This is a long read but i feel necessary to keep all together for full absorption. That way if a person wants to venture into this, they have the full concept.

The vision in creating BozKennel-USA is being made to preserve an already magnificent LGD, but to also hopefully improve them. Otherwise, to take an opposite path that almost every other breed of LGD and most athletic or function-based guardian breeds is currently on. This will be achieved by creating a dog breeding model encompassing all the dogs in it to facilitate central control on all aspects of breeding for the purpose of achieving true advancements in quality. The ultimate goal will be producing world class athletic guardian dogs unparalleled in size and ability to serve as the world’s guardians.

This breeding model has the potential to bring real advancements but will not be easy or for those lacking the discipline to make sacrifice. Otherwise, you must believe the end result is more important than making immediate profits.

The reason in the creation of the model for BozKennel-USA is to better replicate both the historic and natural processes that created superior LGDs in Turkey and bring back the historical quality that once existed. Luckily, we are starting with a 30-year head start following the Legacy of Akin Tulubas.

In the past 15 years since NaturalBornGuardians worked with Akin to import the first Boz to the USA, it has become sadly obvious that they are starting to follow the path of Kangals, Anatolians and Pyrenees in their degradation. Americans are loving their animals to their detriment, by making excuses for bad traits, not having them in true testing placements or basing decisions to breed on the financial investment made or the profit that could be gained.  The average size, orthopedic health, phenotype and LGD work ethic are starting to suffer in a few Boz bloodlines. Size, structural health and athleticism with the inherent ability to engage predators, along with temperament and neurological stability and a whole range of other problems have already degraded many of the other LGD breeds in North America.

The average American model for breeding has been to buy a male and a female puppy or two and hope they don’t have to many faults or health problems when they grow up, so that they can be bred. Their testing usually consists of small homestead farm operations and minimal predator encounters. With the financial investment and propensity to make excuses for animals we love many decisions to breed have been made in error. This has also been exacerbated by some intentional and some suspected accidental crosses entering the gene pool.

In the past 15 years we have learned many lessons with these dogs. The most important is maintaining a balance. What we mean with a balance is that every characteristic or trait has to be considered in every matchup or breeding. This is crucial in that there are no perfect dogs when you look at all traits. Some traits will need to be balanced so as to not accentuate non desirable ones, or enhance another trait to supply dogs to placements that need special characteristics.

The problem in the USA is the average breeder buys their dogs as pups and truly knows little about them until they grow up. Even when a breeder has a litter and keeps their pick or the best pup back it is only a guess at 8 weeks. Size seems to be the characteristic most sought after. As they grow is when you learn about all the other traits and characteristics. It is usually just luck that allows a breeder to end up with a pair of dogs that truly compliment each other.

Some of the more dedicated breeders have a couple males and half a dozen or more females, and maybe even some of those are imports of fresh genetics. When they have a litter they hold back one or two pups for evaluation. Usually in this model they are better able to match up or balance out good or bad traits to produce a well rounded pup. But even this is limited by expense and space to hold dogs.   

To better understand what we hope to achieve here is to get a better idea of what Akin has worked 30+ years to establish in Turkey. Akin’s journey and love for the dogs began more than 30 years ago when there were many amazing dogs still left in Turkey. The shift from an agrarian to an industrial society has both changed the landscape and the dogs that once protected sheep on the open ranges. Even in Turkey the quality and availability of the great shepherd dogs or Koban Kopegi is being lost. Property is being owned and fenced and the huge flocks are replaced by smaller flocks on holdings. This population decline and loss of the historic selective pressures that kept the LGDs at the top is having impact on the dogs available in Turkey.

This was only the most recent force to degrade the quality of the dogs. Remember, the mountain ranges where Boz as well as the other LGDs from that part of the world once faced far more dangerous predators. Today the predators consist of wolves, bear, jackals, Lynx and boar. Until more recent times it also included Tigers, Lions, Leopards and Hyena. You can only imagine that the level of dog needed to function as a LGD facing all of those predators was at a level few of us can imagine today.

The archeological site of Jamal produced canine bones larger than the wolves. When assembled the best morphological match is the shepherd dogs of the local nomadic shepherds. This site dated back to 11,000 years ago and contained dogs that had more robust bones, skulls with regards to muscle attachments and larger teeth. These are the level of dogs I would like to bring back, something that can handle the wolf, bear, mountain lion and lynx in North America and other predators around the world.  

Back to Akin and his endeavors. His love for the dogs required his traveling to learn and find the best dogs and specimens he could. In doing so he realized that many areas had almost or already lost their once great bloodlines. Part in business part in efforts of preservation he began to acquire, breed and disseminate dogs out to areas that had a few remaining good dogs so that he could go back and pick up some genetics in the future, and areas that had lost their genetics he would supply them with a genetic start so they could be a source for raising and testing dogs.    By doing this for 30 years he has been able to resource enough varied genetics and pick the top specimens to incorporate into his breeding program. This has been greatly facilitated by the fact that he now host 5-6 Dog Shows across Turkey every year. In the average year he judges or sees around 1,000 Turkish Boz dogs. He has used this evaluation process to identify and pull genetics from the top fraction of a percent into his breeding program. I myself have witnessed a huge improvement in both the size and structural quality of his dogs in the past 10 years alone.   

For BozKennel-USA he has agreed and dedicated himself to select the top .5% or 5-6 dogs to either purchase and send to us for this program or to breed select females to these males and send them to us.  Technically this is not the top 0.5% in quality of the dog population in Turkey, this is the top 0.5% of the top quality of dogs that the owners thought could win a competition. There will also be dogs selected from the few remaining pockets of quality dogs left with Nomadic people. This alone will put us at a level beyond comparison to any LGD program I am aware of.   

This continuous importation of genetics is a hugely expensive endeavor but necessary to maintain genetic health of the dogs at least until a sufficiently large and varied gene pool is established.   The focus at first will be well balanced dogs with the absolute best structure we can find and import. After our base is sufficient, we can import traits we feel we are lacking such as predator elimination, drive to hunt, LGD drive or just general toughness. What comes to mind is my female Bery mother’s bloodline that hunts wolves to consume them as a food source, as well as poisonous snakes.

All the puppies produced by dogs in this Co-op will be also held in this same Co-op, as will every generation afterwards. Eventually the ability to identify those individuals with extreme quality will be made and their legacies can create phenomenal bloodlines. DNA test to prove parentage will be made, and to also make possible to identify unsanctioned matings made outside of the central control or with outside dogs.

The most important part of this program is a vetting process incorporating X-rays, genetic testing and evaluation of all aspects of physical and temperamental characteristics through unbiased evaluation. Placements of males in difficult testing situations will enable us to identify those dogs that have the qualities that may be needed to either enhance or balance a mating.

The decision process of whether to breed a female and to which male will include the owner of the female and the core of the co-op, but the ultimate decision will rest on Akin Tulubas’s 30+ years of experience and the 11 Cynology trained expert judges he trained and now relies on. As Akin is able to train enough core breeders in the USA, the central control can be shifted to the USA.

This control and sacrifice will come with some loss of revenue for the breeder and loss of full control of the individual dog owners but will ultimately allow access to genetics and quality not otherwise available. The increased value of the dogs because of quality should compensate for the limited breeding or held back puppies. The owners of the males will be limited to only breeding with approved females or supplying semen for breeding’s for which they will be provided with the standard stud fee or pup. The Co-op will keep all of the progeny produced in the program that will ensure availability to be able to breed the very best to the best match for them.  Think breeding only the top 20-40% of females with the top 5% of males. Mating’s will only be made after careful consideration and consultation with the owner of the female/male, members of the program and with Akin utilizing his Cyanological team.

All of this effort will be followed up with a public and private database to track all ownership and bloodlines of the dogs. This will be extremely useful in to track and identify genetic traits in bloodlines that may not be immediately observable or testable. Some bloodlines with bad traits will need to be phased out, but some may just need to be bred away from. Traits may include structural/orthopedic health, LGD behaviors like staying with charges and protection, intelligence and trainability, prey drive and safety with stock, guarding/human aggression, size in height/length/width/bone/skull/tooth/foot, speed/athleticism and gait, immune system, skin/diet sensitivities, bite and others. Information gained from this tracking will enable more informed breeding decisions to be made.

This will ultimately subvert the same path of demise that every other breed of LGD has been subjected to. We will have dogs being tested in every environment from home guardian, small to large land tracts with livestock and high predator pressure and even boar and coyote hunting.    We will be able to mate what has been determined to be the very best not at 8 weeks under current models but the very best at 2-4 years old after being evaluated on hips, athleticism, structure, intelligence, work ethic, LGD traits, genetic testing etc. With having dogs being tested and evaluated in varied environments and different bloodlines for those environments we can better balance out dogs that need something added into the mix. 

We will have bloodlines for small holdings with temperaments for families. Bloodlines for areas on large holdings with high or formidable predator pressures. Bloodlines focused on physical abilities and drive and a variance of size from working LGD to giants. With each generation the size and scope of the program will grow and potential for quality will follow, as well as the ability to make better breeding’s with regard to balancing or enhancing traits.

Implementing this program will be difficult and at a significant cost. The real gains in quality won’t be fully realized for 4-5 years when the progeny of the first generation are two years old and fully mature to face evaluation. This will be a breeding model only for those dedicated to being part of something great in the dog breeding world. It will come at a sacrifice of initial profits compared to the standard model of just buy and breed, but we feel that the obvious supreme quality and value of the dogs produced will make up for the decreased sales and pups off the top. The sacrifice of pups from every litter will be necessary to fund the continued importation, judges time, office worker for data collection/communication/record keeping/legal fees, websites, genetic testing, artificial insemination and semen storage, transportation as well as placement of free pups into extreme testing environments. Without all of this this endeavor will fail.

  Model for ownership will be at different buy in levels.  We will have to keep a level of fluidity to maximize optimal placements. 

Testing  Placements;

  These will be to places that provide something that the dogs can be evaluated for such as large tracts to evaluate if the dogs bond to and stay with the flocks. High predator pressure areas or areas with the more formidable predators like. Coyote or Boar hunters or even someone that can run the dogs extensively. Large poultry operations, exotic game ranches or anything that can test dogs beyond the average working placement.  If these female dogs are bred will likely be moved prior and new testing dogs placed, otherwise if male just semen collection and storage. 

Free Placements;

  Will be reserved for special potential breeding dogs where a higher level of trust is needed.  In placements like this the decision to breed and roughly 75% of pups will be retained by the co-op. The remaining 25% will be used to cover expenses and trouble of their owner. 

50% Purchase Placements;

  This can be used to help get pups into ideal placements that can’t afford the full price.  Roughly 50% of pups will be retained.

100% Purchase Placements;

  In this model one pup or the price equivalent will go to owner of the stud and two pups will be retained by the co-op for testing placements and to cover expenses. 

Guaranteed Breeder Placements;

  The initial purchase price of these females will be approximately 50% more. In this model the females will be replaced at whatever age they are determined to be not worthy of breeding. Once a female has produced a litter this will be null and void. When given a replacement it will be necessary to be taken into consideration the value of the female or the value of the placement for testing and promotion. 

Amount of retained pups can be altered to compensate for small litters or extenuating circumstances as a level of fluidity is sometimes necessary to maximize progress to the end goal of producing the most amazing dogs.