Kango “Lefty” ( kangal x Dogo )
Aka “The olympic Schizophrenic”
Lefty below hanging out with a newborn goat kid,
Lefty’s fellow KANGO litter-mates album
So, now that we’ve done it, we’ve thanked the president of the the Kangal Dog Club of America for his inspiration, and expressed our heart felt disregard to the Kangal and Dogo purists everywhere… what did we get ?
Mostly I’d say what we got was pleasant surprises. I kept one, “Lefty,” but I’ve gotten quite a bit of feedback from owners of his litter mates and the general picture is pretty consistent. Somehow in crossing two very serious, pretty hard, and relatively aggressive dogs….. we actually got something softer than either parent in many regards.
Who’d a thunk it ? Experienced dog crossers might. I’ve heard similar refrains with a whole slew of bandog/pit dog type crosses. It’s more art than science to be sure, but anecdotes do form patterns in numbers
But I’m going to concentrate on Lefty, because that’s what I know, first hand. And the biggest and most pleasant surprise with him is that he can be trusted as a stock guardian. I didn’t bill any of these dogs as such, nor would I, and I do crosses better suited to that end. But the fact remains with no particular training he has learned to leave my critters alone. That is a thing a Dogo really can’t be taught. If Lefty were one of Mendel’s Peas we might be tempted to say a Dogos prey drive is recessive to a Kangals lack there of, of course it’s not that simple. But for practical purposes it might as well be.
The other big surprise is he demonstrates a minimal amount of dog aggression. Given the relatively high amount of that in both parent breeds I was frankly a little concerned. Turns out Lefty, and from what I hear, his litter mates, are relative gentlemen of the Canine world. Those are the big surprises.
Here’s what’s not. He roams more than a Dogo, less than a Kangal. His coat is in between. His independence level is in between. His biddability seems to oscillate between both extremes. And he’s extremely smart, like both parents, even if his thinking is not quite like either, he is definitely a thinking dog.
Lefty is very, very good with all things small; children, puppies, goats kids etc. He seems to have gotten the protective thing from the kangal along with a healthy dose of self awareness ( won’t lick a toddler over like a dogo ) and the nurturing, licking tendency of the Dogo. I’ve witnessed Lefty dutifully clean the wound of a male dog “Mandela” between growls, as if to say hold still while I clean this, or I’m gonna kick your a$$.
Lefty does exhibit prey drive, more so than his Kangal father, in fact he goes a little crazy if I don’t let him get after anything that he suspects is lurking. Bottom line, he’s working for me here on and around my land, and he’s great out in public, I couldn’t ask for a whole lot more.
Physically he’s a very tall athletic looking dog, 30 plus inches at the shoulder, but not too heavy, with a beautiful light footed floating movement that would be better filmed then typed at ( video is on the to do list ) When people see him they think he’s some sort of Dane cross, and perhaps the best thing about him is… they’re wrong. Though he’s on the scale of a Dane, just minus any of the associated pitfalls
