Tornjak

INTRODUCTION: The Tornjaks belong to one of about fifty existing but distinctly separate breeds of hearding dogs (separate by nature of its shape). Originally, dogs of this breed were found over the mountain regions of Asia and Europe as well as in the lowlands inhibited by pastoral nomads. The primary function of all these breeds was to guard flocks, mostly of sheep. In time, this purpose also become its sole lucrative function. According to FCI's current classification, the Tornjak is a typical representative of the group I. The Tornjak's early population was a textbook's example of an autochthonous breed, represented by series of local types over a widely spread area. This population developed naturally out of genetic base brought to Dinarides (Dinara mountain ranges) by migrations, trade and wars, interbred with already present breeds. Through the centuries, the Tornjak adapted its function to the natural environment as well as to human needs, customs and aesthetic criteria. If the sources reffered to by cynologists are to be believed, a similar breed of dog was present in Dinarides in Roman times. Later, this breed was accepted by peoples coming to the region to guard flocks or to guard and fight in wars. Such ancient times are not important to us today. Later hictorical changes were remarkably tempestuous and ful of impact.

What is important for the contemporary breeding is that during the early 1920'a this naturally developed breed almost become extinct. The efforts to save and preserve what was left of the breed and to apply contemporary methods of breeding resulted in a purposefully controlled increase in numbers, both ballancing and consolidating the Tornjak population. The slow move toward extinction of the Tornjak matched the decreasing sheep breeding, starting in the northwest parts of continental Croatia and moved southward to the central parts of Dinarides. Both dog and livestock retreated to more remote areas, leaving the regions opening up to new cultural and economic influences. Thus, by the 1970's, this once well known breed could be found only in the last sanctuaries where sheep breeding was still carried on in the old, traditional ways: in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatian mountains.

In order to preserve both the working instinct and beauty of this breed, enthusiasts started to explore the geogreafical areas where isolated, autochthonous specimens could be located. Fanciers also researched any available information, thus collecting what scarce DATA there was on the Tornjak. During the 1980's, the same people acquired the first dogs who become the nucleus of the modern systematic breeding. Officially started in 1982, in Zagreb, a commission for breeding the Tornjak was founded with The Kennel Association of Croatia* (Kinoloski savez Hrvatke - KSH). Although subsequent events within the Yugoslav Kennel Associations and KHS * did nothing much for the promotion of the breed, the hard work of consolidating the breed makes slow but sure headway. Eventually, by the end of the 1990's, the Tornjak become, once again, a fully established Croatian breed, among its native people.

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