Livestock Dogs Outside the U.S. in the 1890s

I can’t recall ever hearing of a breed called the Owtchar, as described in the article below, but a quick online search turned up a page for Owtscharka, describing it as a collective term for several breeds of livestock dogs.

This short breed profile appeared in the May 23, 1891 edition of The Fanciers’ Journal:

Venturing past the 1890s briefly to include this bit of information:

A photo and description of the breed appearing in the book:
Mason, W. E. (1915). Dogs of all nations. [S.l., s.n.]

Then we have the French sheepdog, and a description of their working trials, in the English paper The Sketch from July 21, 1897. I looked up “French sheepdog” and found several current breeds, only a few of which I’ve heard of, including Bouvier des Flandres, Briard, Berger Picard, Pyrenean Sheepdog, Beauceron, Great Gascony Blue, and Griffon Bleu de Gascon. So like “the Owtchar”, I think this may be a case where the name is being used as a catch-all to encompass breeds which would be defined in years to come.

Returning to the 1915 book previously mentioned for another brief breed entry:

Source: Mason, W. E. (1915). Dogs of all nations. [S.l., s.n.]

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