Alabay dogs, long-standing and indispensable helpers in the traditional households, rightfully stand among the symbols of national pride of our compatriots. If, according to hippology, the “Nisean horses” belong to one of the oldest breeds in the world, then, according to cynologists, the Central Asian shepherd dog was bred at the earliest stages of historical development. The artefacts, which were discovered by archaeologists in the Neolithic settlements located at the foothills of the Kopetdag Mountains, make it possible to assume that a rather large dog was used to guard herds and houses. The Hero-Arkadag repeatedly emphasises the long and very complicated process of selecting, breeding and preserving this wonderful breed is a result of hard work and merit of our ancestors in the chain of many generations.
It should be noted that among the representatives of the fauna that have gone through national selection, the domesticated dog chronologically occupies, perhaps, the initial position as the earliest domesticated mammal with subsequent divergence into various breeds, including our Turkmen Alabay dog.
