A great many of today's dog breeds are fairly recent creations, developed and refined through selective breeding within a single human lifetime or so. The Doberman Pinscher, Golden Retriever,  Great Dane, Dalmatian, Toy Poodle--these and other popular breeds owe their existence largely to the efforts of a determined breeder or group of breeders in Europe or the United States. 

Only the Turkish livestock guardian breeds, the Kangal Dog and the Akbash Dog, remain part and parcel of the daily life in their homeland, still watching over their sheep and goats as they have for hundreds, perhaps thousands of years.

The Kangal Dog is indigenous to the harsh, isolated plateau region in Eastern Turkey in and around Sivas province.  On the map above, you can see the town of Sivas just south of the Pontic Mountains. In biblical times, the area was referred to as "Galatia."  At the center of this region is a town called Kangal, from which the Kangal Dog takes its name. The dogs are sometimes also called "karabash," which means "black head" in Turkish, and refers to the black mask and ears. No one knows how long the Kangal Dog has been there, but judging by its numbers, its uniformity over a vast area, and the historic role it plays in the life of the sheepherding people, it is undoubtedly a very ancient breed.   It is also quite possible that the Kangal Dog once occupied an even larger area than it does today.

Although first studied, documented, and exported by westerners some twenty years ago, the Kangal Dog has remained rare, little known, and often misunderstood outside Turkey. They have been interbred with other Turkish Dogs by those who either do not understand or choose to ignore the differences between the regional breeds vis a vis  the generic sheepdogs found in some parts of Turkey. This lack of understanding is due  partly to the remoteness of eastern Turkey, and to the relative lack of fabulous tourist sites there in comparison to western Turkey and the Mediterranean. Few foreign visitors are willing or able to make the long and grueling trip to Sivas province (although along with their famous native dogs, the town of Sivas has historical, cultural, and architectural charms aplenty). Also, there are frequent political problems which further discourage outsiders from visiting. But with improvements in transportation, better hotels, and extensive attention from the Turkish and foreign media, the Kangal Dog has been gaining  increasing recognition from researchers, breeders, and canine enthusiasts from around the world.