What is a Molosser dog breed? Is the Kuvasz a Molosser breed?
An interesting mix of legend and real life are intertwined in their history, which adds to the mysticism surrounding these dogs and makes it harder to determine fact from fiction.
Generally speaking, dogs in the Molosser group are large, solidly built dogs...heavy boned with pendant shaped ears, a short muzzle and a muscular neck.
An example of the dogs considered to be in this group include the bully breeds, mastiffs, Golden Retriever, Great Dane, Doberman Pinscher, Great Pyrenees, Greater Swiss Mountain Dog, Chinese Shar-Pei, Norwegian Elkhound, Entlebucher Mountain Dog, Anatolian Shepherd Dog, Komondor, Bernese Mountain Dog, Newfoundland, Rottweiler, Rhodesian Ridgeback and Saint Bernard. This isn’t a complete list [namely the Kuvasz], but it gives you an idea of the variety of dog breeds in this legendary group. However, there is disagreement regarding some of the breeds included in the list.
The origin and purpose of the Molosser dog breeds:
About the family of Livestock Guardian Dogs...
“To this day flocks are guarded in the hills of Asia, Europe and Africa* by powerful, robust dogs that are neither clumsy nor pacific. Despite the distances that separate them these breeds have much in common, and the Kuvasz is a member of this extended sheepdog family.”
From: Dr. Buzády Tibor, Dogs of Hungary, trans. Bernard Adams, Budapest, Hungary: Nóra Kiadó, 2003, p. 90.
*(and today also in North America, South America and Australia)
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