Anybody know anything about Sarplaninac (Yugoslavian Shepherd)?

Because FOHA pulled a dog from PG County MD animal shelter, who was an owner surrender to that shelter, and the owner wrote down her breed as a Yugoslavian Shepherd. She is 10 months old, and a BIG puppy. She likes all people and other dogs. She doesn't mouth, but she does jump up a bit. She walks on leash ok until you see another dog. Then her thought process is as follows: ZOMG A DOG playplayplay *bounce bounce PULL bounce* playplayfriendplayplayplay!!!!!!

I give you...Esmeralda!













Isn't she pretty???

Aaww, what a pretty girl! I've heard of Sarplaninacs, but had to look them up. Here's a couple of sites that I found:
Rare Breed Network: Sarplaninac Standard

Esmeralda sure looks like some of the dogs pictured here:
Sarplaninac - Google Images

I can see sort of a resemblance but I'm not sure she really is a sarplaninac. The coat for one looks off to me as does the head. I can't even find an American breed club which makes me wonder how many there are over here...

I've known quite a few people that like to label their mutts as some rare breed they find in a dog book that their dog sort of resembles.

Anyways, all I know is they're a flock guard.

Oh yeah, it's pretty funny sometimes what people come up with. They get a dog out of a rural shelter, found as a stray, and they honestly think that it's this extremely rare breed, and full-blooded of course!

Compared to the dogs in the photo, I'd say that the shelter pooch looks like a shepherd mix, not a molosser.

But, she's a real beauty and I'd personally take her in a heart beat!!! :hail:

look how square her head is. you don't get more molosser than that. she could have been shaved to clean out matting from living outdoors. being an owner surrender definitly improves the chances she is what she is reputed to be.

Her coat does not look shaved. When you shave a coat like that, it usually grows back pretty funky at first...it wouldn't be smooth looking like that.

I'd think that by 10 months her head would be bigger/blockier, judging by what the photos of the breed look like, but not familiar with the breed. Perhaps contact a breeder and ask their opinion?

not talking size but shape that head is blocky. even w/ that i've seen a small pitty (35#) take until almost 2 before her head popped. when it did she went from a small terrier head to a bully one over night. what ever she is or isn't she does have all or mostly molosser dogs in the background. F1 of sighthound pin heads or herding wedgeheads pretty much always take the blockyness away usually resulting in a heavy wedge type head.

I'd say she's got enormous bone in both front and back legs, she's got some serious snowshoe sized front paws, she's got dews on the back and she's no where near filled out; pretty typical for a big dog baby.

Whether she is or no; who knows; but she is pretty.

Are SARS prone to rear dews?

Something about her looks vaguely like a leonbergerX.

what do rear dews have to do with anything? I see rear dews on all sorts of mixes, even poodles and shih tzu

awesome looking dog! just because it doesnt look completely like the breed it claims to be does not mean that its a mix! Ruckus is 100% sheltie and looks next to nothing like a sheltie. I know 100% poms that do not look like poms, etc etc

To me, she looks like a giant breed puppy. I could believe that she is a Sarplaninac. A lot of working breeds have a lot of variation in appearance and coat type/length. I would guess that not all are heavy coated.

I think she definitely could be one, especially if they said she was. With the way the internet is nowadays, it's pretty easy to import a puppy from anybody willing to sell you one. She looks really young. If she's a mix then she's some kind of molosser mix. The only thing that looks very GSD to me is the black mask and coat color, and that's just cosmetic stuff that is found in a lot of other breeds. Her earset looks really molosser-ish, which also might be where the leo resemblance plays in as well.

This one has a similar coat to her:

Its good to remember that there is a possibility that even rare dogs could end up in shelters...

well i know somthing about her and foha ,and that they are the best she,s
all mine and we love her very much and she,s doing great she a great girl-

To me she does look very similar to some lines of Sars especially considering her age. I have had Sar enthusiasts tell me straight up they think the females are "ugly" in comparison to the males (on average of course) because they tend to have a thinner coat and lankier body. There are a few breeders of Sars here in North America, some reputable, some not so much.

Whoever adopts her needs to be warned that it is not uncommon for Sars to not "turn on" to their guarding instincts until at least 3-5 years old!!!!! It is very typical as puppies to be happy and goofy and want to be everyone's friend and then as they age they start to become more aloof and eventually territorial. With proper socialization they should always be good with invited guests. As long as you are happy, they are happy. With strange dogs however...well...Keep in mind they were bred specifically to run off any sort of predator-type in order to keep their flock safe so this would include anything from bears to wolves to stray dogs and humans with ill-intent.

I have seen an angry adult male Sar in person and it is quite the site to behold! I would definitely NOT want to be on the wrong end of that dog! The nice thing about Sars though is they typically give ample warning that you are pushing your limits too much with them before they take matters into their own...paws. The owner should learn to read their body language carefully in order to be able to predict the situation and remove their Sar before things escalate more than they need to.

Of course, this is if she even is indeed a Sar. The illyrian shepherd looks very Sar-like but is slightly different. Also it would make sense that she looks kinda leonberger-ish because the Sar was used to create a leonberger