Wolf VS. Caucasian Shepherd

Who will win?

Is the the Caucasian Ovcharka really the ultimate wolf killer?

       The Caucasian Shepherd also known as the Ovchakra or Russian bear dog is a formidable dog with an immense size. They can weight up to 100 kilograms for male and 80 kg for females.

       Originally developed in Georgia to defend flocks of livestock against wild predators such as wolves and bears. The breed is the perfect guard dog that can withstand extreme weather conditions in the mountains. They are a very devoted guard dogs.

       Due to the 90’s political turmoil and economic crisis in the country, Caucasian Shepherds almost become instinct. One can only find such dogs smaller in size and in a really bad shape. And those dogs are very weak, often becoming food themselves for the wolves they supposed to repel.

       Thankfully, the Cynology Federation of Georgia decided to breed pure-bred puppies and gave them to shepherds so as to put the Caucasian Shepherd back to their function. They have to breed several generations of Caucasian Shepherds to achieve the right characteristics inherent to the breed.

       It is hard to guard the sheep without these dogs. Even if a shepherd stays awake at night and possesses a gun, it will be impossible to save the sheep from hungry wolves.

       Caucasian Shepherd puppies are trained since birth. Young pups often follow behind the flocks and learn guarding skills from the mature ones.

Shepherds cut the ears of the pups once they are two weeks old so as to prevent the wolves from easily biting into them. Once they are grown and on to guarding duties, their handlers put a spiked collar into the dogs neck so as to increase survival rate during wolf attacks.

These dogs are not responsible in gathering or assisting in the herding of the flocks unlike the other kind of sheep dogs. They have only one job, and that is to guard their owners livelihood. They take strategic positions around the sheep-folds, surrounding the flock and escorts them. They know how to behave in sudden wolf attack. A wolf can kill 10 sheep in just a few minutes.

Like most dog breeds, strong winds can make it difficult for the Caucasian Shepherds to smell the approaching danger. Wolves are their most common enemies in the mountains. Bodies of water can hide the wolves smell as well. And during these circumstances that sometimes it is too late for the dogs to be aware that wolves started attacking the sheep already.

Only dogs can inform you of incoming danger in advance. Caucasian shepherds attack as a team, they run to the direction of where the danger is coming. They never follow wolves alone, as they are trained to not get far from the flock of sheep they were guarding. Also, if these dogs follows the wolves farther into the woods, wolves will tear them to pieces.

A battle between Caucation Shepherd and a Wolf?

The wolf’s bite is 105.5kg/cm² while the Caucasian Shepherd’s bite is 52.7kg/cm². They have the same number of teeth, 42. The average weigh of the Caucasian Shepherd is 65kg while the wolf in the Caucasian mountain weights about 40kg.

On a one on one fight between a wolf and a Caucasian Shepherd, the dog will be much larger and heavier than the wolf. The dog might win. It also depends on which kind of wolf the Caucasian Shepherd will be fighting with. Battling a timber wolf or Alaskan tundra wolf will tell us a different story.

So which of them is stronger?

A pack of Caucasian Shepherd will definitely win against a single wolf and vice versa. It’s a numbers game.

No one had seen an actual fight on the wild between these two canines yet.

We’ve seen documentaries on the internet about a video purportedly showing a Caucasian Shephered mauling and killing a wolf, but the fact is that humans often injure the wolves on wolf hunts and then film the dogs finishing the wolf off so this too needs to be taken into account.

Both of them are honorable competitor to each other. They know each other since ancient time.