How many of the Kangal (Karabash) Dogs in western countries are purebred Kangals?
Bringing up one child and breeding one dog is common among Western families. Dog
owners who purchase and breed one single Kangal (Karabash) Dog may use the
closest breed they can find, such as the Saint Bernard, the Mastiff or the
Labrador, if they cannot find a purebred Kangal (Karabash) Dog at the mating
time. This causes the degeneration of the Kangal (Karabash) breed. This point
was well illustrated during the 1st International Kangal (Karabash) Dog
Symposium held in the Kangal District of Sivas province in 2003. Pictures and
slides of dogs displayed by foreign participants as illustrations of Kangal (Karabash)
Dogs actually showed mongrels of the Kangal (Karabash)-Mastiff, Kangal (Karabash)-Saint
Bernard, and Kangal (Karabash)-Labrador cross. The dogs, mainly in the USA and
some other countries, known as Kangal (Karabash) Dogs are often, in fact, the
mongrel pariah or stray dogs that we can call Anatolian Shepherd Dogs. In the
1970s and 1980s both types, namely the Kangal (Karabash) Dog and those called
the Anatolian Shepherd Dog, were imported to those countries as Kangal (Karabash)
Dogs, since no official distinction was made at that time between the Kangal (Karabash)
dog breed and the dogs known as Anatolian Shepherd Dogs.