This was an awesome video and I was so happy to find it. My grandpa immigrated here from the basque region in Spain and herded for Pete Arambel in the Wind River Range. He would loan us some horses for the summer to ride around and care for when I was young. Great memories!
They’re having to adapt to a new reality. Which is that you’ve got more predators, especially wolves on the range so you have to adapt accordingly in terms of how you run, sheep, as well as having guardian dogs on the flocks. It’s about saying to the predator this is the price for having a lamb dinner can be a very high one if you start a fight with us. It also means that you can have a population of Wolves on the ranges, which yourself helps to keep down numbers of wild grazing animals, as well as ensure that unhealthy ones get eaten, rather than spread disease
When I met my wife she had a great Pyrenees the first time I met him he would stand between me and her and growl at me but he wouldn't bite me he wouldn't attack me. I'm a dog man I know dogs inside and out I've had Heelers and Border Collies. So every time I was around him I would pet him and try to talk to him and rub his ears and stuff and he would always kind of growled. It took probably two months before he quit growling at me. His name was Boo he was a very very good dog he knew his job and he did it well. I had a Red Heeler and a border collie and a white lab at the time all female he was a male. I introduced one dog at a time to him and he like every one of them especially the white lab. Oh my gods were fixed so there was no chance of bleeding. But he came to be the best dog in the world because he was protect both of us and all of my dogs he was huge. He protected chickens Ducks goats cattle and horses and he thought my dogs to do the same. Nothing I mean nothing happened on our farm that they didn't know about and was promptly bark and let us know if something out of the ordinary was going on. If anybody stopped their car anywhere near our road they would bark if anything came on our property a coyote a bobcat a mountain lion they would bark constantly boo would go after them and pretty soon my dogs start following him they would Chase stuff way off of our property. Little things like possums Coons and skunks they did not bother they just let him walk through they knew that was not a threat. But if a fox or a bobcat or a mountain lion came anywhere near our place they were met with pure aggression led by boo.
PS because they highly, highly intelligent and don't really get lost. They know their purpose is protection and they have no fear to fight a bear or wolves. even YT has some videos of this
I put a deposit down on an Anatolian pup 5 weeks ago, after spending over a year convincing my family that we will need one eventually, and I'm not willing to wait until we lose an animal. Our neighbors report coyote sightings all the time, there are raccoons around, some big cats, and even a bear nearby - and we are firmly in the suburbs. We saw a coyote in the yard 4 days ago. That dog can't get here soon enough.
Deborah, I hope you realize that in Turkey the "Anatolian Shepherd" which is a European and American breed, was not an established breed until Europeans and Americans coming to Turkey in the 1970's -1990's (people brought dogs back from Turkey before this, but in very small numbers, usually USA and NATO service men or diplomats) began attempting to purchase Kangal, and obtained mongrelized Kangal of inferior quality and conformation, and it was the "foreigners" coming to Turkey who first began using the term Anatolian Shepherd to describe their mongrels, wanting people to believe these were purebred dogs. Turkey did not accept the breed Anatolian Shepherd until much later, when economic pressures coerced government officials to accept the term Anatolian Shepherd and establish a registry, even though genetic studies confirmed that Anatolians Shepherds were mongrelized Kangal, Akbash, or Central Asian Ovtcharka. The Kangal is the most genetical studied dog breed in the world, because the Turkish government maintains the breed standard and registry, as they do with their magnificent Akhal-Teke Horse. DNA studies confirm that dogs referred to as Anatolian Shepherds are Kangal. Akbash, CAO, Kars, Armenian Gampr that have been mongrelized with an assortment of local, often non-pure-breed dogs, which explains the very wide phenotypic expression of "Anatolian Shepherds" versus the homogeneous appearance of the Kangal. I was introduced to a shepherd in the SIvas region of Turkey in 1996, after being invited to inspect the national Kangal Kennels by the Turkish government. Of course, I assume you are familiar with the fact that it is illegal to remove a purebred Kangal from Turkey, without first receiving government authorization, which I was provided. I meet with this shepherd who befriended me, stayed with him and slept in the field with his dogs for two weeks, and was allowed to purchase a truly magnificent specimen puppy from him. He matured into a 34.5 inches at the withers, 177 lb male ARBA champion. I show occasionally, but became very disillusioned with dog shows (sorry about the sexist nature of this rant in advance), but a number of women showing dogs, exhibited very petty and narcissistic dispositions, with vile posts online accusing each other of various transgressions and instead of complimenting another breeder for a superior specimen, became exceedingly jealous and envious, and sought to discredit any breeder with specimen superior to their own. They took the fun out of showing dogs for me. The Akbash, Kangal, Turkish Mastiff (Malaklisi) are magnificent Turkish breeds. Dogs considered Anatolian Shepherds may work well as a LGD or they may not, and you might obtain a nice specimen, but they will rarely approach the quality of a true Kangal and are much more of a mixed bag, less reliably excellent. I prefer the Central Asian Ovtcharka, of which the Kangal is virtually identical genetically and will be breeding a former UKC champion, 194 lbs in best condition, 33.5 inches at the withers, exceedingly athletic male, 28 inch neck, standing 6'6" tall when on his hind quarters, a true working-line dog that killed 5 coyote-wolf hybrids (25% -50% larger compared to the western coyotes), caught and killed a bobcat, two buck deer, and a copperhead snake. The benefit of the CAO versus the Anatolian or Great Pyrenees, is the CAO is considerably larger making them better suited to confront medium to large predators, has a low Basal Metabolic Rate, so they do not eat that much compared to their great size, and tend not to wonder off property as many other LGD breeds do. The Kangal is better suited for warmer climates than would be CAO from Kazakhstan or Great Pyrenees, but COA's from Uzbekistan with the shorter variety CAO coats tolerate the heat not quite as well as the Kangal, but better than dogs from Kazakhstan with the longer outer coat and heavier undercoat.
The dogs in the Roman or old carvings in the beginning of the video are not LGD's. They're mastiffs; they were used as war dogs and were also used to attack American Indians when the Europeans first found gold in the "New World".
Gamprs, Sharplaninacs, bankhars, Tobets. All of these breeds are pretty hard dogs to use when you need a livestock dog. They'll protect the sheep and most even chase after and kill wolves if they know the sheep are looked after.
The white one(s) with dark patches and full tails look like they may be Anatolian shepherds. IDK about the one with the docked tail, though. White one looks like an Akbash, like the Türk said. Long haired white LGDs are usually Great Pyrenees or Pyr mixes due to how popular the Pyr is.
I need to adopt an adult livestock guardian dog or dogs to protect my herd and places but I don't know how to make them accept me or the herd. The main issue they need time to grow up!!!
@@carlosayala6754 we have eight working Kangals. We have six different pastures that they can move between at will. The dogs choose where they need to be. They know where our goats and birds are. They are also not limited like us humans as far as scent, hearing, and sight as to where threats are. Yes, they will walk away from the livestock (as you saw the dogs in the video do) when they know there are no threats in the area. They will pick up on a threat long before I do. They then get to that area far sooner than I could get there. The dogs will sometimes be in separate fields, sometimes all together. When apart they will communicate, and come to help where needed. I have learned to trust their decisions. They have more information on what is going on out there than I do. They are there essentially 24x7 while I am not.
@@carlosayala6754 They only walk away to secure the perimeter. Which can be a problem if you're on a small farm and you don't want the dog bothering the neighbors. But kangal is perfect for big open spaces
I have a litter of Caucasian Ovchaka pups if you or someone you know is interested. They need a job to do. They are currently 3 weeks old. The parents have papers.
Wow,fantastic dogs .If I owned some land(and that is the plan in the future),these are the dogs I would like to have!. .Hope u find suitable canidates 👍
Humans trying to rescue the LGD's. Have they called animal control because they aren't in the house sitting on a throne and having their every whim catered to by their human slaves?
These are mongrelized LGD's, certainly not purebreds, and they were all rather small LGD's, too small to deter wolves, unless in overwhelming numbers. In fact their small size would serve to embolden wolves and perhaps prompt an attack, on what the wolves would perceive as weak, over-matched dogs. Their dogs look to be in the 90-110 lb range, whereas my males range from 175 - 200+ lbs, and that additional 100 lbs of bone and muscle make a big difference in functional capabilities, intimidation, and survivability. The reality is that ranchers and farmers rarely obtain high-quality dogs, because they do not want to pay the price for a quality specimen, which can range from $2,500 - $5,000 for a young puppy, more for truly exceptional specimen of renowned lines, and up to six figures for a spectacular subadult specimen, and as a result they have mainly runts of the liter, or certainly nothing that would be considered a championship quality, show quality, or superior specimen. The ranchers who have contacted me, were generally interested in paying $500 for a dog. As the saying goes, you often get what you pay for. I rarely breed, but when I do, my intent is always to produce genetic outliers, to shift the genetic bell curve, with all of my dogs being from renowned working lines, often fighting champions (but not from strict fighting lines). Dogs from fighting lines often do not work well within a pack of LGD's and therefore, do not make great LGD's, although they may function wonderfully as personal protection dogs, whereas dogs from a line that were fighting champions and of working lines, function well as LGD's. When people breed to primarily accentuate the fighting disposition and acumen of their dogs, they often create lines that loose sociability and therefore ability to co-exist and function harmoniously within a pack of LGD's. In a pack of LGD's or any pack of dogs for that matter, there will be physical altercations and battles to establish the pack order, who are the alpha male and female, and when you breed strictly or primarily to enhance fighting abilities, the dogs produced tend to be very alpha and much less amenable to socialization to other dogs. I will be breeding a former UKC Champion male Central Asian Ovtcharka, weighing 194-203 lbs depending upon the season, 33.5 inches at the withers, 28 inch circumference neck, extremely broad across the chest, very substantial bone, the most massive canines in a dog one could ever imagine, roughly 2X larger than those of a large male Canadian Timberwolf, standing approximately 78 inches tall when on his hind quarters, the most athletic dog of comparable size that I or any of my colleagues ever witnessed, able when in his prime to out-run and out-maneuver hunting dogs, easily jump over a 7 foot tall fence, killed 5 coyote-wolf hybrids, (25% - 50% larger than western coyotes) in quick order, two buck deer in less than 60 seconds, a bobcat, and copperhead snake. I am importing females of the highest quality, from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to breed with him. If anything is produced resembling the quality of my male, I will keep a few, and depending on the number of puppies produced in the litter, offer some for sale. If the breeding produces more than one spectacular genetic outlier male, I will take reservations, but the price will be five figures minimum and age of transfer not prior to 16 weeks of age, the breeding of AI technique. It often takes a large specimen males puppy at least 12-16 weeks of development before you start to get an idea of structure and movement, they simply take longer to grow into themselves. A puppy at 8 weeks of age may appear great, and by 14 weeks things can go south, with rear angulation, cow-hocked conformation, being high in the rear, a head out of proportion to the dog (too small being a major concern),or sub-optimal movement and kinematics being exhibited. I do not like to sell someone a puppy as a champion, spectacular specimen quality at 8 weeks, only to have that puppy by 14 weeks reveal itself as something less that spectacular, resulting in an unsatisfied dog owner, who may have become emotionally bonded with a young puppy, but they are disappointed with its physical and biomechanical attributes of the dog.
Their loyalty to the flock is amazing, it seems they love the flock as much as their family. Impressive dogs
The flock *is* their family 😊🐾
Flock is their family!!!
This was an awesome video and I was so happy to find it. My grandpa immigrated here from the basque region in Spain and herded for Pete Arambel in the Wind River Range. He would loan us some horses for the summer to ride around and care for when I was young. Great memories!
Awesome, I love this stuff!! Ranchers, thanks for all that you do. Its great to see dogs doing what they are bred to do.
Akbash are fantastic LGDs! They are so smart and brave
yes!! basically the same as great Pyrs
Do they do well in hot weather with their shorter fur?
Thanks for sharing! Great to see all the different lgd across the globe!
They’re having to adapt to a new reality. Which is that you’ve got more predators, especially wolves on the range so you have to adapt accordingly in terms of how you run, sheep, as well as having guardian dogs on the flocks.
It’s about saying to the predator this is the price for having a lamb dinner can be a very high one if you start a fight with us.
It also means that you can have a population of Wolves on the ranges, which yourself helps to keep down numbers of wild grazing animals, as well as ensure that unhealthy ones get eaten, rather than spread disease
I have a Pyranees Shepard mix best dog I've had he's tough as nails and very protective.
There's a Tom Hanks movie called "Greyhound" and it really represents the sheeps and the guard dogs... Great movie,i would say
When I met my wife she had a great Pyrenees the first time I met him he would stand between me and her and growl at me but he wouldn't bite me he wouldn't attack me. I'm a dog man I know dogs inside and out I've had Heelers and Border Collies. So every time I was around him I would pet him and try to talk to him and rub his ears and stuff and he would always kind of growled. It took probably two months before he quit growling at me. His name was Boo he was a very very good dog he knew his job and he did it well. I had a Red Heeler and a border collie and a white lab at the time all female he was a male. I introduced one dog at a time to him and he like every one of them especially the white lab. Oh my gods were fixed so there was no chance of bleeding. But he came to be the best dog in the world because he was protect both of us and all of my dogs he was huge. He protected chickens Ducks goats cattle and horses and he thought my dogs to do the same. Nothing I mean nothing happened on our farm that they didn't know about and was promptly bark and let us know if something out of the ordinary was going on. If anybody stopped their car anywhere near our road they would bark if anything came on our property a coyote a bobcat a mountain lion they would bark constantly boo would go after them and pretty soon my dogs start following him they would Chase stuff way off of our property. Little things like possums Coons and skunks they did not bother they just let him walk through they knew that was not a threat. But if a fox or a bobcat or a mountain lion came anywhere near our place they were met with pure aggression led by boo.
This is really good, thank you ❤️🇬🇧❤️
Wonderful! What happens to the Guard dog when it doesn't come back / can't get caught or brought back in?
If they don't come back it means they died fighting off monsters
PS because they highly, highly intelligent and don't really get lost. They know their purpose is protection and they have no fear to fight a bear or wolves. even YT has some videos of this
Makes perfect sense to me♥️
I put a deposit down on an Anatolian pup 5 weeks ago, after spending over a year convincing my family that we will need one eventually, and I'm not willing to wait until we lose an animal. Our neighbors report coyote sightings all the time, there are raccoons around, some big cats, and even a bear nearby - and we are firmly in the suburbs. We saw a coyote in the yard 4 days ago. That dog can't get here soon enough.
I live in surburbia myself, and there are coyotes here as well! I have an Akbas/Great Pyrenees mix.
@@Dem0nD0ll nice mix
Deborah, I hope you realize that in Turkey the "Anatolian Shepherd" which is a European and American breed, was not an established breed until Europeans and Americans coming to Turkey in the 1970's -1990's (people brought dogs back from Turkey before this, but in very small numbers, usually USA and NATO service men or diplomats) began attempting to purchase Kangal, and obtained mongrelized Kangal of inferior quality and conformation, and it was the "foreigners" coming to Turkey who first began using the term Anatolian Shepherd to describe their mongrels, wanting people to believe these were purebred dogs. Turkey did not accept the breed Anatolian Shepherd until much later, when economic pressures coerced government officials to accept the term Anatolian Shepherd and establish a registry, even though genetic studies confirmed that Anatolians Shepherds were mongrelized Kangal, Akbash, or Central Asian Ovtcharka. The Kangal is the most genetical studied dog breed in the world, because the Turkish government maintains the breed standard and registry, as they do with their magnificent Akhal-Teke Horse. DNA studies confirm that dogs referred to as Anatolian Shepherds are Kangal. Akbash, CAO, Kars, Armenian Gampr that have been mongrelized with an assortment of local, often non-pure-breed dogs, which explains the very wide phenotypic expression of "Anatolian Shepherds" versus the homogeneous appearance of the Kangal. I was introduced to a shepherd in the SIvas region of Turkey in 1996, after being invited to inspect the national Kangal Kennels by the Turkish government. Of course, I assume you are familiar with the fact that it is illegal to remove a purebred Kangal from Turkey, without first receiving government authorization, which I was provided. I meet with this shepherd who befriended me, stayed with him and slept in the field with his dogs for two weeks, and was allowed to purchase a truly magnificent specimen puppy from him. He matured into a 34.5 inches at the withers, 177 lb male ARBA champion. I show occasionally, but became very disillusioned with dog shows (sorry about the sexist nature of this rant in advance), but a number of women showing dogs, exhibited very petty and narcissistic dispositions, with vile posts online accusing each other of various transgressions and instead of complimenting another breeder for a superior specimen, became exceedingly jealous and envious, and sought to discredit any breeder with specimen superior to their own. They took the fun out of showing dogs for me. The Akbash, Kangal, Turkish Mastiff (Malaklisi) are magnificent Turkish breeds. Dogs considered Anatolian Shepherds may work well as a LGD or they may not, and you might obtain a nice specimen, but they will rarely approach the quality of a true Kangal and are much more of a mixed bag, less reliably excellent. I prefer the Central Asian Ovtcharka, of which the Kangal is virtually identical genetically and will be breeding a former UKC champion, 194 lbs in best condition, 33.5 inches at the withers, exceedingly athletic male, 28 inch neck, standing 6'6" tall when on his hind quarters, a true working-line dog that killed 5 coyote-wolf hybrids (25% -50% larger compared to the western coyotes), caught and killed a bobcat, two buck deer, and a copperhead snake. The benefit of the CAO versus the Anatolian or Great Pyrenees, is the CAO is considerably larger making them better suited to confront medium to large predators, has a low Basal Metabolic Rate, so they do not eat that much compared to their great size, and tend not to wonder off property as many other LGD breeds do. The Kangal is better suited for warmer climates than would be CAO from Kazakhstan or Great Pyrenees, but COA's from Uzbekistan with the shorter variety CAO coats tolerate the heat not quite as well as the Kangal, but better than dogs from Kazakhstan with the longer outer coat and heavier undercoat.
Good choice my neighbors Anatolian killed 4 coyotes in a fight, no one knows how many jumped him but we know he won.
What kind of dogs you running and how many how many dogs and how many different breeds and how many Kangal dogs are in that bunch just curious
Really cool video
our Akkbash scares away all but the biggest black bears here in Colorado.
The dogs in the Roman or old carvings in the beginning of the video are not LGD's. They're mastiffs; they were used as war dogs and were also used to attack American Indians when the Europeans first found gold in the "New World".
Why do they say kay-oat instead of cayote?
100k lets go!!!
Gamprs, Sharplaninacs, bankhars, Tobets. All of these breeds are pretty hard dogs to use when you need a livestock dog. They'll protect the sheep and most even chase after and kill wolves if they know the sheep are looked after.
If you are concerned with the influx of large wolves… why do you not integrate some Kangal into your pack of dogs?
Question ?mWill the sheep desertify the terrain or are they easy onnthe land ?
All a matter of land to sheep ratio.
What is the name of the breed?
What breed are this dogs?
Akbash dog
Dog
They're Humpty trumptys when they're not protecting the sheep they're fleecing them!Lol
i am a Türk, i am sure that the full white one is AKBAŞ (origin from Eskisehir/Türkey).
The white one(s) with dark patches and full tails look like they may be Anatolian shepherds. IDK about the one with the docked tail, though. White one looks like an Akbash, like the Türk said. Long haired white LGDs are usually Great Pyrenees or Pyr mixes due to how popular the Pyr is.
what breed of sheep are those RED BACK sheep? when wolves show get more dogs
Wonder if Lama would be better since they eat what the sheep eat.
Lamas are probably what the wolves eat when they get tired of sheep.
Central Asian shepard dog - the toughest dogo out there
I need to adopt an adult livestock guardian dog or dogs to protect my herd and places but I don't know how to make them accept me or the herd.
The main issue they need time to grow up!!!
get a pack of Kangals
You are right
I heard kangals walk away from the flock
@@carlosayala6754 we have eight working Kangals. We have six different pastures that they can move between at will. The dogs choose where they need to be. They know where our goats and birds are. They are also not limited like us humans as far as scent, hearing, and sight as to where threats are.
Yes, they will walk away from the livestock (as you saw the dogs in the video do) when they know there are no threats in the area. They will pick up on a threat long before I do. They then get to that area far sooner than I could get there.
The dogs will sometimes be in separate fields, sometimes all together. When apart they will communicate, and come to help where needed.
I have learned to trust their decisions. They have more information on what is going on out there than I do. They are there essentially 24x7 while I am not.
@@carlosayala6754 They only walk away to secure the perimeter. Which can be a problem if you're on a small farm and you don't want the dog bothering the neighbors. But kangal is perfect for big open spaces
@@carlosayala6754 Climate of your zone is important for choose Kangals pack.Kangals are good at working cold climate.
KANGAL AND AKBAS YOU CAN NOT GO WRONG. BUT DO NAT MIX THEM WITH THE OTHER DOG BREEDS. THEY ARE TURKIS HERD DOGS. KEEP THEM PURE.
I have a litter of Caucasian Ovchaka pups if you or someone you know is interested.
They need a job to do.
They are currently 3 weeks old.
The parents have papers.
Wow,fantastic dogs .If I owned some land(and that is the plan in the future),these are the dogs I would like to have!.
.Hope u find suitable canidates 👍
Humans trying to rescue the LGD's. Have they called animal control because they aren't in the house sitting on a throne and having their every whim catered to by their human slaves?
Tha't is cão de gado transmontano super dogs.
Only one dog !!!!🤔
Use alabi dogs and sarplanic dogs cut ears 👂 use spickoler.
Others dog owners are only show off...
These are mongrelized LGD's, certainly not purebreds, and they were all rather small LGD's, too small to deter wolves, unless in overwhelming numbers. In fact their small size would serve to embolden wolves and perhaps prompt an attack, on what the wolves would perceive as weak, over-matched dogs. Their dogs look to be in the 90-110 lb range, whereas my males range from 175 - 200+ lbs, and that additional 100 lbs of bone and muscle make a big difference in functional capabilities, intimidation, and survivability. The reality is that ranchers and farmers rarely obtain high-quality dogs, because they do not want to pay the price for a quality specimen, which can range from $2,500 - $5,000 for a young puppy, more for truly exceptional specimen of renowned lines, and up to six figures for a spectacular subadult specimen, and as a result they have mainly runts of the liter, or certainly nothing that would be considered a championship quality, show quality, or superior specimen. The ranchers who have contacted me, were generally interested in paying $500 for a dog. As the saying goes, you often get what you pay for. I rarely breed, but when I do, my intent is always to produce genetic outliers, to shift the genetic bell curve, with all of my dogs being from renowned working lines, often fighting champions (but not from strict fighting lines). Dogs from fighting lines often do not work well within a pack of LGD's and therefore, do not make great LGD's, although they may function wonderfully as personal protection dogs, whereas dogs from a line that were fighting champions and of working lines, function well as LGD's. When people breed to primarily accentuate the fighting disposition and acumen of their dogs, they often create lines that loose sociability and therefore ability to co-exist and function harmoniously within a pack of LGD's. In a pack of LGD's or any pack of dogs for that matter, there will be physical altercations and battles to establish the pack order, who are the alpha male and female, and when you breed strictly or primarily to enhance fighting abilities, the dogs produced tend to be very alpha and much less amenable to socialization to other dogs. I will be breeding a former UKC Champion male Central Asian Ovtcharka, weighing 194-203 lbs depending upon the season, 33.5 inches at the withers, 28 inch circumference neck, extremely broad across the chest, very substantial bone, the most massive canines in a dog one could ever imagine, roughly 2X larger than those of a large male Canadian Timberwolf, standing approximately 78 inches tall when on his hind quarters, the most athletic dog of comparable size that I or any of my colleagues ever witnessed, able when in his prime to out-run and out-maneuver hunting dogs, easily jump over a 7 foot tall fence, killed 5 coyote-wolf hybrids, (25% - 50% larger than western coyotes) in quick order, two buck deer in less than 60 seconds, a bobcat, and copperhead snake. I am importing females of the highest quality, from Kazakhstan and Uzbekistan to breed with him. If anything is produced resembling the quality of my male, I will keep a few, and depending on the number of puppies produced in the litter, offer some for sale. If the breeding produces more than one spectacular genetic outlier male, I will take reservations, but the price will be five figures minimum and age of transfer not prior to 16 weeks of age, the breeding of AI technique. It often takes a large specimen males puppy at least 12-16 weeks of development before you start to get an idea of structure and movement, they simply take longer to grow into themselves. A puppy at 8 weeks of age may appear great, and by 14 weeks things can go south, with rear angulation, cow-hocked conformation, being high in the rear, a head out of proportion to the dog (too small being a major concern),or sub-optimal movement and kinematics being exhibited. I do not like to sell someone a puppy as a champion, spectacular specimen quality at 8 weeks, only to have that puppy by 14 weeks reveal itself as something less that spectacular, resulting in an unsatisfied dog owner, who may have become emotionally bonded with a young puppy, but they are disappointed with its physical and biomechanical attributes of the dog.