Owczarek podhalanski

FCI:

Tatra Shepherd Dog - Group I. - Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs, Section 1 – Sheepdogs. Recognized in 1967.

General Appearance:

This breed is calm, intelligent, docile, balanced and attentive, but at the same time very wary. It was originally intended for herding flocks of sheep from predators and cattle's robbers, however, it is extremely versatile.

Training/Behaviour:

With appropriate education it is obedient, the course must be consistent and kind, as any hardness by training it just spoils. Increasingly, thanks to its attractive appearance it also becomes a companion dog at the same time filling the role of a reliable guard of house or farmstead. Under all circumstances, it is loyal and completely dedicated to its owners and members of his family. To the strangers it is behaving suspiciously. It gets well with pets and children too, but you must be careful that their game cannot be too wild.

It should have ample opportunity to move, the best is the dog can be on own fenced garden, if it is not possible, there are necessary hearty walks in the countryside. It is suitable therefore particularly for owners of sporty extremely time busy who can indulge it. It is also used as a guard dog, rescue and avalanche, even in the service of the army and police.

It can be all year round in the outdoor kennel, but it cannot be close permanently. Urgently this breed needs a permanent, or at least as frequent and prolonged contact with people. It is the happiest in the family circle.

Body:

Its body must be sturdy, compact and raise legitimate impression of strength and agility. Body frame is rectangular, height at withers, male is 65-70 cm and 60-65 cm is female.

The head is dry, in motion and at rest is carried at medium height. Skull should be viewed from the above slightly sprung front furrow is shallow, frontal slope has to be steep. The muzzle must be strong and gradually tapers towards the nose. Bridge of the nose is broad, black nose, medium-sized, with wide open nostrils.

Desirable are dry lips with dark pigmented edge tightly fitting to the jaws and teeth, they should be strong, evenly spaced jaws. Desirable is scissor bite, pincer is also permissible.

Eyes are medium sized, slightly sloping, strong, their iris should be dark brown. The edges of the eyelids are dark.

The earlobes are in outer eye corners level or above. They’re medium length, rather thick, triangular and densely feathered leading edge lightly touching cheeks and movable.

The neck is of medium length, muscular, heavily furred, the coat on it forms a "collar". Line of neck rises above the upper line of the body, the  body is long, thick cock clearly marked and wide, back straight, the proper width, shoulders wide, firmly attached to the back, this should be slightly sloping.

Tail is not too high and in repose, carried below the topline of the body, when angry over it, but not curled over the croup and loin. When hanging down, reaching the hock and the tip can be angled slightly upwards.

The chest should be deep, ribs are angled rather flat. The abdomen should be slightly tucked. The forelegs should be muscular, strong bone, but not too hard, straight and vertical to substrate. Pasterns are slightly slanted, paws compact, with tightly knit toes, oval shaped, fairly large, the legs are coated with thick, stiff and dark pigmented padded and strong, blunt and dark coloured claws. The hindquarters and fetlocks should be vertical to ground.

Hair on the head, including muzzle, front of forelegs and hind legs from the hock down is short and dense. Neck and body are covered with long, thick, straight or slightly wavy hair, hard to the touch, undercoat must be rich. Colouration is uniformly white and small cream coloured patches are undesirable. Coat requires regular care.

Any faults from the foregoing points should be considered a fault and assessed the degree of expression. The defects are deep furrow, lack of pigmentation of nose, eye rims and lips, bright eyes, entropion, ears set too high, folded backwards or cropped, neck carried low, overbuilt, tail constantly carried above the top line of the body, persistence dewclaws, sparse feathering inter digital spaces, lack of "collars", "tags" on front and "trousers" on the hind legs.

To negative defects belong aggression or fearfulness, gradual stop, pointed muzzle, large number of missing teeth, overshot or undershot jaw, ectropion, hair curly or silky, lack of undercoat, patchy discolouration or nervousness.