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ArticlesTurkmen Alabai (materials of the expedition for the study of Turkmen dogs)
Enough of high quality dogs is available in state farm Geok-Tepe.There were cases of education from one dam to 12 puppies and still strong, well developed. In state farm construction of nursery for Turkmen Alabai is planned, the place is chosen and breeding dogs are allocated. Both in small villages, and in flocks the dogs are keep in freedom. On a circuit there are only exclusively malicious, dangerous to people, dogs. Any certain diet for dogs is not present. Dogs are fed mainly with leftovers, occasionally the flour is given in a dry form or in the form of a soup. Besides dogs eat mice, ground squearls and other living creatures abounding in area. Despite of advantage by the Turkmen Alabai which is given for facilities, the attitude of the population to them is obviously indifferent. Dogs of a different breed serving, mainly for sports bents of owners, have significant attention, live inside with the owner,they are constantly covered by a body cloth so they don't freeze in cold nights and dont suffer from heat in the afternoon, well fed, and the true watchman of property the Turkmen Alabai at the best uses a shadow of the home,the most part of the life spending around sheep's, protecting them from predators. They feed dog in the flock just as in the village. But around here more gophers and mice; therefore in spite of more difficult and more agitated work, dogs in the flocks are better fed and stronger. Also there is no special accommodation for the puppies. After mother's milk the puppy obtains meat soup with the flour and raw meat. From the 2-3- monthl age the puppy begins to catch mice and eat leftovers. Training of puppies is absent: they grow by themselves and they grow with well developed backbone and musculature without any signs of rachitis, which originates from abundance of the sunlight. Breeding The selection of producers does not exist - usually it occurs free coupling without any interference of masters, which leads to the large incest. The dam digs a burrow in the sand, near the house of the owner, where she gives birth to puppies. Usually born from 4 to 12 puppies.The female pups destroyed, males are given out to the neighbors. Turkmen Alabai dog has a reputation as a very good watchman and wolfhound, and to get the puppies Turkmen's travel from many kilometers away.The destruction of female pups is caused, mainly, by the economic considerations: it's impossible for a poor man to have several dogs, when female is pregnant, she does not work for a while. In the past time the females were kept mainly in prosperous population. Females were rarely kept in the field with sheep's. Meanwhile in the opinion of old experienced shepherds, the female is not only works as good, but they are frequently better than males, since they are more sensitive, mobile and don't run away from the flock. In addition to this the females transfer their habit better to the youngsters. They are inferior in the militant struggle with the wolf, where males, being rather more malicious and more pugnacious, gain victory.There is an opinion that the females with their smell attract the herd of wolves and what is completely probable. However, the couplings of dogs with the wolves or hybrids from them no one remembers and does not know about. The use
The majority of dog have cut ears and tails. Reasons for cutting is difficult to explain. But it is clear that here is no serious need of any kind for this. Shepherds give these explanations: ears cut, so that the sheep would not confuse dogs with the wolf; dog with the cut ears hears better ; tail is cut so that the dog would be more evil. Cutting is done sufficiently simply: tail is cut when puppy opens his eyes, ears - on 3 month of life, taking into account the replacement of teeth. The length of cutting tail and form of cutting is different. We indicated that no training of dogs is carried out. But nevertheless several basic commands, with the aid of which they govern dogs, are present. Each dog bears the nickname, which characterizes, mainly, its color or any signs. Nicknames, on the whole, are very monotonous: white dogs are called [Ak]- bey, yellow - [Kzyl]- bey, etc. Frequently encountered nicknames :[gez], which indicates “black-eyed” and so forth. Nickname dog in the majority knows weakly and it reacts better to different cries or whistle. All dogs usually run to the whistle or the shout, and this completely fine with the shepherds, since there is no need for specific dog. There is a command, which pricks up dog ears. The dog rapidly jumps up on this command, which is given low and by that resembling the sound “of [tss]”, with the barking it runs to the nearest knoll and begins to become accustomed to the smell and watches out. There is a forbidding command: “Kit”, which in the transfer means “[Get Out]”. The forbidding command is carried out by dogs very well; to the sharp cry of shepherd they cease barking and return to their places. It is possible to be convinced that the difficulty of mastering different methods of training by Turkmen dogs, which encountered the school of dog breeding Narkomsovkhozovin in the past year, explained by the absence of connection and contact with the man from the youngest age, since man actually does not participate in the training of his dog, only throws him food and allowed him to be located nearby. Translated by Admin Alabai in it's native land
The guarding function is carried out perfectly by the taught dogs. A herdsman and I are sitting and having tea, and a dog is watching the sheep that is at the pond. A dog determines the size of drinking bowl where twenty sheep can come up to, runs through the herd with lightning speed, separates this twenty, bark at the rest that can hinder and drives a group to a drinking bowl. When some of the sheep stays longer at a drinking bowl, a dog hurries it. Gradually the whole herd flocks together on the other side of a drinking bowl. Approximately three - four dogs can watch the herds including up to 1000 sheep, and even a boy can be a herdsman driving a bicycle and doing everything he wants. The dogs will do everything by themselves. Thus, the life rate of a dog is very rigorous. They drink extremely little. The dogs brought to Saint Petersburg keep to the same habits. They eat a little one time a day - in the evening, when a herd is lodging for the night. Every dog was given 30 kg of flour a month. The herdsmen very often were lazy to bake flat cakes for the dogs and threw them the dough pieces. Turkmen say, " We feed them with the dry flat cakes and can't stop surprising why the dogs are so large". Protecting from the wolves is also the function the CAO should bear. That's why the puppies are docked and cropped, very often they do it with a knife putting a puppy on a stone, hoping that a mother will lick the wounds. When a herd is lodging for the night, the males are put along the edges of a herd and bitch is put on the most distant place. She, a potential mother, will be the first to get anxious, and then the males will come. The fighting qualities are worked out early: While playing, the puppies snap a partner at the front foot to bite it through then and put an opponent on three feet. The Turkmenian desert wolves are not very large and as the herdsmen say, "a clever dog is able to cope with two wolves". The wolves and jackals know it well and go round our camp, howling from afar, and having made sure that a dog isn't on a leash, skirt a herd
"Inform CAO" magazine N1, 5. Translated by Admin |
It is necessary to consider menacing position of Turkmen Alabai in Turkmenistan. Work on their cultivation is absolutely absent. At the same time many dogs are killed and skinned. Usually best, largest dogs possessing the big, good skin used. Almost all dogs of Tedzhen and small vilages adjoining to them and collective farms are shot down by "hunters".
Good dogs were kept only in the remote village. The population had always a lot of dogs and rigidly adjusted them a livestock, remains absolutely without dogs. In separate cattle-breeding village there were 1-2 dogs who are absolutely not providing protection of herds. Wolves tear sheep's among an village.
In area of Kushka and settlements of immigrants, dogs almost not present. In settlement Morgunovsk there are good dogs owned by Turkmens-sheep breeders living on suburb, but in very limited quantity. Settlements are littered by not purebred "Russian" dogs. Chimin-Abid is a small village of Murgabsk branch. Local residents have some dogs. In Tash-Kepri and the villages near to it their is not enough of dogs,the once they have-bad qualities. The livestock is concentrated in Saradzhinovsk farm which flocks are grazed in mountains.
Murghab there is a nursery of dogs. The nursery has no constructions: dogs are adhered to trees, and puppies live in holes, in the ground. Dogs in nursery are very low-grade. Turkmen breeding dogs only three, other are mutts. The young growth of 7-8 months is brought up on a circuit, have no nicknames. Any works with dogs it is not conducted. Puppies of 2 months are skinny, exhausted.
Having been working in expeditions in Turkmenistan since 1946, I watched the way of living of local dos called there Alabai. As the archaeological camps were situated both near the settlements and wells in the desert-and-steppe area, these observations and the contacts with the dogs as well have been taking place for a long time.The habitat of Alabai is not enclosed, cause the traditional Turkmenian settlement has no fenced yards, and the dogs walk quite free in the territory. The guarding function is of high priority here, especially when the dark comes. I know it by the time spent in the camp: we had the CAOs , and when the dark came, they began to bark at everybody who walked in the territory. Very often in the settlements they leave children, even infants, with the dogs. These dogs treat children kindly and guard them from snakes, for instance. Turkmenian Ovcharka, just like some aboriginal cats, can smell snakes, and if there are tracks of other dogs or cats, you will be safe from snakes. In the desert-and-steppe area the dogs should bear two main functions - to protect and guard the herds and owner's property as well. It is genetically conditioned. I brought a puppy to Saint Petersburg, and when it became adult and came to the Baltic republic, it saw the sheep flock and started to guard it. Guarding the camp in Turkmenia, this dog, probably, was not at ease because of lack of the sheep, and when we brought sheep clothing for the experiments, it immediately began to guard them. The mother lactates the puppies till one-month age, and then they go to guard the sheep flocks together with the adult dogs that teach the puppies to guard. My puppy hasn't got such experience, however, genetically it felt that it must guard, but didn't know how to do it.
The third environment is a city, it is less natural. The yards are fenced, and very often a dog is on a leash. Since the 80-s the dog fighting's have been held in Ashkhabad, somewhere in the suburbs.This breed is very ancient. Judging by the excavations, it exists since IV century B. C. When excavations of Altyn-depe, the ancient town of the Bronze Age (the end of III - the beginning of II century B. C.), they found the clay dog figurines with the cropped ears and docked tails. Fine pictures of such dogs are engraved on a silver cup belonging to those times, the cup was found in Northern Afghanistan and it is kept in Louver now. A master, a herdsman, a servant-boy and the dogs going in three lines are pictured there. The necessity of surviving in the extreme conditions made the dogs very adaptable. They try to defecate somewhere in the bushes in order not a trace could remain. The puppies are quiet, those who squeaked were taken by the jackals, when their mother went somewhere. The bitches are very strict with the puppies: they trample them or lie upon them, and those who die - are not a wolf-hound. We took with us a mother and two- month puppy to the Baltic republics. The mother was treating her puppy very strictly: threw him from a slope, jumped on him pressing to the ground. The herdsmen don't like the dogs that bite to blood, cause a dog must only snap slightly. Sometimes to exclude the aggressive dogs they shoot a dog that bites to blood before other dogs. This adaptability is very useful in the city conditions. Even adult dogs quickly get used to a lift or to the trains. They simply snap at dog that tries to pick a quarrel. In the urban conditions they naturally take up guarding of their owners and their property. Just like Turkmenian, these dogs don't like people walking in the nights, as they consider that at night people should stay at home. In such a vast area the local variants are possible. For instance, Turkmenian dogs are lighter than the mountain, Kirghiz, ones. Their pace is light, otherwise it would be difficult to move on the sand. In Central and Northern Kazakhstan where the large wolves lived, there also were the large Ovcharkas. People even called them "Kazakh Saint Bernards". I'm not sure that they are not cross-bred now. Turkmenian herdsmen keep watch on the breed. The old men remember the matches, names and color of the main stud dogs. They try to breed good puppies. When I got the first puppy, I asked about his genealogy, and they recalled many things including the famous wolf-hound whose barking the wolves were afraid of. The old men say, "He was old already, and people moved with him on a camel, and he needed only to bark and the predators knew who came".
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