THE ALABAI - 'WOLF CRUSHER' - CENTRAL ASIAN SHEPHERD DOG

this week I will be meeting one of the most powerful and driven guard dogs on planet Earth another nemesis of the wolf a defender of livestock and a fierce protector of property and Families meets the Central Asian Shepherd the Central Asian Shepherd sometimes known as The Alibi is a formidable flock Guardian and guard dog selected over centuries for its power and stamina Central Asian shepherds sometimes are called volkov the wolf crusher in Russian they are a 4,000 year old ancient dog breed originating from natural selection in the Iranian plateau region some servers livestock guardians against predators such as wolves and bears some protect their property and families inside and some are use for dogfighting in many countries of that region this breed bears a strong genetic similarity to other Aboriginal breeds such as the Georgian Shepherd the Kangal dog and akbash Central Asian Shepherds tend to form a natural social group consisting of different members bearing different duties not unlike a wolf pack or wild dog park thus puppies with different working qualities are normally born in the same litter selective breeding has focused in on three lines in particular resulting from these natural born characteristics those dogs who show natural abilities for herding those who show heightened aggression for fighting and those with courage a mistrust of strangers outside of the family suited to become guard dogs it's been suggested that in modern times larger breeds of dog have been added to the once pure bloodlines to enhance its size resulting in some Central Asian Shepherds looking extremely large in photos online what is clear is that the guard dog version of this breed is not to be messed with the true age-old working lines harbor power ferocity and a nap saluté want to guard this means that anyone making the mistake in entering in on someone's property where one is loose could be making an error they will never forget today I am meeting Nino lo Rosso the gentleman who originally introduced the cane corso to the UK he has developed a particular line of Central Asian shepherd guard dogs and unlike a normal episode of animal watch today I will not be touching the docs like I usually do why you ask all will be revealed good thank you pleased to meet you and I'm here today to meet your amazing Central Asian shepherd I'm so excited not met any before what are we gonna have what's gonna happen unfortunately it's not your you your normal filming it's not something that I can bring out and introduce to you slightly a different angle it's how we keep our dogs but yeah let me walk you through and introduce you to our dogs you'll be seeing them behind the cannon because unfortunately they're not very friendly with anybody other than their family so these two dogs is a mother and son they're normally outside this whole area here do their job when I have friends people that the dogs don't know they're put away into their kindling area it was evident that these guard dogs were doing their job extremely well by making it clear to me that I was not enter the property these working guard dog blinds looked actually quite sweet and smaller in appearance than I had imagined but their character and ferocity said otherwise this is something that the dogs haven't been trained to do we're never really selected for their look there were more selected for purpose where they might look cuddly and friendly they soon that you know this is a God that God's a god it's the females that generally alarm once the fret is there the females tend to back off and the males come forward [Music] the females hanging back over there it was important to remember to retreat after each dog had showed its guarding tendencies as this was good positive reinforcement that they had done their job effectively Nino went inside the enclosure at one point to demonstrate how affectionate and loyal his dogs were to him and his family these dogs are bred to be gentle and kind to those they protect even though they instinctively mistrust every other stranger which approaches the property after we had met the dogs it was important to find out everything about the guard dog line of the Central Asian Shepherd so he stepped inside to chat about this particular line that Nino had developed as you can see we don't have a dog sitting between us today do we need oh sorry I'm sorry unfortunately reason why we can't have one here today is because they're not dogs that I can introduce to people the Central Asian Shepherd is a dog that I fell in love with after study in many breeds over the years I went in search for breeds there I felt think for themselves I was amazed on how many of different types of Central Asian shippers they were you have what I think is a show dog which I think has the Russian influence and they are much bigger dogs reaching you know your 30 inches your 100 kilograms plus so these are the ones like you see online that looks really massive felt that they didn't really have that instinct that I was looking for which was a guardian I came across the breeder in Italy when I went to see him all of his dogs guarded and I wasn't able to go up and Stroke any of them after so much research I came across this lineage of Central Asian Shepherd which has been selected to guard against man all lifestyle Guardians will guard against predators but very few of them will guard against man they'll warn against men but so Nino tell us why in particular you wanted to have that temperament I believe that there's two types of guard dogs that you have a personal protection dog which people classify as a guard dog and you have a natural Guardian a dog that naturally guards it's not a dog in my opinion that you can train in my opinion the Central Asian shepherd my lineage is a dog that you manage you can't get them to heal and I think it goes against what they've been bred to do they've been bred to think for themselves when the Shepherd is not with them he has to think when your family approach the dogs happiness tales swirling and submissiveness and they just want to be with you do they see you as part of without sounding sort of demeaning the flock that they're protecting because it's a natural instinct isn't it to to care oh yeah flock I think the family is the flock they'll probably see me and my wife as the Alpha that they need to protect and the wolf world wolves will protect the alpha the Alpha is the one that tends to be in the background self-preservation because he's the brains if you want to get them to do something how do you encourage them to do it a for example if somebody comes to our gate and the dogs are there doing the job you know they're saying stay out I will ask the person at the gate to back off so the threat is no longer as much as it was and I will then call them and I generally have some bread in my pocket and so I will call them they'll know they're gonna get a little treat I put him into a kennel where they're secure and then I go and deal with whoever it is that's at the gate the stranger that the gate he comes in and obviously he's made to feel accepted by you can he go near the dogs no okay so what will the dogs do to him they'd probably buy him they're probably bison so he can't be with them for a certain period of time and they will accept no and I also think that's quite confusing for dogs there's this fantasy world where you want your dog to guard one minute and the next minute you want your dog to be petted by people if you look at a wolf pack a wolf pack won't allow a strange wolf to come into their pack especially with its young ones so for me it's crystal clear the dogs there to look after our family we are its pack and that's it I'll give you an example my brother lives five minutes from me yeah he doesn't visit me every day my visit once a week my visit once a month how can I explain to the dog but this is my brother so you have to be nice to him I don't know that you can't do that your philosophy is generally no no interference no training allow them to be natural guardians which is which is the job they were trying to do and because of their genetics and because of their history and bloodline it's very very natural yeah for them to do that so let's go into the history of this dog what sort of countries do originated Kazakhstan Turkmenistan Tajikistan Caucasian mountains so all around the area but it would have probably evolved from the dogs that would have been naturally roaming in the area and they would have had a common type of common look I don't know about common look I think it was the strongest would survive so it wasn't actually a breed that was recognized like we now recognize breeds like German Shepherds Rottweiler it's a breed that shepherds have always used to protect their livestock and the shepherds would just choose the ones that could do a job and it wasn't really a matter of color or size or coat type it was which dogs could do a job I think the Central Asian shepherd at some point has been made a breed but they are also different you know there isn't really a standard you know tall ones smaller ones long coat is short coat exactly what are the weights that your males are versus your female females 35 up to 50 the males from 45 up to 60 they're normally quite tall males read 28 29 inches to the shoulder females 26 28 I think it's important if you're looking at a working dog you really shouldn't go too far away from the wolf the type of dog that we have and we select generally resemble a wolf in weight in stature in height in their natural habitat Shepherds that have these dogs couldn't have a hundred kilogram dog to walk for miles and miles and miles they just wouldn't have the stamina for me was that breed that is suited for the climate in this country and look at my back garden and I watched him and he doesn't matter what the weather is whether it's raining whether it's snowing whether it's ice they are constantly patrolling they all have these dogs are powerful they mean business they're independent yeah and we don't want these dogs being put to sleep because the wrong person decides they're going to give it a go and their trainings gonna work and they're gonna override this natural instincts who should have a dog like this and who should absolutely avoid this I think it goes down to the person selling the dog or the breeder I think it's important that a breeder before they decide to sell it up to somebody is to study the person they're selling it to for me I need to know who you are and I need to come and visit where the dog will be kept and then I think it's important that you take advice many people will think that you can train these dogs and if you want to train a dog then choose a different breed you know choose a German Shepherd choose a Rottweiler choose dogs which like to be trained do you find that they bark a lot of the time during the day even when there's no one around till they reach about 18 months old there can be very vocal once they know their environment they will bark when there's a reason a Leonid isn't suited to all environments they're not really suited to urban they're more suited to large areas large gardens farms small Holdings I think it's also important to understand that if you're gonna have this type of dog you're not just protecting yourself but you're protecting people from the other side of the boundary so it's important when I go visit people that the boundaries secure that the dog can't get out - Seng is important but it's also important what goes underground there like the big one of the things which is quite interesting about our lineage is that they are very demonstrative they don't want to fight they really don't want you to come in they're just basically saying the signal is don't come in here I believe if you actually came into our territory that the dog would actually yes bite you but not wanna kill you he's trying to get you to go strangely enough when you take these dogs out of their environment they're not as aggressive people say well how do I take a dog like this to a vet well I always have them muzzled just in case and I always go as a last appointment yeah so I'm not amongst other people another dog my conclusion to this breed is that there isn't just one line but three and possibly four if you include the new extremely large show lines that have appeared the ancient old livestock line the fighting line and the guard dog line Nino's dogs were very particular to the purpose they served as guard dogs and it's important to stress that these are not pets in any way or form they come from one of the most ancient of working lines on earth and should be understood for the purposes they were originally developed for obviously here on animal watch we absolutely do not agree with dog fighting but needed to show our viewers the truth - one of the origins of this breed also I wasn't going to leave without asking the question that I'm sure you have all been waiting for Nino the ultimate question about the Central Asian shepherd do you believe that these dogs can actually kill or if they're in a group more than one and you have an injured wolf or an elderly wolf yes possibly it's a deterrent to keep the balls away - keeping them at bay but like for like a three year old mature wolf and a three year old sin religion no I having a sentence a chance I don't I don't actually think there is any dog in the world that can that could win against a wolf like for like I know this will probably upset a lot of people because everybody likes to believe that their dog could and yes they could if there's a group of them but one-to-one I don't believe so and it's my opinion this has been really really interesting talking to you today and I've discovered a lot about a breed I never met before never had any contact with you guys have sent me messages saying can you please cover this breed because of course you love the Kangoo and you love the caucasian shepherd so here we have today we've got the Central Asian shepherds and I hope you've learned something today and if you've enjoyed this episode of animal watch and please give me a big thumbs up and subscribe to the channel by clicking the button in the bottom a hand corner I will put all Nino's website details underneath so you can click through and find his website and be sure to tune in every single week where I'll be bringing you some more amazing episodes on dogs wolves animal rescue and conservation bye for now [Music] [Music] [Music]

Channel: Animal Watch

Views: 1,599,447

Keywords: central asian shepherd, Central Asian Shepherd Dog, dog, dogs, Alabai Dog, Alabai, Kangal dog, caucasian shepherd, georgian shepherd, wolf, wolves, flock guardian, guard dog

Id: 1_hJZ6ydLm8

Length: 16min 53sec (1013 seconds)

Published: Fri May 08 2020