akbash dog

The origins of the breed are not well understood but it is believed by some to be an ancient pure breed. The Akbash Dog is thought to be the Turkish equivalent of other white guardian breeds found in and around the northern Mediterranean Basin. Unlike those breeds, only the Akbash Dog has its unique combination of molosser and sighthound qualities. This breed was developed at least 3000 years ago, probably by shepherds who purposely bred for white-colored guarding sheepdogs, perhaps to tell them apart from predators. Archeological evidence suggests that the earliest civilizations arose in the parts of the world currently occupied by Syria, Iran and Turkey (the fertile crescent region). It is here that about 10,000 years ago enough people congrated to form a society or societies, which in turn began to domesticate animals and cultivate (or domesticate) plants. In short order there would have been a need for livestock protection dogs to care for the livestock. The white breeds of livestock protection dogs include the Great Pyrenees of the Pyrenees Mountain area in France and Spain, and the Maremma of the Maremma Mountains of Italy. A reasonable - but not in any way proven - hypothesis is that white (Akbash) dogs were developed in Turkey, and spread from there with the exploits of the Ottoman and earlier empires, to where they are found today.

The Akbash Dog is native to western Turkey in the region known as the Akbash, and it is primarily used as a Livestock guardian dog. The name comes from the Turkish word meaning white head.