised by the

Real Sociedad Canina de España is the Spanish kennel club. It was founded in Madrid as the on 27 June 1911, and became a legal entity on 12 July 1911; on 1 December 1911 it received the royal patronage of Alfonso XIII, and the word 'Real' was added before the name. It has ...

in January 1996 in two varieties, Iletsua and Gorbeiakoa; the Gorbeiakoa originates from the region of Gorbea, and Iletsua means "hairy" or "shaggy" in Basque. It was officially recognised – and the

breed standard In animal husbandry or animal fancy, a breed standard is a description of the characteristics of a hypothetical or ideal example of a breed. The description may include phenotype, physical or morphology (biology), morphological detail, genotype, g ...

published – by the national government of Spain in 2001, initially only in the Gorbeiakoa type; the Iletsua variant was recognised in the following year. Also in 2001, the breed in both its variants was included in the official list of autochthonous Basque breeds published by the

government A government is the system or group of people governing an organized community, generally a State (polity), state. In the case of its broad associative definition, government normally consists of legislature, executive (government), execu ...

of the

Basque Autonomous Community Basque may refer to: * Basques, an ethnic group of Spain and France * Basque language, their language Places * Basque Country (greater region), the homeland of the Basque people with parts in both Spain and France * Basque Country (autonomous com ...

; specific legislation regulating breeding and registration was published in 2003. In 2009 the total number of both subtypes of the breed was estimated to be 500. Although the Gorbeiakoa is historically linked to the ''municipios'' of the Parque Natural del Gorbeia, both it and the Iletsua are distributed throughout the historical Basque region. In the 1950s some

took sheepdogs with them when they travelled to the United States to work as shepherds.

Characteristics

The two varieties have many features in common. The body is strong and rectangular in outline, usually some 10–20% longer than it is high. The eyes are oval and may be brown or amber, the ears are of medium size, triangular and either pendent or folded. The Gorbeiakoa has a soft smooth coat of moderate length, shorter on the face and on the front of the legs, and somewhat longer on the back of them. It may be either fire-red or fawn; if it is red, some darkening of the muzzle is common. Dogs stand some at the

withers Withers are the ridge between the shoulder blades of an animal, typically a quadruped. In many species, this ridge is the tallest point of the body. In horses and dogs, it is the standard place to measure the animal's height. In contrast, catt ...

and usually weigh ; bitches are slightly smaller, with weights in the range . The coat of the Iletsua variety is a rougher and wirier than that of the Gorbeiakoa. It is moderately long, rather shorter on the front of the legs. It may be either cinnamon-coloured or fawn. Dogs stand and weigh , bitches with weights up to .

Use

The Euskal Artzain Txakurra has for centuries been used by shepherds of the Basque Country to guard and herd flocks of sheep. It has also been used in the management of flocks of goats and of herds of cattle or horses, and to guard farmhouses. It is the dog most commonly used in ''txakur probak'', traditional Basque sheepdog trials. It has also been successful in sheepdog trials at international level, including those held since 1950 at

Oñati Oñati (, ) is a town located in the province of Gipuzkoa, in the autonomous community of the Basque Country, in the north of Spain. It has a population of approximately 10,500 and lies in a valley in the center of the Basque country. It lies abo ...

, in south-western

Gipuzkoa Gipuzkoa ( , ; ; ) is a province of Spain and a historical territory of the autonomous community of the Basque Country. Its capital city is Donostia-San Sebastián. Gipuzkoa shares borders with the French department of Pyrénées-Atlantiqu ...

. File:Euskal-artzain-txakurra.jpg, Gorbeiakoa, red File:Euskal Artzain Txakurra- Iletsua.jpg, Iletsua, fawn File:Euskal Artzain Txakurra.jpg, Iletsua

References

Dog breeds originating in the Basque Country (autonomous community) Herding dogs Basque domestic animal breeds {{bots, deny=Citation bot