The Hovawart is a reconstruction of a German farm dog that may have had some relationship to the livestock guardian dogs. Its name means “estate guardian.”
In 1210, the castle of Ordensritterburg was captured by the Slavs, and all the inhabitants were killed, except for the noble’s infant son. The child’s life was saved when a castle dog, supposedly a Hovawart, carried the baby to a neighboring castle. The child, Eike von Repkow, became a jurist in the German legal system, writing The Sachsenspiegel, the oldest surviving law code from Medieval Germany. The Hovawart was mentioned in this law code as a dog that must be replaced or paid restitution for if it is killed or stolen.
The dogs were used in pursue bandits and criminals in much the same way that German shepherds are today.
By the twentieth century, that breed began to replace the Hovawart, but some dedicated breeders led by zoologist Kurt Friedrich König searched for the remaining Hovawarts in the Black Forest region. After all, during this time period, German scientists, animal breeders, and historians were very interested in restoring ancient animal species and races. This activity was partly an outgrowth of German nationalism. Some other examples of this activity are the Heck cattle, a recreation of the aurochs, the ancestral wild cow of Europe, and the Heck horse, a recreation of the ancient Tarpan horse.
These Black Forest farm dogs were then bred with German shepherds, Kuvaszok, Newfoundlands, Leonbergers (which are derived from crossing Landseer Newfoundlands, St. Bernards, and the odd yellow mongrel to create the “Lion dog” symbol for the city of Leonberg), and a Bernese mountain dog. The resulting dogs were good for use in protection.
However, the blond and solid black ones look like golden and flat-coated retrievers. They are of a different temperament. Their temperament is more similar to the German shepherd, and some may be like the Kuvasz.
I saw a photo of a blond one in a dog book originally published in Germany, and I thought it was a big golden retriever.
I own a german shepherd myself lol
hay im kimberli .hovawart is very very very beatiful dog!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!
I just adopted a GR rescue that looks more hovawart than GR. He weighs in at a slim 90 lbs, is very tall and majestic (also capable of being silly.) He is a handful for this old woman, but we are settling in fine. My other dog is a 14 yo GR girl, normal sized, poor thing, but she holds her own pretty well when playing with the big guy.
Thanks for this wonderful blog.