Did you think that all white, large dogs were Great Pyrenees? We thought it'd be fun to share some other great breeds you may not have heard of before! The world is a big place, full of a ton of amazing dog breeds outside of our AKC familiarity. After you look at these pictures, you'll realize that sometimes it may take an expert to tell all of our big, white, fluffy angels apart! Often when not getting your dog from a breeder, we have to rely on history provided, which may rely heavily on popular breeds in the area. If it's an AKC recognized breed (and half of these below are not), you will find detailed descriptions online of what your dog should look like. While we look at coat length and color, often the special things come down to shape of the head, the eyes, colors of mucous membranes, and texture of their coat! Many of these dogs share a common ancestor, especially when they are livestock guardians. For example, the Italian "Abruzzese Mastiff" is assumed to be related/a descendant of the Maremma Sheepdog; many of these dogs are assumed to have a common ancestor. Here are some links to unaffiliated sites to gain more insight into each breed:
Lanseer
White Golden Retriever
Great Pyrenees
Karakachan
Mioritic Sheepdog
There is a Golden Retriever Rescue in our small town so it seems that nearly everyone has a golden with a few whites thrown in there so everyone assumes our rescued Pyr-mix is a white golden (Totally dif personalities too) Then my FIL was in Italy and introduced to a Marema who looks identical to our dog. The owner said there is a Marema breeder in the state where we rescued her so now we wonder, Were we wrong all along? Is she a lost Marema? We think she could be but it doesnt matter. We believe she recieved early training as a livestock guardian as she shows some behavior and it's common where she was born, so she really is not a fan of most other canines and the local coyote's howling doesnt do much to convince her that the neighborhood dogs aren't out to get her goats (us) making us always quite careful around other dogs.
ReplyDeleteI love this post and all of the big white beauties you've shown here!