Orhan Yilmaz and Mehmet Ertugrul
Keywords: Canis familiaris, shepherd dog, morphological trait, body measurement
Abstract: This study was carried out to determine the body measurements of Turkish Kangal (Karabash) Shepherd Dogs raised in Belgium, France, Germany and Slovenia comparing them with certain other breeds from different countries. To this end, a total of 39 (18 male and 21 female) dogs were analyzed with the Minitab 15 statistical software program using ANOVA and Student’s T-Test. Descriptive statistics were for live weight 50.5 ± 0.83 kg, height at shoulder 76.8 ± 0.50 cm, height at rump 76.1 ± 0.55 cm, body length 67.3 ± 0.63 cm, chest width 21.7 ± 0.26 cm, limb length 43.1 ± 0.47 cm, head length 29.4 ± 0.25 cm and ear length 12.7 ± 0.16 cm, respectively. The overall results of the study demonstrated that Turkish Kangal (Karabash) Shepherd Dogs raised in Belgium, France, Germany and Slovenia had a very close resemblance to dogs raised in the UK and USA, but that they were larger than the dogs raised in Turkey. In Europe the dogs reach mature body weight and size at around 2 years of age. The overall results of the current study revealed that the Turkish Kangal Dogs raised abroad were larger because of better life conditions.
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