The Basque Shepherd is an ancient breed of dog that
developed with little human intervention and no formal registry. The breed is
known in the Basque tongue as Euskal Artzain Txakurr and in Spanish as Pastor
Vasco, and they have been working with humans for thousands of years. Skeletal
remains that are believed to be from a Shepherd very much like the Basque
Shepherd have been found in Neolithic caves and have been dated back as far as
twelve thousand years ago, and paintings and frescoes of the 16th
century contain depictions of canines that look very much like the Basque Shepherds
of today. A comprehensive history of the breed is lost to history, however, the
modern Basque Shepherd is believed to be a descendant
of Shepherds that originated in Central Europe and while they have
traditionally been used to herd sheep in the mountainous areas of Northern Spain
where the majority of the Basque people can be found, these dogs are also quite
adept at herding other animals including chickens, cows, and horses. Most
experts believe that the Gorbeiakoa variety, rather than the bearded Iletsua
variety, is the older of the two. The Basque Shepherd population declined
heavily in the late 19th and early 20th centuries due to
predation by wolves. In the 1950s and 60s, extermination campaigns eliminated
many of the Iberian wolves in the area, and nearly all registered Basque Shepherds
today still work livestock on a daily basis. Basque immigrants and travelers to America in the 1950s brought their
herding dogs with them, and it is widely believed that these dogs were ancestors
to the Australian Shepherd.