About the Czechoslovakian Vlcak, and whence arose the line splits which to this day shape discussion of the breed and sort people into two main camps …
So much has been written on the breed elsewhere, that I’d rather not waste space and instead provide useful information for many owners.
However, before reading this, I will assume that one is familiar with the Wikipedia as well as the AKC entries for the breed.
First off, there are conflicting stories about the original working intention of the breed, and this most likely is as old as the Czech / Slovak line split.
I have heard it said that the Czechs wanted a dog that would more or be less used in the same way they used their German Shepherds but with more intelligence and autonomy in decision making about who was a potential danger.
The other working vision I have heard of, especially in relation to Slovakian Military trials, related to their use off leash as animals that would appear as if they were wild wolves, but which would alert their handlers when strange humans were found. On leash, they would function as tracking dogs, and as in the other vision, would function as a force multiplier for border guard troops which usually worked in pairs of two men.
Both of these working roles are consistent with my experiences with dogs on various sides of the Czech/ Slovak split within the breed. The old slovak dogs are much more wolflike in appearance, but also in their personality. This manifests with both apprehension and sometimes fear toward strangers (although we do not breed dogs which exhibit fear which manifests to the point of fear aggression) and also in a deeper and more intense loyalty to their humans.
Peter Krotkovsky, one of the most important breeders of the very beginning stages of civillian ownership, recently wrote a great article stating that “if we lose the wolf-like appearance, we lose everything” which seems to confirm the Slovak vision for the breed.
The following are excerpts from this article (found here, for those interested) :
For example, lighter-colored ones live in cities and darker ones near nature, as evidenced by wolves living in coniferous forests, which are darker than wolves living on plains. If we guard these basic features, we will only keep them by creating lines that will carry them, because we must keep in mind that the Carpathian wolf is highly variable and diverse! The Czechoslovakian wolfhound must therefore resemble a wolf and not a German shepherd in which ČSV lives. For example, lighter-colored ones live in cities and darker ones near nature, as evidenced by wolves living in coniferous forests, which are darker than wolves living on plains. If we guard these basic features, we will only keep them by creating lines that will carry them, because we must keep in mind that the Carpathian wolf is highly variable and diverse! The Czechoslovakian wolfhound must therefore resemble a wolf and not a German shepherd in which ČSV lives. For example, lighter-colored ones live in cities and darker ones near nature, as evidenced by wolves living in coniferous forests, which are darker than wolves living on plains. If we guard these basic features, we will only keep them by creating lines that will carry them, because we must keep in mind that the Carpathian wolf is highly variable and diverse! The Czechoslovakian wolfhound must therefore resemble a wolf and not a German shepherd– if we lose the appearance of a wolf, we will lose the whole breed! And it is the appropriately formed lines that help us keep the Czechoslovakian wolfhound most in line with the approved standard, which already emphasizes in the preamble that the Czechoslovakian wolfhound must have the appearance of a wolf! I’d rather have an animal with five small flaws, but with the appearance of a wolf, than a perfect individual that copies a German Shepherd! In my opinion, it would be a mistake to include the breeding of the Carpathian wolf again – that is why I recognize the so-called sperm banks, which would enable a possible return, although today probably no one knows exactly where it is stored! “
Another Article in the same series includes this wonderful photo from breed founder Frantisek Rosik which confirms that idea of what a csv should look like.
And yet there is another vision, that of something more intermediate in appearance and movement between wolf and dog, which some Czech and Italian breeders continue to select for. To be fair, there are many people who like this type of dog, and many lines which resemble the German Shepherd more in body, also are much easier to work with, to the extent that no dog is alive today which descends purely from the Old Slovak bloodlines. And, without the Czech emphasis on trainability, and the Slovak emphasis on appearance, the unique breed we have today would not exist, resembling either German Shepherd mongrels in appearance, or no better than most wolfdogs in temperament.