Breeding the Armenian Gampr: the background information
Armenian Gampr Club of America
Important historical considerations
The Armenian Gampr is a rare breed in need of careful, thoughtfully planned
breeding, and the AGCA will support healthy breeding practices. The qualitifications
that make any other dog qualified to breed by general, or even AKC or FCI
standards, may not all apply to the genetic needs of the ancient gampr breed. During
the last 100 years, the political events and socio-economical pressures within
Armenia have led to practices which have watered down many of the native
bloodlines that remain, after most of the well-known and renowned bloodlines were
removed from the country. The remaining old-bloodline dogs in the highlands
are not easy to find, but are the most in need of preservation. This is the
goal of the Armenian Gampr Club of America.

    Historically, the 'gampr' was the dog that was part of the lifestyles of the
    inhabitants of the Armenian Plateau, the Caucasus, and surrounding areas.
    Ancient cultural references to the gampr include a variety of pictographs,
    historical legends, and ancient spiritual references beginning at the end of the
    last ice age, which have been well-known amongst Armenians for millennia,
    predating their adoption of Christianity by many thousands of years. In order to
    preserve this breed, it is necessary to take into consideration the
    characteristics which relate to long-term survivability, usefulness
    within society, and how that may have been tampered with over the
    last few hundred years.

At right are a series of maps, from 2000 years ago to the present, showing some of  
the historical influence and occupation of the Armenians, and their dogs, for the last
2000 years, until the political upheavals and massacres of the last 100 years.
As you can see, there was a consistent, if changeable, presence of the civilization
which created the gampr in a broad area for thousands of years.

    This survey of historical changes is relevant to the decisions
    regarding what is, and what is not, gampr; and becomes relevant to
    how we handle our breeding programs.

The populations of dogs, who were working guardians of sheep and homes and
which lived on the Armenian Plateau, Lesser Caucasus Mountains and Caucasian
Mountains, shared a gene pool that over the centuries narrowed down into the
prevalent characteristics which were functional and predominant in their regions.
These general populations, as the Armenians were pushed north by the Ottoman
Turks, became the foundation of the varieties of guardian dogs found in Turkey
today: the Akbash, the Kars, the Kangal-Sivas, and what is known here in the USA as
the Anatolian. Any nation that holds ownership of a population of these dogs realizes
their value, their beauty, and usefulness, and with a desire for improving and
promoting what is theirs, creates an intentional program of breeding. During the last
100 years, there have been strong changes bred into the varieties that roamed the
ancient Armenian (now Anatolian) Plateau, which has resulted in actual individual
breeds emerging with their own sets of standards and characteristics.

    The third map from the top, created by the USA during the genocides of the
    early 1900s, shows the southern border of Armenia in 1915, when the
    Ottoman Empire pushed the Armenians further north, and at the same time
    became the new owners of the dogs native to the region which they renamed
    the "Anatolian Plateau." Lake Van is seen here inside the Armenian border,
    the name of which corresponds to the Van Cat, now renamed the 'Turkish
    Van,' which is a unique breed of domestic cat from that region.

After these upheavals in the south, what was left of the Armenian homeland in the
north became part of the USSR.
Armenian provinces of Kars, Ardahan, and Iğdır(Turkish for Ararat mountain area)
not to mention those which were included in the Treaty of Sevres were given to
Turkey by the Russians in exchange for some areas on the black sea coast that are
recognized as Georgia today. This was done also to get on good terms with Kemal
Pasha, the new leader of Turkey who had managed to organize forces for relentless
pressure on civilians and soldiers even after losing the great war. Europe and the US
had pulled out of the struggles in Turkey. Russia became Sovietized, and when Stalin
took over after Lenin's death, he began to pressure the Armenians. He annexed
Javakhk into Georgia (which had been a contested area, although most of the
population was Armenian). He added land to Georgia by trading Armenian lands,
then took Javakhk. Nakhijevan and Artsakh were given to a newly invented state,
Azerbaijan, to appease the Turks again, and to later ask them for allegiance. That
didn't turn out too well for Stalin, since Turkey joined NATO. Azerbaijan was invented
to put pressure on Iran, which has an ancient province called Aderbaijan. The people
of that province are almost all by ancestry Persians but were assimilated by the
Turks during the early invasions. The Azeri are mostly by ancestry North Caucasian
tribes(too many to mention), Armenian and Tatar mixed.

    This may seem a divergence from an explanation of breeding, but the
    development of the Armenian Gampr for thousands of years has had
    some recent re-defining of "Armenian" origin, therefore it is
    necessary to illuminate the latest boundary changes, and how to sort
    out what is actually Armenian or not. Stalin referred to dogs from the
    previously Armenian lands as "Caucasian," and when the boundaries of
    Armenia emerged from the USSR, it was a much smaller country, with the
    newly invented Georgia and Azerbaijan occupying the northern territories and
    Turkey occupying the south. But in the minds of Armenians, the dogs from
    these regions were still gamprs.

Of the many changes of the ruling government, the one affecting the physical
soundness of the dogs the most was the Soviet dog breeding program. For the
creation of several "new" breeds, the Soviets searched among their vast territories
for the most exemplary dogs of a variety of characteristics. Thousands of dogs were
taken from Armenia and the greater Caucasus. In their kennels, these dogs became
the focus of a breeding program that also included rottweiller, German Shepherd, St
Bernard and several others which the Soviets used to enhance certain desired
characteristics. In order to enhance a characteristic in a bloodline, it is generally
deemed necessary to line-breed, a custom that while enhancing a desired
characteristic also brings forth the related polygenic traits that may not be as
desirable.

    A very important distinction of the gampr and the mastiffs of central
    Asian descent is that they are a landrace breed with highly variable,
    and easily mutable, characteristics. The resident bloodlines have not been
    refined to the point of being so predictable that one can be assured of what
    results will happen with any particular breeding. Along with nearly every color
    possibility, there are endless variations of every kind that can be brought to
    bear within a few generations. The gampr is a genetically complex breed, and
    with all of the positive aspects of the breed, a forced manipulation for singling
    out any one aspect brings a host of others, linked polygenically, which then
    are compounded within that bloodline.

Upon the dissolution of the USSR, many dogs of many varieties were left behind, and
the countries which were re-establishing themselves became their new owners. Of
the breeds emerging from those programs, the Moscow Watch Dog is perhaps the
most sound. The Soviets were responsible for the intensifying of the coat of
"Caucasian Shepherd(Ovcharka)," into what is now a very long voluminous and
dramatic version of the original dog of the Caucasus Mountains and Transcaucasus.
As Stalin himself was Georgian, it was popular to claim that his favorites, the largest
and furriest specimens, were Georgian. Perhaps 80% of the current CO is of gampr
origins.

    However, they are no longer gampr, no longer of the highly variable
    gene pool that can exhibit such a variety of characteristics that
    littermates often look completely different. The CO has a distinctive
    look of its own, has fewer variables. It has become a standardized breed -
    bred to a prescriptive standard; the landrace gampr has at best a descriptive
    standard.

    The alabai is very close to the CAO, and some say they are the same. Both
    have been heavily impacted by the Soviet breeding program as well.

The changes which are important, and which are relevant to the breeding of the
gampr, are the changes that become cemented into a bloodline when line-breeding
and similar practices are used to 'refine' a characteristic, as opposed to the natural
selection which has occurred for thousands of years and has created the healthy
strength and vitality that these breeds are known for. Refining a color, refining a
temperament, refining any attribute is done at the expense of other unseen factors,
and bone structure and mental stability are of particular importance.
The current socio-economic situation in the countries which had been members of the USSR is
such that dog-fighting has become a lucrative industry. A dog who wins a fight also wins financial
rewards for his owner, and the trend of the last 20 years has intensified the pressure on the gene
pool to produce, at the expense of other genetic qualities, dogs who can win in the fighting ring.
This is a grossly over-exaggerated form of the natural desire of these dogs to protect their
territory and family, and it is becoming detrimental to the structural and mental stability of the
breed.
A winning dog gets bred, with little care for whether the hips have solid joints or the
dog has no self-control - the goal is to win.

In order to breed winning dogs in Armenia, breeders of fighting dogs will import and breed to dogs
of external origin, such as alabai, CAO, Kangal etc, hoping to breed that ultimate crazy-fighting
male who beats all the opposition.
The culls from their kennels are sold on the street, with whatever story suits the buyer - "this
puppy is from Aragats," "this puppy is from Gyumri," "this is a descendant of last years season
champion," if thats what the buyer seeks.
This selling of culls is prolific and relentless; some breeders house hundreds of breeding adults,
but keep just a few of their own puppies and peddle the rest to pay the bills.

    In the USA, it is a difficult tracing process to determine the true background of
    each dog that is imported. If it can be determined that the imported dog is of good
    native-bred stock, without genetics from outside historic Armenia, we can check for
    suitability to be bred here. Dogs must have good temperaments, must have sound bone
    structure, and be able to work - and when each individual dog is found to be of breeding
    quality, we find the best possible mate for that dog, with characteristics that are different
    from each other - in order to keep our gene pool varied, healthy, and strong.

The Armenian Gampr Club of America will assist owners in determining if their dog is appropriate for
breeding, and finding an appropriate mate. If the dog is ascertained to be of the correct origin, if the
temperament is good, AGCA can assist in getting the xrays done, and provide registration for the litter.

Please call (805)674-1741, or email rohana@gampr.org for more information.
Thank you for your assistance with this great breed.