Kazakh Tazy - TOP 10 Interesting Facts

1) Origin
The Tazy is a very old ancient hunting dog breed that has been living in the territory of Kazakhstan for more than a thousand years. Because the breed is so old, the certain ancestry or date of origin is unknown. Even today, you can mostly find them in the Kazakhstan, but you can also sometimes find them in neighbouring Kazakshtan countries like Turkmenistan or Uzbekistan.

2) Hunters
There’s an old saying: “One Tazy will feed the whole settlement“ and the Tazy is definitely capable of providing a lot of food thanks to their amazing hunting abilities. When hunting, Kazakhs traditionally use a horse, eagle and a hunting dog, typically the Tazy. And they are really amazing at hunting, because not only that they have amazing eyes and sight, just like most sighthounds do, the Tazy has also great sense of smell and can track track down the beast on the trail.

3) Valued companions
In the past, the Tazy was very highly valued and not everyone can afford to own a Tazy. According to some sources, the Tazy was equal to 47 horses for a bride’s required dowry. One of the reason, why they were highly valued was to be able to to run down and kill wolves. Thanks to that, they earned a special status among other breed in Kazakhstan.

4) Rarity
Sadly, even though these dogs were highly valued in the past, today they are in danger of extinction. It is estimated that only few hundreds of them are left today. Luckily, there are some hunters and breeders in Kazakhstan who are trying to save this amazing ancient dog breed. For comparsion, in 1970s there were thousands of Tazy dogs in Kazakhstan.

5) Appearance
The Tazy is well proportioned, slim, yet muscular and athletic and definitely very graceful dog breed. They have long fringed ears, dark and large expressive eyes, pretty deep chest and lean belly. The can be found in many different colors, one of the most common color is bright red.

6) Size
These dogs are elegant, yet very athletic and their average height is typically between 55-72 cm, which is 22-28 inch and weight should be between 20-35 kg, which is 44-77 pounds. The females tend to be slightly smaller than males.

7) Legend
There is an old legend about the Tazy dog saying, that the Tazy was born in the nest of snow vulture and they inherited their speeed, athleticism, power and beuty from these noble birds. Of course, it is only a legend, but the Tazy truly is very agile, fast, athletic, endurant, strong and they have high prey drive.

8) Temperament
When the Tazy is not hunting, they do make good companions and they love their owners and family. On the other hand, they are alert and suspicious towards strangers, but they should not be aggressive towards them without a reason. The Tazy is known for its playfulness and they definitely like exploring, spending time outdoors and playing different games with its family. They do have high energy and exercise needs. They can live with other dogs in the family, but other smaller household pets might be problematic, because of the dogs high prey drive.

9) Symbol of purity
The Tazy is also a symbol of morality and purity and even the word Taz can be translatated as clean or pure. It is also not respectful to call them just as dogs. They were called only Taz and they even did not apply religion prohibitions.

10) Maintenance
The Tazy is usually a very healthy dog breed with average lifespan around 12 or 13 years. The grooming and overall maintenance is not very hard and they can keep themselves in good shape even without our help. If you want to minimize the shedding, you must regularly brush their coat to remove dirt and dead hair. Just like with all dogs you should regularly check the dogs ears, eyes, nails and teeth and clip them or clean them if needed.