We have been awarded our Kennel Name of Agroletnica (FCI) and are registered now with the Federation Cynologique Internationale and in particular with the Polish member thereof, namely the Związek Kynologiczny w Polsce, Zielona Góra branch, as a breeder of Greater Swiss Mountain Dogs, or, to use the official name, the Grosser Schweizer Sennenhund.
Our two girls Bella Królewska Sfora (FCI) and Bona Królewska Sfora (FCI) have been approved in a properly scheduled test as being compliant with the breed type for the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, a Group 2 working dog listed as breed number 58 in the FCI. The breed’s standard sheet is here. The two girls are now awaiting the one remaining hurdle which is the psychological testing.
As you can see from reading the pdf in the link given above, this is an ancient breed, likely nrought by Julius Caesar’s army to the Helvetian province as they are a form of the old Italian Molosser dogs. Over hundreds of years they were bred to perform a variety of tasks, especially cart-pulling for small tradespeople, but also livestock guardian and house guarding. They are formidable dogs with a loud bark, but also very friendly and want to be close to their family. They are bite-inhibited, so despite the formidable appearaance and sound they are not likely to get the owner into trouble for actually biting intruders, but of course as with any animal, one never has a 100% guarantee, it is just highly unlikely.
In addition the animal is very good-looking with its tricolour coat, shorter than theat of its cousin the Bernee mountain dog, but still a double coat, making the dog very winter resistant but needing attention in summer. It moults the undercoat twice a year. The breed has some of the health issues common to large breeds and is in the main not a long-lived dog, with an average expectancy of only about 8 years.
The breed was almost brought to extinction by neglect when demand sank after the introduction of the motor vehicle. Dog traction became less practical than simply having a van or a tractor-pulled cart. By the time the world was woken up by one cynologist who saw what was going on, it was a real international effort to get the breed re-established and set on a good path out of being an endangered breed. This means that at present there is a challenge for cynologists to make the best possible animals for the breed to go forward with out of a diminished gene pool with relation to what was available historically. This breed however father numerous other breeds, the other three Swiss Mountain dogs, the St Bernard and the Rottweiler all probably being derived from hybrids of the GSMD.
Our view of animal rearing in Agroletnica is that for each species, in this case the dog with which we engage, we do the following concrete steps:
1) Welfare and love. We ensure that the best love and care is made available, full veterinary attention and best quality food and materials will be provided. The animals to the extent that this is generally practiced, will be treated as family members (by this we mean that a goat is less likely to function as a family member indoors in the way a cat or dog does, but will be treated as a sentient being and not as objects).
2) Focus on one breed, carefully selected. If we are going to breed an animal we will only take one breed as our project for this species, usually not one of the most popular breeds and one with good properties for autistic therapy. In this case the GSMD has been selected because of the previous precarious state of the breed, as well as its qualities which are very suitable for our Agroletnica project overall. We will be more likely to concern ourselves with breeds in need of breeders who will commit to following best practices. If we keep animals not of this breed, such as rescue animals, or have breed members with pedigrees but which are not good candidates for he breed goig forward, they will not be bred from, they will be sterilised. This is not a puppy farm – puppy farms have caused no end of problems for popular breed like German shepherds, and we cannot afford this approach for a breed with the history of the Greater Swiss Mountain Dog.
3) Ensure that the proper associations are joined so as to have advice on best practice. In the case of our Greater Swiss Mountain Dog project we immediately joined the FCI, this being the original and internationally recognised association for dogs. We will do the same when we begin to breed other species such as cats, goats and others.
4) Rigorous requirements from those acquiring offspring. It’s our duty to the puppies that we check that the peoplewishing to acquire them have thought their decision through and are willing and able to give the dogs the lives they need. We won’t sell you a dog just because you can afford the price – this is not about the money, we have plenty of better ways to make money. We invite enquiries from people who understand this, whoc are genuinely interested in being responsible owners of a unique breed and who have done their homework. We will require you to sign an industry-standard contract under which we can re-collect the animal if we learn of abuse.
Check back here for more information and photos of our dogs in this section as well as news about coming litters.