Who are "Hottosho"? 

At “Eurasia-2005” dogs of an unknown breed drew everybody’s attention. The name of the breed is "khottosho-bankhar". "Khottosho" in Buryat means “a domestic wolf”, while "bankhaar" is the Mongolian for "shaggy". What does it all mean? Another “ancient” new breed restored according to descriptions and pictures by a method of reproductive cross of dogs of different breeds similar to the desirable breed, or a forgotten "relict", eventually found itself in the field of “civilized” cynology? In the rings of "Eurasia" red khottosho were mixed up with Leonbergers, the black ones - with Newfoundland dogs, while the black-singe ones were taken by someone for Hovavarts or Zenenhounds, but when dogs appeared in the ring, the bewilderment disappeared and all the questions were resolved – we could see a pedigree breed of dogs which moved in a perfect manner, these dogs, perhaps, are more likely to be similar, comparing with modern "Asians" which, sometimes, resemble one another only by stopped ears and a tail.

Let's talk about this breed history. During Soviet times in pre-war books on cynology and reports on exhibitions of service dogs there were mentions of “Mongolian sheep-dogs”. The last exhibition where one could still see “Mongols” was XI All-Union show of service dog breeding conducted by ОСОАВИАХИМ of the USSR on August, 23-25, 1935. According to cynologists Y.M.Pilshchikov and A.P.Mazover, in post-war years Mongolian sheep-dogs were concentrated in the Semipalatinsk region where they were imported by wandering shepherds - Mongolian arats during the Great Patriotic War. In their book “Our friend” (Pilshchikov, Mazover; Alma-Ata, 1973) the description of these dogs is given. The Buryat - Mongolian dogs in Tuva are called “kadyrtchyyt” - a shepherd dog, in Mongolia – “khototch nokhoy” - a four-eye dog. They were also called a khoonnu dog - after ancient great people khoonnu that were roaming across the steppes of Southeast Siberia, Buryatiya and Mongolia in the period approximately from 300 BC till 300 AD. Ethnoses disappear or mix with other ethnoses, but dogs remain, and they look at us mysteriously from the depth of millenia, as if they had something important to tell us… (photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5).

In 1980^{s enthusiasts from Ulan-Ude took out some indigenous dogs from certain indistinct areas of the Chita region and Mongolia and started to work with this pedigree breed, periodically crossing them with "natives" recently imported from Mongolia. Nikolay Batov and Marica Teregulova declared them in the Russian Cynological Federation (RCF) as an existing breed. On April 18, 2000 at the session of the RCF breeding commission the pedigree breed of dogs was registered under the common name of the Buryat-Mongolian wolfhound (BMW). Ulan-Ude also worked concurrently with Moscow. Other fanciers of "antiquity" - Ilya Artemyevich Zaharov-Gezehus – B.D., professor, Corresponding Member of the Russian Academy of Science, director of ИОГенРАН together with senior research worker S.N.Kashtanov brought from Tuva and Altai, where they took part in a scientific expedition, aboriginal dogs that differed from the "Buryat" breed a little by only an easier phylum of the constitution. They registered dogs in the Union of Cynological Organizations of Russia (UCOR) under the name of the Tuva sheep-dog kadyrtchyyt.}

Dogs are also taken out to Kalmykia where aboriginal cynologists have undertaken the regeneration of the extinct Kalmyk sheep-dog, and for this purpose they use dogs imported by them from Mongolia.

By the way, there remain very few dogs in places of their traditional habitation (Tuva and Altai in the Mongolian border areas, some indistinct areas of the Chita region), and infrequent stories about them can be heard from participants of scientific expeditions, tourists and frontier guards. In Mongolia there are more dogs, but, unfortunately, Mongolian cynologists seem not to be interested in the breed conservation for the time being.

In Buryatiya the population of approximately 40 dogs has been generated for 15 years of work with the breed. They are shown at exhibitions in Ulan-Ude and Chita. Eight years ago dogs from Buryatiya were brought to Moscow. Eugeny Manykina became the first Khottosho producer in Moscow. There are many dogs in her kennel and they all work guarding different objects. (Photo)

Five years ago Marica Teregulova handed over some Khottosho dogs to kennels "Convent" and "Thunder". At present in Moscow and the Moscow region there is a population of 40 dogs that appear at exhibitions on a regular basis and this year 12 dogs of different age-grades have been introduced at "EURASIA-2005" for the first time.

In October of 2004 the “Inter-regional Club of the Buryat-Mongolian Dog fanciers” (МКБС) was established in Moscow.

In February of 2005 the RCF standards commission accepted the standard for this pedigree bunch. That commission took the decision on the change of the breed name taking into account national traditions. The present name of the pedigree breed is “khottosho-bankhar (the Buryat - Mongolian dog)”.

Well, what does khottosho look like? This is large, from 60 up to 80 cm height at the shoulder, dog with strong and potent, but not rough skeleton. They have a large head with a little bit smoothed transition, massive, but not short muzzle. Pendulous ears are rather highly put. Small eyes put deeply enough are colored from amber up to dark-brown, however, there are yellow-eyed dogs, and that is not fault. A distinctive feature: sometimes yellow-eyed 4-month pups turn dark-eyed by one year of age. The wool is rough, long; there may be also mediate wool phylum. The coloring of the vast majority is black-singe or black, but there are also many red or reddish dogs, as well as pale-yellow with a black mask. One can seldom meet zonary-gray-singe dogs. Pups may frequently change their coloring in such an unpredictable manner that it is impossible to specify their coloring in the pup map. It can cardinally change from brown into red or sable by 10 months of age; or from black into singe or zonary. By the way, this phenomenon is typical for many breeds of indigenous mountain dogs, laikas and greyhounds. By a general impression khottosho is rather moloss, than laikoid, just like chow-chow is more laikoid, than moloss. It is obvious that these breeds developed in parallel and, probably, in different historical periods they were crossed with each other. Like any aboriginal breed, khottosho do not represent a certain uniform mass.

The population of dogs is great and pedigree phylums vary from almost "laika-sheepdog" type on boreal borders of habitation up to typical pramoloss in the southeast (Tibet foothills). Apparently, the pedigree breed of the Buryat-Mongolian dogs is a type of a very ancient Central Asian shepherd-sentry breed that was relict and a primogenitor of many modern breeds of sheepdogs, huskies and molosses. Historians point out to eastern and southeastern Asia as a homeland of the first tamed and domesticated dogs … (still photos 1, 2, 3, 4, 5, 6)

And now let’s ask the main question which is posed by a person looking at a dog and wishing to acquire it. What is its character and what is it capable of?

The Buryat-Mongolian dog has always been used by nomads as a shepherd-sentry, droving and etching dog. Nonmigratory peoples used it as a guard and hunting dog. The dogs are engaged in the same craft still up to the present. They help Tuvinians grass yaks, Mongols - cows, sheep and horses. And today in Mongolia they hunt practically for all kinds of beasts with these dogs. On hunting the dogs carry out duties of both laika, and hound. In 1920s in our country the Mongolian sheepdogs were used on guarding southeast boundaries of the State Frontier and special objects in the Far East. Frontier guards emphasized high malice of the dogs.

Today khottosho work patrolling farmsteads and some special objects, they are also successfully employed by the Emergency Ministry, as well as grass cattle on farms situated near Moscow. Remaining a real multipurpose working dog with a strongly pronounced territorial instinct, khottosho shows a surprising propensity to obedient behavior and is similar to the German sheep-dog by a degree of its stickiness to the master, though its nearest neighbors are "Caucasians" and "Asians". (Photos 1, 2,)

The attention to aboriginal breeds of domestic animals, efforts on their conservation is one of global tendencies all over the world, in fact, they are an alive cultural heritage of mankind. The programs of national breeds conservation are supported both by government structures, and official cynological organizations in all advanced countries. So why do we appreciate foreign, "overseas", more than ours, native?! Isn’t it high time to recollect that it is still possible to rescue the Vyatka and Mesenka horse-breeds, breeds of boreal indigenous laikas, the Buryat-Mongolian dog and other invaluable breeds of domestic animals which served people for thousands of years and suddenly became unduly forgotten!

In kennel " CONVENT " there are pups of the Buryat-Mongolian dog khottosho.

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