WHAT IS A GAMPR?
Armenian Gampr
about
The Armenian Gampr is a rare and ancient native aboriginal landrace livestock & family guardian dog dating back to at least 12,000BCE. Gamprs were consistently utilized by the Armenian people on historical Armenian lands stretching from the southern Caucasus mountains (Current Armenia, southern Georgia, and the new country of Azerbaijan) to the Armenian Highlands, which is now Anatolia, Turkey.
With an impressive blend of gentleness, discerning caution, courage, and immense power, the Gampr is known for its independent thinking and calm, keen intellect, primarily used as a livestock guarding dog. Today's Gampr benefits from the advantage of having over 14,000 years of hardwired instinct built right into them, making them a natural choice for livestock protection. Historically, only intelligent and hardy dogs could survive to be reliable breeders. Therefore, natural selection has done a superb job designing one of the world's most durable, healthful, and enduring dogs.
The Gampr intensely bonds with its family and those it is charged with guarding, especially renowned for their natural love and connection to children. They will protect their family and livestock with their life, but only after assessing the situation and deciding on an appropriate, rational reaction. Gamprs are very athletic and powerful yet graceful and should exhibit self-control in stressful situations.
As a landrace breed, they are not similar in appearance but similar in function and ability. In addition to that, Gamprs of the past commonly fell into a few descriptive categories: hovvashoon (shepherd's livestock dog), gelkheght (wolf choker), archashoon (bear hunter), potorkashoon (search and rescue avalanche dogs), and palace guardians. Over the years, however, many dogs were lost, and the Gampr population drastically declined, with some types being thought to be gone for good. Today many Gamprs are a nice blend of the individual types, and the terms are rarely used.
Oso, of Shadow Hills, CA, more gelkheght type
Typical hovashoon, shepherd's dog
Native Homelands
origins
Historical Armenia covered a vast landmass and contained regional varieties of landrace Gamprs. Over the millennia, these regional types have been intermittently crossed with each other due to the semi-nomadic nature of some shepherds and boundary changes, which moved Gampr genetics from the north Caucasus to the Taurus mountains. Due to these regional varieties from this large area, the genetics of the Gampr is very diverse, indicating a healthy gene pool and excellent adaptability.
Today's modern maps may show certain areas as now belonging to other countries. However, the archeology and history of those areas were historically Armenian, as were the dogs native to those areas. Some modern dogs, such as some of the Kangals, Kars and Akbash of Turkey, the Nagazi of southern Georgia, and the Gurdbasar of Azerbaijan, are descendants of the aboriginal landrace Gampr.
Armenian gampr, Tsiran, of Lily Pond Acres, MS.
What's Not
other breeds
Landrace, by definition, is a localized breed developed for a purpose and chosen for function, as opposed to a standard appearance. Over time and successive breedings, landraces tend to maintain a higher degree of genetic health and generally consistent and predictable function.
To understand what a Gampr is, it is essential to understand and recognize what is not. The landrace Gampr is not an Alabai, Caucasian Ovcharka, Kangal, Anatolian, Kars, Karakatchan, Central Asian Shepherd, Sage Kuchi, Sharplaninatz, Akbash, or a cross of any of these modern-day dogs. A dog is no longer a true landrace Gampr if it has any additional breeds in its genetic history.
The most common cause of mistaken identity today are Central Asian. While perhaps 60% of the genetics of the modern Central Asian is of gampr origin, they are no longer a gampr but a separate standardized breed. The Soviet breeding program standardized the Central Asian Ovcharka (CAO), and particular regional types were blended. It is also not aboriginal; it is more modern in origin.
Another Soviet create specimen, the ‘modern aboriginal,’ is now registered with FCI as Caucasian Ovcharka, although short-haired. These dogs are primarily descended from the Dagestani, Ossetian, and South Russian dogs, north of the Transcaucasia. They are attractive and look like a stylish version of the native gampr, but they are heavier and have not stood the test of thousands of years of selection, and their breeding is based on a different source of genetics.
With modern breeding and traveling methods, the Dagestani-type ‘modern aboriginal’ is becoming more prevalent, especially in Georgia. A small percentage of the landrace gampr genetics come from Dagestan-type dogs; it is the nature of a landrace to have porous borders. But the rate is low and only regarding the historical exchange of dogs in primitive travels. When the origin is analyzed and type compared, the ‘modern aboriginal’ is a different subgroup of the dogs, and while some may look similar, they are not gampr.
However, some dogs today may still be gampr even though they reside outside of Armenia's current border. There are populations of aboriginal dogs living today in isolated areas which were once historical Armenian lands, some of which are still gampr, yet called by names given to them by their new countries. In some cases, those isolated dogs have only bred with other local dogs without the genetic influence of different breeds. Therefore, dogs such as some of the Kangals, Anatolians, Kars, and Akbash dogs of Eastern Turkey (Western Armenia), or some of the Nagazi dogs, in southern Georgia and the Gurdbasar dogs of Azerbaijan may, with proper investigation, be accepted as natural landrace gampr, regardless of what they are now called.
The ‘modern aboriginal’ is heavily, incorrectly promoted as a native aboriginal dog of the Caucasus. It has a different coat, and is selected more for bite work than livestock guarding ability.
Below are some of the aforementioned breeds, which were derived from the different regional varieties of the landrace Gampr, and in some cases still look very similar to the gampr (breed description), while others marking only a faint resemblance.
Kangal
From Sivas, Turkey, what was once called Sepastia, Hittite capital of historical Armenia
Caucasion
Developed in the 1920's from Armenian gamprs, German Shepherds, St. Bernards and more.
Anatolian
Heavily disputed as a breed, they derived from a pocket of regionally similar Gamprs in historical Armenia
Kars
Dogs from the Kars Province of Turkey. Once the province of Ararat and Bagratid Armenia capital.
Central Asian
From the origins of Alabai and others, created with selective USSR breedings and standardized
Nagazi
Georgian shepherd dog, once a primitive breed but today many are bred to heavy Dagestani type dogs and few aboriginals exist
Akbash
1970's Standardized breed from selective breedings, retaining a white head or a black head (karabash)
Sage Kuchi
Dogs with regional variation who historically travelled with the nomadic Kuchi tribe
Gurdbasar
Azerbaijani state did not exist prior to 1918, however they claimed and renamed local inhabitant dogs as their own
Wars & Oppression
great loss
Over the last centuries, due to changing country borders and Armenian lands being taken by oppressors and violent aggressors, killing or pushing the Armenian people from their native homelands, it has resulted in a dramatic loss of the gampr population as a whole. Although many were killed or died from starvation, those gamprs who survived wars and the hostile takeover of areas once Armenia became the foundation for several modern-day breeds of those newly defined countries. Additionally, in the last 100 years, modern breeding practices, such as line breeding, outcrossing, and standardization, have caused the further decline of the natural landrace gampr population.
Most specifically, during the 1915 Genocide, many Gamprs were killed or starved, causing a tremendous decline in the population. Later, during the Soviet domination, many gamprs were taken from their homeland to the USSR Red Star breeding kennels, which eventually produced the modern Caucasian Ovcharka (CO) and other experimental breeds, causing the population to nearly be decimated.
1920's Armenian gamprs awaiting a train to the USSR Red Star Kennel, to be used to create the modern day Caucasian Ovcharka
Special stations were set up to contain gamprs who were being taken back to to the Russian kennel. They took what they considered were the best of the breed.
Many long haired and larger varieties were taken during this time causing the gene pool great damage.