The Romanian Mioritic Shepherd Dog () is a

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 ...

of large

livestock guardian dog A livestock guardian dog (LGD) is a dog type bred for the purpose of protecting livestock from predators. Livestock guardian dogs stay with the group of animals they protect as a full-time member of the flock or herd. Their ability to guard t ...

that originated in the

Carpathian Mountains The Carpathian Mountains or Carpathians () are a range of mountains forming an arc across Central Europe and Southeast Europe. Roughly long, it is the third-longest European mountain range after the Ural Mountains, Urals at and the Scandinav ...

Romania Romania is a country located at the crossroads of Central Europe, Central, Eastern Europe, Eastern and Southeast Europe. It borders Ukraine to the north and east, Hungary to the west, Serbia to the southwest, Bulgaria to the south, Moldova to ...

Description

Appearance

The male Mioritic stands about tall at the withers with the female slightly smaller at . This massive dog is covered in thick fluffy hair. It may be white, with or without pale grey or cream patches, or pale grey or cream all over. The dog should have a "vigorous" appearance.

Sexual dimorphism Sexual dimorphism is the condition where sexes of the same species exhibit different Morphology (biology), morphological characteristics, including characteristics not directly involved in reproduction. The condition occurs in most dioecy, di ...

is evident in this breed, with males being significantly larger than females.

Temperament

This breed has discipline as one of its main characteristics. It is a calm and well-mannered dog. As this dog was used as a herd protector, it is very attached to family and goes all the way when protecting those it is attached to. Because of this dog's ability to bond strongly with his master, training should only be started once the Mioritic puppy is already accustomed to the owner/trainer.

History

The breed was provisionally recognized by the FCI on July, 6th, 2005 in

Buenos Aires Buenos Aires, controlled by the government of the Autonomous City of Buenos Aires, is the Capital city, capital and largest city of Argentina. It is located on the southwest of the Río de la Plata. Buenos Aires is classified as an Alpha− glob ...

. Nowadays it has reached the state of definite recognition. Its name comes from the Romanian word ''mioară'', which means ''young sheep''.

Health

The breed has a

life expectancy Human life expectancy is a statistical measure of the estimate of the average remaining years of life at a given age. The most commonly used measure is ''life expectancy at birth'' (LEB, or in demographic notation ''e''0, where '' ...

of about 12–14 years.

References