I. - DENOMINATION AND SYNONYMY

 GENERAL ASPECT AND CHARACTER 

 Denomination: Perro de Ganado Majorero.

Synonymy:  Bardino, Barcino, Verdugo, for those units in brindle coat. In the rest of the Canary Islands  usually is called PERRO MAJORERO.

 

 II. - ORIGIN AND DIFFUSION OF THE BREED

 The Perro de Ganado Majorero is a  lupomastinoide original of Fuerteventura (Canary Islands).

The first livestock guardian  dogs were brought from Spain to Fuerteventura  by the conquerors, along with the cattle, ovine and equine in year 1404.

There are enough historical references to give by true this origin. The herding dogs, the presa dogs, the partridges dogs, the podencos, and other breeds, were introduced in the Canary Islands  while them were  conquered and colonized by Spain.

From the first times of the colonization, in the Agreements of the Cabildo (chapter) of Betancuria (Fuerteventura) and Tenerife is repeatedly  mentioned the "perros de ganado” (livestock guardian dogs), "perros de presa” (seizing dogs), “perros perdigueros”  (partridge dogs ), and ”perros de caza” (hunting dogs ).

 Although it is true that the perro de ganado  was common to all the islands already finalized the conquest, those of Fuerteventura were considered  like a separate group, and somewhat special, we suppose, because at that island they arrived first, and of their  offspring, later, the cattlemen from the other islands took their stocks.

Is logical to think that these dogs, of Spanish origin, with time, the  isolation, and due the crosses, some made with knowledge and  other fortuitous  with the old dogs of presa, existing in Fuerteventura from the conquest,  become in what  we know today  like  Perro de Ganado Majorero.

 The Perro de Ganado Majorero  has been during almost six hundred years the impresciendible aid of cattlemen and majoreros farmers. It has been dog for everything: for company, for the guard of the houses, property and cattles, and is an excellent cattle driving although something large for such task, .

Due  his  strong temperament  can become  dangerous for those strange people who come near  his territory.

 In our days, the Perro de Ganado Majorero Dog is appreciated like guard dog of villas, industrial enclosures, property, etc.

  

GENERAL APPEARANCE AND CHARACTER

1.-Descripción (general characteristic)

Is a trotter dog, of medium size, good aspect, rustic, of primitive appearance, in whose selection it has had more to do  the nature than the man. Distrusted, very quarrelsome with his congeners, he is always active (balanced active), attend to  whatever happens around him. Of serious glance, severe, of few friends.
His temper is of absolute confidence. Nothing in him is superfluous. Something more height in the croup that  the shoulders. Of wide skull, and pronounced occipital. Naso-frontal depression little accentuated. Sharpened and short snout. The proportion skull-face is 6 to 4. Of tucked and fine lips, never hanging, and well pigmented in black. Well Developed teeth, do not have to lack a single piece, and bite in scissors. The prognatismo (undershot bite) considers severe defect. All the units show double chin. The colour of the eyes is dark, accepting the clear chestnut and amber. The ears, of medium size, high and retarded insertion, and with double fold. In no case they must raise them,  symptom  this one of mestization (crosses). And when the animal adopts a submissive attitude gathers them backwards. The trunk is robust, wide; ribs cage bent and ample. The belly moderately tucked. The tail of  high   insertion and gleaned, raised in scimitar form those that have it amputated in a third, those that have it complete frequently show it semi curling in the first third, and always movable (raised), for that reason those that don’t know this dog are confused when see him so glad (apparently), when it could be all the opposite; and the same thing happens when it comes near another dog, or is this one the one that goes near him, and it is ready to attack. The stranger never must  TRUST  the Majorero  Dog when it watch with attention and  moves the tail intensely.

The extremities in this dog must be strong, as it corresponds to the primitive trotters, of medium length and proportioned to the total volume of the dog. Medium angles. Hocks not too down. The articulation of the hock, when the animal stands and pays attention, in the purest units, is reversed. The forelimbs must be correct (parallel). Cat foot preferably.

The Majorero Dog displays three coats: brindle, grey from the sand to the lupine, and black with the extremities brindle. The brindle or black units show, frequently,  white spots in the feet (to which is called calzados), in the head, from the inferior lip to the chest, and sometimes until the belly. The first are called corbatos and, acollarados when the white spot surrounds them the neck. Also there are those that present a blaze from the muzzle to the forehead, the occipital, or neck.

 The hair semi-length and smooth. With sub-hair. The long or short hair is a consequence of the mestization. In the hind part of the thighs is longer, just like in the tail, that must be gleaned, as it was already said. The tradition  of the cattlemen to amputate a third of the same one is due that most of the units they tend to curly it or to form a hook in the first third and that is considered ugly. The skin must be thick  and loose, specially in the dorsal part of the dog and in the neck.

2. - Character and aptitude

Traditionally, in the Canary Islands had been used  for the guard and conduction of the goat, ovine and bovine cattle, and for the guard of the farms and property. Due his bellicose character, in the past, was always very appreciated like fighting dog, and was crossed very frequently with the presa dogs. He is affectionate with his owner, sometimes something distant, and he likes the company of the children, to who protect and tolerates without protest their infantile “cruelties”. And he does not accept submissive the punishment nor the humiliation.


MORPHOLOGY

1. - Height
Males: 62 - 67 cm. (24 - 26 inches)
Females: 56 - 62 cm. (22 - 24 inches)
To those units that surpass the exposed measures will demand them a correct correspondence between the different anatomical parts.
2. - Head
Brachycephalic. The proportion skull-face is 6 to 4. The front-nasal depression little pronounced.
2,1. - Skull
Convex. Zygomatic arches moderately developed. Temporal and masseter muscles moderately developed. Prominent Occipital. The depression between frontal sines little cloven
Cephalic average perimeter: 53 in males and 47 in the females.
2,2. - Face or snout.
Of smaller length than the skull. The obtained average is of 40% of the total of the head. One narrows of greater to minor in form of truncated cone. Snout wide and always black. The cranium-facial lines slightly divergent.
2.3. Thick-lipped.
Fine and tucked. The dark mucous.
2,4. - Jaws.
Perfectly aligned teeth , wide in its base, well developed , specially the eyeteeth. Without prognatismo (undershot bite). Bite in scissors.
2,5. - Eyes.
Of medium size. oval, distant to each other. Of dark colour, accepting the clear chestnut and amber. Adhered eyelids and pigmented in black.
2.6.- Ears.
Of medium size, of high insertion and something retarded, and with double folds. Never in high, defect this one product of mestization. When the dog acquires a submissive attitude gathers them backwards.
3. - Neck.
Neither long nor short, medium. Wide, strong, with double chin.
4. - Forelimbs.
Well plumb (parallel), strong, and well muscled. The elbows close to the rib. Foot like cat. Gathered and together fingers. Black nails. In the units with white feet usually they appear white nails. Middle angulations.
5. - Hind limbs.
Strong and well muscled. Perfectly positioned. Hocks not too down. With double spur (floating fingers), or simple, in each leg. The nails of these floating fingers tend to form ring. The absence of spurs does not have why to reduce typicality to the dog, although traditionally it has been associated floating fingers with racial purity. Medium angles.
6. - Trunk.
Powerful, robust, and well formed . Its length is equivalent, more or less, to the height to the withers. The wide chest, the thorax ample and semicircular. The thorax perimeter equivalent, at least, to the height of the dog.

6,1. - Dorso-lumbar line.
Straight line, with slight ascent towards croup.

6.2.-Croup.
Little inclined, of average length, and a normal wide. And generally 1.5 cm. higher than the withers.

6.3.-Tail.
Of high insertion. Gleaned. Always movable and raised. Many units tend to curly the first third of the same one. At rest it does not exceed the hock.

6,4. - Belly.
Moderately tucked.

6.5.- Sexual Organs.

 The male must present both testicles perfectly developed. Scrotum tucked, never hanging.

7. - Coat.
7.1.-Hair. Of medium length (never it must be short nor long) in all the body, being the more long in the hind part of the thighs and the tail, and in any case smooth to the tact.

7,2. - Colour.

In the majorero dog usually predominate the brindle coat, no atigrados (of tiger), the difference is based in that atigrado it is that dog whose lists in the coat remember to those of the tiger, whereas bardino (brindle) it is a uniform mixture of white and black hairs; this characteristic coat is also called "barcino" (reddish), and "verdugo", and then follow the black and the grey. Same than the brindles, the blacks and greys can be bragados (with white between the legs), corbatos (white in the chest), acollarados (white around the neck), being able to display a blaze from the back of snout to the occipital, or the neck.. Do not have to be accepted those units with spots in the flanks, or the superior part of the trunk. The mask must be black in the different coats, excepting if they have the blaze.

8. - Weight.
Average in the males: 40 kg. (88 pounds)
Average in the females: 34 kg. (74 pounds)

9. - Defects.
9.1.-Slight.
Face longer and narrows of the normal thing.

The same height withers-croup

Eyes whose colour is not the characteristic one.

9.2.-Severe.
Head whose proportion skull-face is not the correct one (6 to 4).
Snout deficiently pigmented.
Forehead too flat.
Eyes too close or too light.
Prognatismo (undershot bite).
Absence of some premolar.
Specimens with poor structure.
Poverty of structure.
Tail non-gleaned.
Defective forelimbs.
Timidity.

9.3.-Eliminatory.
Psychic imbalance.
Monorchids
Cryptorchids.
Castrated units.
Enognatismo (overshot bite).
Absence of pigmentation in snout or mucous.
Spots in the flanks or the back.
Absence of typicity as a whole.
 

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