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Detail : THE HAIR ON THE NECK
has a ruff which extends to a mane reaching to the chest. This is
particularly pronounced in males dogs." Some examples can be
seen right. The ruff is often thinner in females, nevertheless, it can
be seen too. The hair tapers to a point on the chest, that's more
pronounced when the dog is sitting or lying, especially when the
collar isn't very rich (in females, or/and in summer or/and in
moulting coat : see right the same bitch and the same day,
standing or lying. The ruff begins to be drawn in the young dog.
dewlap or pronounced neck ruff. In male dogs there can be a
barely developed mane ; this must, however, not be noticeable."
The FCI standard (dated 1969) of the Croatian Sheepdog don't
give anything but "... covered with thick hair".
There's no doubt for me that the Mudi standard requires barely
developed mane to make a difference with the Croatian Sheepdog.
The Croatian Sheepdogs have often a mane which tapers to a point
on the chest, exactly like the Kuvaszes, and that can be seen
especially when the mane appears first, before the normal hair on
the body, for example in young dogs, or after a moulting coat - see
photos right. It happens easily that the mane stays, thinner but thick
enough, in a moulting coat.
the upper part of the neck is flat and parted : see the photos of
Arslan, and the difference with his brother.
mutation ; but this characteristic isn't at all new in Arslan's blood
line : his father and his siblings sometimes show more or less
parted hair on the neck, especially when they put their head down
to the ground, sometimes it's even pronounced during a few days,
and then the hair mix more or less again ; so I turn down the
hypothesis of a mutation
It's not easy to see this on the photos, but when Arslan's brothers
or father got parted hair, the hair isn't as flat as Arslan's one. And
it would be easy enough to mix it with the fingers, while the flat
hair of Arslan makes it more difficult.
- my Croatian Sheepdog blood line has been crossed with a dog
who had parted hair.
- this is a feature that belongs to the breed for a long time, and
which has been more or less eliminated either naturally or by
breeders. I'm thoroughly convinced that the second hypothesis is
the right one.
First, I don't think that only one mating with another breed (and
what breed has such a feature ?) or with a crossbreed dog could
let such a mark in the Croatian Sheepdog breed, especially after
a few generations. I can't imagine several mating by dogs with
parted hair, it would mean that some breeder(s) would have want
to introduce this characteristic in the Croatian Sheepdog breed,
but then, how all the others features of the Croatian sheepdog
could have stayed like in the past ?
Some other things strengthen my opinion. The FCI standard of
the Spitz writes that the parted hair on the back is a fault ; so the
parted hair on the back could possibly appears in this breed, and
Spitz are especially a primitive breed ; so I think that parted hair
on the neck and even on the back is a primitive characteristic of
some dogs. For I noticed several times this fact in my Croatian
Sheepdogs : the hair is parted on the back line before the
beginning of the tail (on the hindquarters). It wasn't surprising to
find this on Arslan, who has permanently parted hair on the neck,
but on the hindquarters, the parted hair isn't continuous. It was
more amazing to find exactly the same on another dog of mine,
which isn't related with Arslan (of course they got some common
ancestors). So the parted hair, or at least some parted hair
inclination, can be found in different blood lines, and that
reinforces my conviction that this feature belongs to the breed for
a long enough time.
Why did the Hungarians didn't use this characteristic as a
difference between Mudi and Croatian sheepdog ? I think that the
Hungarians never knew this feature : except in the case of
pronounced and continuous parted hair (like Arslan), it's easy to
mix the hair and hide an inclination to parted hair, especially for
dogshows - and I think that the Hungarians knew some Croatian
Sheepdogs rather in dogshows than in the farms. I never heard
about parted hair neither in the Mudi nor in the Kuvasz.
Isabelle Coquinot
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