- The colour is black.
- Permissible: A few white hairs, evenly spread over the basic colour (provided they are hardly visible)
- Permissible: White strands as well as body or leg coat, which is completely inter weaved with white hair
- Permissible: White marking on the chest, provided it is small (maximum 5 cm.)
- Permissible: White markings on any other body parts
- The undercoat is definitely black.
- Permissible: During the shedding of the coat, the undercoat often goes greyish or sometimes even shows a brown tinge, which
About the Croatian Shepherd Dog
Origin: CroatiaCroatian Shepherd Dog
- FCI status
- Recognised by FCI
- FCI group
- Sheepdogs and Cattledogs (except Swiss Cattledogs)
- Origin
- Croatia
- Also called
- Perro Pastor Croata
- Known hereditary risks
- Not researched yet
About
What the breed standard says
- Bred for
- The Croatian Shepherd Dog is a breed with combined habits, which means it can be used for herding of livestock as well as a guard dog or companion dog. One hundred years of breeding the Croatian Shepherd Dog in the valley of east Slavonic, near house and yard, have formed a dog well adjusted to all conditions
- Behaviour and temperament
“The Croatian Shepherd Dog has a lively temperament and balanced disposition; it is fond of and devoted to his owner. He must neither be aggressive nor nervous and has to be interested in everything that happens in his surroundings. This breed has an inherited sense for the work with domestic animals. The characteristics of this breed are astuteness, courage, liveliness, endurance, patience and level-headedness during work. The breed is easy to train”
Quoted from FCI standard n°277. It describes the breed the registry recognises, not any individual animal.
Characteristics
- Size
- —
- Exercise needs
- —
- Easy to train
- —
- Amount of shedding
- 3 of 5
- Grooming needs
- 4 of 5
- Good with children
- —
- Cost to keep
- —
- Tolerates being alone
- —
- Intelligence
- —
- Health of breed
- Not researched yet
Pros & cons
Pros & cons for the Croatian Shepherd Dog
What you get with the Croatian Shepherd Dog
- Purpose stated in the standard: “The Croatian Shepherd Dog is a breed with combined habits, which means it can be used for herding of livestock as well as a guard dog or companion dog”
- The standard describes the breed as: “The Croatian Shepherd Dog has a lively temperament and balanced disposition”
What you are taking on
- High grooming needs — the standard’s own description is “Long hair to be found on the neck (mane), on the back, on the croup, the rib area, on the…”
Drawn from sources rather than written as an opinion — cited health research, the registry’s own standard, and peer-reviewed longevity. FCI breed standard. One breeder’s animals can differ from any of it, and an empty column means we hold nothing for that side rather than that there is nothing to say.
Characteristics
FCI standard · Croatian Shepherd Dog
Coat and colour
As the FCI standard sets it out. Every line below is the standard’s own wording, tagged permissible.
Coat
Profuse, dense, relatively soft of good quality, this means that it is neither woolly nor harsh to the touch.
It consists of a topcoat and an undercoat.
The topcoat is wavy to curly with a length of 6–14 cm
it is a stand off and elastic coat.
There must be no parting on the back.
The undercoat is dense, compact and soft
together with the topcoat it forms an excellent protecting cover for the dog.
Long hair to be found on the neck (mane), on the back, on the croup, the rib area, on the back part of the forearms (fringes), trousers on the hind legs (culottes) as well as on the tail (flag), unless the tail is short.
The longest coat is at the culottes and near the root of the tail.
At the parting between the short hair on forehead and the longer hair on back of skull, length is around 3,5 cm.
The short hair is straight with a length of 1–1,7 cm.
It is on the muzzle, the forehead, on the ears, around the eyes, on the cheeks, on the front part of the forelegs and also on Carpus and Metacarpus.
On the hind legs the hair is short on the feet and from the Metatarsus to the hock.
Females usually have slightly shorter hair and less profuse coat than males
Colour
- Preferred
- Permissible
- Undesirable
- Disqualifying
Preferred, permissible, undesirable and disqualifying are FCI’s own words about the breed. They describe what the standard asks for — not an assessment of any individual dog, and not ours.
Shortened from FCI standard n°277 — each label is the standard’s own wording with the verdict lifted into the tag beside it. Read the full clause at source.
What the breed standard says
- Size
- “Height at the withers: Males: 45–50 cm. Females: 43–48 cm. Height difference of +/- 3 cm in males and females of excellent type and conformation is tolerated”
- FCI states a tolerance around the figure.
Quoted from FCI standard n°277. It describes the breed the registry recognises, not any individual animal.
Breed-level information from The Dog API. It describes the Croatian Shepherd Dog in general; any individual animal can differ.
Health guide
What to ask for in a Croatian Shepherd Dog
No breed-specific health panel has been written up for the Croatian Shepherd Dog on this platform yet. That is a gap in our records, not a clean bill of health — ask the breeder which hereditary conditions their lines are tested for, and ask to see the results for both parents, dated and from a named laboratory.
Gallery
No photographs yet
This is where Croatian Shepherd Dog owners’ own photographs will go, from the pet profiles they keep here. Nobody has added one to a public page yet.
A photograph in a pet profile stays private to its owner. We will not put one here unless they ask us to.
Puppies
No puppies listed right now
No Croatian Shepherd Dog breeder has a record on this platform yet, so there is nothing to list. That is a gap in our coverage, not a fact about the breed.