The breeds · working
AKC Foundation Stock Service · UKC Guardian · FCI standard 96
Rafeiro do Alentejo.
Property and livestock guardian. FCI 96 utilization: guard dog for property and livestock. History: believed descended from Middle Eastern molosser dogs used by livestock-herding tribes; with transhumance, flocks moving to the mountains in summer and the plains in winter were accompanied by large dogs, spreading the type from region to region, which explains the breed in the Alentejo. Temperament: excellent farm and estate watch dog and a very useful livestock protector, more vigilant at night, very serious guarding territory; calm and confident, neither aggressive nor shy. AKC breed page repeats the same wording. Wikipedia: traditional flock guardian protecting extensively managed flocks from predators; in the twenty-first century guards farms and other property as well as flocks, and is kept as a companion. Grupo Lobo: followed flocks on the long transhumance routes; with the end of transhumance and the loss of the wolf in the region, increasingly used to guard large estates and farms. ACRA (breed club mission): promote the breed as a shepherd and guard dog.
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 and high span FCI and the AKC page band; the AKC band is breed-wide. Center blank.
Weight
Low and high span FCI and the AKC page band (breed-wide); the AKC top of 132 lb is the male ceiling. Center blank. Grupo Lobo's lower male weight (40 to 50 kg) is an older-standard reading and sits inside the span.
Coat
Shedding
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Heat tolerance
Derived from the coat description in the standard (confidence derived). 4 = short dense coat; no undercoat statement.
The dog at home
What the breed asks of a day. The first thing most homes get wrong.
Exercise need
exercise_need_min omitted.
Energy
AKC breed page trait score, 1 to 5: a breed-club tendency, never a measurement.
Grooming load
2 = weekly brush; AKC band 2 of 5 mapped directly. Single source for the band.
The work
What it was built to do in the field, and what a test or trial asks of it.
Role
No source names the predators; FCI names no wolf for this breed. Grupo Lobo states the wolf has disappeared from the Alentejo region.
Also used on
Editorial only; no handler-side source describes how the packs are worked.
Search pattern
More
akc bands
Fourteen AKC bands in one row; the selector reads each by name. Breed-club ratings: a tendency, never a measurement.
What to ask a breeder for
The health clearances the breed’s own club and registry name. Reference only: what to ask for, never a statement about any dog’s health.
- PTHip dysplasia and elbow dysplasia screeningUniversidade de Évora Hospital Veterinário protocol offered to ACRA members · ACRA, Associação de Criadores de Rafeiro do Alentejo, A ACRA (breed club): mission and health screening protocol
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. 4 sources on this page. Found something wrong? Tell us and the correction is logged with its date.
- Also called
- Portuguese Mastiff, Alentejo Mastiff
Every breed, read the same way.
The breed index grows as entries clear the standard. Gun dogs first.
All published breedsYour rafeiro do alentejo, on the record.
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