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The Catalan Sheepdog

The dog is native from Catalonia, it was officially recognized in 1929. The first specimens were documented in Ribes de Freser, in the Girona’s Pyrenees.

Its head is broad, with a look alive and expressive. The hair is long, with colours ranging from cream to black through the greys and browns. It is alive, intelligent, very devoted to the owner. It's a great guard equipped with a high resistance to heat and cold.

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“(...) These magnificent dogs of our Pyrenees, so faithful, with inconceivable power and strength, with a prodigious mobility, keep the borders that the Head shepherd said to graze the livestock (...) they are hairy dogs, with steel cartilage, very intelligent (...)”.
Josep Pla

The story: A lifetime

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“For me the Sheepdog is from childhood, eternal companion,
is the shaggy shadow that follows me everywhere.”. Elena Colls

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1959. The first memory

A sheepdog that kept cows in Casa Vella country house in Platja d'Aro, where we would look for milk with my brother. I remember that it was grey and sand, with a very rough hair.

When we found him, he always came to us in order to receive hugs and he accompanied us back home .

1972. The recovery of the breed

Evarist Sanllehí, then Secretary of the RSCC, explained us the situation of almost extinction of our breed and then we started making trips through the Pyrenees searching for sheepdogs everywhere we saw a herd.

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Menut

After many frustrated visits, dogs crossed, with too much weakness, too old, or just that the owner didn’t want to sell them; we arrived to a house in Collsacabra.

There, tied to a barn, we found a dog full of life and joy, we called him Menut. When I think about him, I remember him as the friendliest dog I've ever had!

1974. Mona

I remember the excitement of finding those dogs so typical, dark, with those ways of looking! And, what an irony, after searching so much, we had them in Calella de Palafrugell, 30 km from home!

When she arrived, Mona was wearing a very old leather collar and she was very skinny. With only a few days with us, she soon recovered!!

1981. Testing time

From here on we continue run after dogs, but slowly we began to raise ours until our first champion, Faluga of Campdurà, winner of the First Monograph of the breed and she became Spanish and World Champion. She was a dog that contributed to the recovery of the breed with a high level.