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What
is important for the contemporary breeding is that during
the early 1920'a this naturally developed breed almost become
extinct. The efforts to save and preserve what was left
of the breed and to apply contemporary methods of breeding
resulted in a purposefully controlled increase in numbers,
both ballancing and consolidating the Tornjak population.
The slow move toward extinction of the Tornjak matched the
decreasing sheep breeding, starting in the northwest parts
of continental Croatia and moved southward to the central
parts of Dinarides. Both dog and livestock retreated to
more remote areas, leaving the regions opening up to new
cultural and economic influences. Thus, by the 1970's, this
once well known breed could be found only in the last sanctuaries
where sheep breeding was still carried on in the old, traditional
ways: in Bosnia, Herzegovina and Croatian mountains.
In order to preserve both the working instinct and beauty
of this breed, enthusiasts started to explore the geogreafical
areas where isolated, autochthonous specimens could be located.
Fanciers also researched any available information, thus
collecting what scarce data there was on the Tornjak. During
the 1980's, the same people acquired the first dogs who
become the nucleus of the modern systematic breeding. Officially
started in 1982, in Zagreb, a commission for breeding the
Tornjak was founded with The Kennel Association of Croatia*
(Kinoloski savez Hrvatke - KSH). Although subsequent events
within the Yugoslav Kennel Associations and KHS * did nothing
much for the promotion of the breed, the hard work of consolidating
the breed makes slow but sure headway. Eventually, by the
end of the 1990's, the Tornjak become, once again, a fully
established Croatian breed, among its native people.
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