The breeds · working
FCI standard 378
Macedonian Shepherd Dog Karaman.
Flock and property guardian. FCI 378 utilization: a dog for active protection of the sheep and property, capable of standing very low as well as very high temperatures. History: bred for centuries in Macedonia as protector of the herds and kept in its authentic form by stockbreeders who moved between summer and winter pastures; a dog of folk songs and of the 1191 fresco in the church of St George at Kurbinovo. Temperament: reserved towards strangers but determined and brave when guarding stock and property; calm, good-hearted, precautious while guarding, stable and fearless with no aggression at all, independent and very intelligent; affectionate and loyal to its owner. FCI classifies it molossian, mountain type, without working trial. KSM (national kennel club) proposal standard: use is protection of flocks and of property; a dog with an incorruptible guard of the flock, persons or objects entrusted to it; suspicious of strangers, with a strong, deep, penetrating bark; today found as a guard of flocks, of persons and of immovable property; the club founded a Karaman breed club in 2004 and the standard was written by brothers Vlatko and Marjan Kostovski, then corrected to FCI rules at a KSM expert council meeting on 6 April 2011. Wikipedia: used for centuries by Macedonian shepherds to protect livestock from large predators such as wolves and bears in the Balkan mountains. OTV.mk (quoting KSM): traditionally used as a guard of flocks and homes, especially in rural and mountain areas.
Breed sets the odds. The parents set the dog. Every number here shows its source, its spread and how sure we are. Nothing on this page is a prediction about one dog.
The body
What the breed is built like. Registry standards give an ideal, not a range.
Height at the shoulder
Low is 22.8 in because the KSM proposal standard prints 58 cm as the female floor, below FCI's 60 cm with tolerance. Center blank.
Weight
KSM's average (40 kg) sits inside FCI's range, so low and high do not move.
Coat
Heat tolerance
Derived from the coat description (3 = medium double). The standard's utilization line claims tolerance of both extremes of temperature, which is the registry's statement, not a measurement.
The work
What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.
Role
Wolf and bear naming is Wikipedia only (it cites KSM); KSM's own page does not name predators.
Also used on
KSM is a national kennel club page; one source for the police use.
How to read this page
Every value carries a label. Measured means peer-reviewed data on many dogs. Studied means peer-reviewed, smaller or indirect. Breed club means a club or registry states it. Editorial means expert opinion with no measurement behind it. Where two good sources disagree, both are shown and neither is averaged.
Published when the entry rests on the best information available from no fewer than three independent sources, checked by a second pass that did not write it. 2 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.
- Also called
- Karaman, Macedonian Shepherd Dog, Makedonsko Ovcarsko Kuce Karaman
Every breed, read the same way.
The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.
All published breedsYour macedonian shepherd dog karaman, on the record.
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