Basque Shepherd

The Basque Shepherd is an ancient breed of dog that developed with little human intervention and no formal registry. The breed is known in the Basque tongue as Euskal Artzain Txakurr and in Spanish as Pastor Vasco, and they have been working with humans for thousands of years. Skeletal remains that are believed to be from a Shepherd very much like the Basque Shepherd have been found in Neolithic caves and have been dated back as far as twelve thousand years ago, and paintings and frescoes of the 16^th century contain depictions of canines that look very much like the Basque Shepherds of today. A comprehensive history of the breed is lost to history, however, the modern Basque Shepherd is believed to be a descendant of Shepherds that originated in Central Europe and while they have traditionally been used to herd sheep in the mountainous areas of Northern Spain where the majority of the Basque people can be found, these dogs are also quite adept at herding other animals including chickens, cows, and horses. Most experts believe that the Gorbeiakoa variety, rather than the bearded Iletsua variety, is the older of the two. The Basque Shepherd population declined heavily in the late 19^th and early 20^th centuries due to predation by wolves. In the 1950s and 60s, extermination campaigns eliminated many of the Iberian wolves in the area, and nearly all registered Basque Shepherds today still work livestock on a daily basis. Basque immigrants and travelers to America in the 1950s brought their herding dogs with them, and it is widely believed that these dogs were ancestors to the Australian Shepherd.