19 February 2011

A komondor

A Komondorak in the ring during the 135th Westminster Kennel Club Dog Show at Madison Square Garden. 
(Timothy A. Clary/AFP/Getty Images) (source)

Selected interesting information from Wikipedia:
The Komondor (Hungarian plural komondorok) is a large white-colored Hungarian breed of livestock guardian dog with a long, corded coat. They are sometimes referred to as mop dogs. The Komondor is an old-established powerful dog breed which has a natural guardian instinct to guard livestock and other property. The Komondor was mentioned for the first time in 1544 in a Hungarian codex. The Komondor breed has been declared one of Hungary’s national treasures, to be preserved and protected from modification...

The Komondor is built for livestock guarding... the coat of the dog looks similar to that of a sheep so it can easily blend into a flock and camouflage itself giving it an advantage when predators such as wolves attack...

A fully mature coat is formed naturally from the soft undercoat and the coarser outer coat combining to form tassels, or cords and will take around two years to form. Some help is needed in separating the cords so the dog does not turn into one large matted mess... Traditionally the coat protected the Komondor from wolves' bites, as the bites were not able to penetrate the thick coat. The coat of the Komondor takes about two and a half days to dry after a bath...

8 comments:

  1. How in the world do they judge conformation for those beasts?

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  2. And the Puli is a smaller Hungarian dog which looks like the Komondor, but also comes in a dark brown/black color as well as white. I think they are both beautiful dogs.

    The Animal Planet show, "Dogs 101", featured a Puli who belonged to a woman who had a yarn shop. The dog would go to work with her, lay on the floor, then move and startle people who thought the dog was a pile of yarn.

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    Replies
    1. That is hilarious! I have to go find that video now. :)

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    2. Please give me the link to that video!:)

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  3. How it the heck could you keep a working dog like that in cockle-burr country? (Tx) My goat-guardian Pyrs give me fits as it is!

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  4. I can see why they are called mop dogs!

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  5. Standard poodles are sometimes shown in a corded coat (although rarely). I'm not sure what the functionality would be for the breed.

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  6. you can cord almost any dog that has curly, thick and/or matt fur that continuously grows. They are essentially dread locks. Double coated breeds are better equipped for cording but others can function as well. Pulis are traditionally known for cords also. Other breeds aren't usually corded because of the amount of work though.

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