I am one of those who love good Sarplaninac, especially those with a strong character, with a good and effective use of intelligence, then follows as per importance, the head and tail, and all the rest comes after.
The so called "original" and "urban” Sarplaninci, I adore them all, under the condition that they have everything as mentioned above. These so called "original" ones are much better than the so called “urban” ones when the sense of smell, hearing and mobility are in question. Maybe for the Cynological point of view the “urban” ones are externally more beautiful than the “original” ones, but this is not always the rule, they are much slower and less vivid. I use both for reproduction, but much more the "original" ones. For the work they are doing at my place: following and protecting the sheep, they are all good, but for working with the sheep, it is as I said earlier.

Here is a picture where you can see, from left to right, several dogs with different characteristics and origins.
The first dog on the right is a female that I took from the city into the nature, it meets certain minimal criteria for the care of sheep and the character, but this is not the point! The fourth "urban" dog from the right is with the sheep since the age of 2 months, it is a solid sheepdog, but a little slower, slower in its observations. The other dogs descend from the "original" dogs and for the guarding of the sheep they are perfect, especially the 2nd dog from the right which is about 1 year old. Externally it may be the ugliest of my pets, but I think it will be far the best guard of the sheep. I say this, and for his fighting spirit, and for his initiatives, and he has only 1 year! The smallest dog on the left, is for me so far, since I raised Sarplaninci, the dog with the most crazy character, but it operates with bad use of its brain, and I still have two dogs of the same litter which gather together and attack everything that moves in the region, especially animals and I will probably be forced to get rid of them.

I have also a dog that does not appear on the picture, it is one of my best dogs. I talk about the work with sheep, it is perfect, although it has a too big white star on the chest, but it is not the star that will protect the sheep, but its generous courage and above all the use of its intelligence to situations that occur. What impresses me with it, is its nose for the game, it can smell them at a distance of 500-600m. The white dog lying and which is a mixture with probably 50 to 60% Sarplaninac blood is one of the leading dogs in my pack.

Another thing, one of my dogs which is 10 months old got a severe injury at the ankle and the veterinarians gave the most pessimistic forecasts. A miracle happened with it. I kept it in the city for 7 days or more. Then, when it came back into the nature, it wanted to go immediately back to the sheep, it was limping, after a few months this limping became less and less visible, and now we can hardly notice it anymore. Here is an example of the usefulness of ergotherapy. This dog is now 30 months old and for the fight it is by far the No. 1 of the pack.
I wish well to all those who raise the "original" and those who raise the "urban” ones. I hope I have helped a little ....


Boban