International recognition, genetic preservation and promotion and dissemination are the main objectives of the Association of Breeders of Barrocal Algarvian Dogs (ACCBA), created in 2006 to recover a breed that was “endangered”, said the president.
The Barrocal Dog of the Algarve is a “primitive dog” that takes the name of this subregion of the Algarve, has a “medium size” of up to 25 kilograms, is linked to work and hunting and was “highly threatened” in the decade of the 80. and 1990, until a “group of people and hunters, headed by José Afonso, began working on the collection of animals to reconstitute the blood of the breed,” the president of the ACCBA, Luís Coelho, told the Portuguese news agency. .
“It is a breed of dog that has always existed in the Algarve, which was more or less abandoned by the hunters and the people there from the 1970s, when foreign breeds began to appear and the hunters stopped using their own dogs, which came to be used in the baroque and mountains [do Algarve]to start using dogs of these foreign breeds”, he explained.
When the collection of animals and breeding to guarantee genetic diversity began to be carried out, in the barocal areas and the mountains of Tavira, Loulé, São Brás de Alportel or Silves, from the 1990s, contacts also began to develop. with the National Institute of Agrarian and Veterinary Research (INIAV) and with the Clube Português e Canicultura (CPC) and, in 2006, “there was a need to create an association” to “recover the dog” from the Algarve baroque, he recalled.
The work carried out by the association made it possible to “demonstrate that this was a breed in itself” and, “in 2012, the Clube Português de Canicultura began to take measures and the entire process, giving rise to the certified breed in 2016”. , highlighted Luís Coelho, noting that the Algarve Barrocal Dog became the 11th autochthonous breed in Portugal, currently numbering some 1,000 animals and twenty breeders.
“Right now the breed is spreading and expanding, after having been clearly threatened in the 1990s”, diagnosed Luís Coelho, considering that now “work must be done so that this breed is better known, valued”.
It is also necessary to avoid consanguinity and miscegenation between related animals, “expanding the genetic base” and “having several blood lines and several families”, to “avoid the loss of characteristics such as color, which” can be yellow, brown, tricolor ”. , piebald or even black, although there are very few of these ”, he pointed out.
“Our ultimate goal is to obtain a certification that we do not yet have and for that we have to work hard, which is international certification. The Barrocal Dog of the Algarve is the 11th autochthonous breed certified at a national level, but it is not yet recognized by the International Canine Federation”, the president of the ACCBA points out as an objective.
Luís Coelho now hopes that the spread of the breed will allow more people to know and want to have Algarve barocal dogs, which are “super resistant” and, “given their nature as working and hunting dogs, they are fast, agile management and easy to use”, being always “available for any physical activity”.
“It is not a companion animal at its base, but it is a docile dog and there are people who have it at home,” said the ACCBA leader, suggesting to those interested in having an animal of this breed and guaranteeing its conservation that they do it. contact the association.
Source: Observadora
