There is a serious misunderstanding being presented as fact that the selected purpose and function of the Mudi breed is that of an all-purpose farm dog. This misrepresentation has even inserted itself into official documents, which is likely one of the places it is shared from.
The AKC Mudi breed standard states: The Mudi is an …. all-purpose Hungarian farm dog. The AKC standard does not even mention herding as a purpose anywhere! How is that even possible?
What is an
all-purpose farm dog anyway? Even Google
is not overly helpful and forget Wikipedia.
There is no FCI or AKC ‘farm dog’
group either. The only specific farm dog is the Danish-Swedish
Farm Dog (DSFD) and they are in the working group in AKC, not the herding
group. Their AKC standard does not even
list a purpose:
In FCI the
DSFD breed is in Group 2: Pinscher and Schnauzer - Molossoid and Swiss
Mountain and Cattledogs (they are considered a pinscher, not a terrier)
In the FCI
Mudi standard #238:
UTILIZATION:
Herding dogs.
FCI-CLASSIFICATION:
Group 1 Sheepdogs and Cattle Dogs (except Swiss Cattle Dogs)
Section 1 Sheepdogs
I Am What I Am
The Mudi is
a landrace developed through selection by shepherds to herd livestock – it was
not selected by farmers! And yes there
is a difference between a farmer and a shepherd – they are two very different
professions.
The Mudi is
not an all-purpose farm dog and we DO NOT want it to become one!
Why?
Because the
Mudi is historically and biologically a cooperative herding breed.
Because the
Mudi was never selected for general or specialized farm dog duties/tasks such
as:
1) pulling
carts, carrying tools/equipment, or moving equipment: the Mudi never had the
size, structure or need to perform these tasks; cart pulling also requires a
certain temperament which the Mudi was not selected for; donkeys and much larger,
calmer dogs were used for these tasks
2)
ratting/mousing: the Mudi is a cooperative herding dog – while a ratter/mouser
(typically a terrier or pinscher) is an independent working dog; not all Mudis
are mousers and no one would consider not breeding a Mudi because it wasn’t a
good mouser – meaning vermin extermination is not important – it is just
incidental
3) property
or livestock guarding: the Mudi is not large enough to guard and defend, but
they are very good watchdogs because they are observant and alert, which is one
task they do on their own without us (independently) and in some cases they
overachieve and become nuisance barkers, which results from this one independent
behavior – do we want more of that? They
should also remain near to us, not off patrolling the ‘hood – which leads to
nothing but trouble and vet bills from meeting
with cars, fights with other dogs and wild animals, unhappy neighbors
and hunters, etc.; this independent
behavior we must keep in check and continually select against - not develop
further
4) wild boar hunting was not a practice of farmers or shepherds (especially when the Mudi was mainly being developed) and it was not done with a valuable herding dog that would be useless if it got hurt by a boar, not one of the professional shepherds we talked to said they also used their Mudi to hunt wild boar; hunting of this type is best accomplished with hounds – which are independent working breeds – which is not what we want our Mudis to be! There is a Hungarian hound that is made for this exact task – the Erdélyi kopó (Transylvanian Hound). We do not want our Mudis running off after wildlife while they are working livestock or taking a walk off leash with us. In Hungary dogs that chase game are allowed to be terminated by hunters and game wardens.
Partners, Not Solopreneurs
The Mudi was
selected by shepherds to be their ever present livestock handling partner,
anything else a Mudi can do is of far less importance and would not be a
determining factor for breeding.
Being a
cooperative herding breed is why the Mudi has super sports ability and is also
a loyal companion - because it is a cooperative breed – they were made to work
with you, not on their own, which is why they excel as sport partners. Think
about how many hounds and terriers appear on the 1st, 2nd
and 3rd place sport podiums.
The vast majority of winning placements consist of cooperative breeds
which include the herding and gundog breeds.
Cooperation or Independence
Science has
also shown that Cooperative and Independent dog breeds have very different
behavior (links below).
Cooperative
working (herding) behavior is what makes the Mudi able to perform so many
sports with us – if you want to keep this high level sport performance, then
you have to select Mudis that work with us, not for performing tasks alone.
What are the
differences between cooperative and independent dogs?
1)
Cooperative dogs watch us, they listen to us – even when we are not talking to
them, they check in with us frequently to make sure they are doing what we want
or to take further directions – this is exactly what is needed for herding
livestock and also high level sports performance.
2) Cooperative
dogs are not “set and forget” task dogs, which is what independent breeds are:
hook up the sled to the husky, put the terrier in the barn, let the beagles
loose in the field, turn out the hounds to the woodlands, place the LGD with
the flock, and they do what they were selected to do without anyone directing
them. Yes we may have to steer or stop them,
but that does not deter them from their purpose when they are set to it.
3) Cooperative
dogs rely on humans to direct them, independent dogs don’t – they rely on
themselves or others in their pack to carry out their task, this is why our
Mudis look at us so much, they wait for us to show them or tell them what we
want them to do. This human focus is
what makes them so good for herding and sports.
Make It Right
The Mudi is
a herding dog first and last. If you want
an all-purpose farm dog find a breed that was made for that purpose.
If you think
that changing the purpose away from herding to all-purpose farm dog, makes the
Mudi more marketable, then you don’t have the best interest of the Mudi breed as
your first responsibility, you are serving other selfish goals.
The Mudi
breed should always be our top priority!
Keeping the purpose the Mudi was created to do should be the number one
goal on everyone’s list.
I expect the Mudi Club of America to correct their standard in 4 years’ time to reflect the true and only purpose of the Mudi – herding, because there is not one mention of herding in the current AKC standard, which is not understandable for a breed selected specifically for one task - herding.
Making a mistake is not what defines us, how we correct it is.
AKC Mudi
Breed Standard
https://images.akc.org/pdf/breeds/standards/Mudi.pdf
FCI Mudi
Breed Standard
https://www.fci.be/Nomenclature/Standards/238g01-en.pdf
Published
Scientific Studies
You
talkin’ to me? Functional breed selection may have fundamentally influenced dogs’
sensitivity to human verbal communicative cues
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/s12915-024-01983-1
Natural
Born Detourers Modern Utility Dog Breeds Show Ancestry-Based Superiority in
Social Learning Capacity in a Detour Task
https://onlinelibrary.wiley.com/doi/10.1111/eva.70151
Independent,
but still observant—dog breeds selected for functional independence learn
better from a conspecific demonstrator than cooperative breeds in a detour task
Cooperative
but Dependent–Functional Breed Selection in Dogs Influences Human-Directed
Gazing in a Difficult Object-Manipulation Task
https://pmc.ncbi.nlm.nih.gov/articles/PMC11350734/
The relationship between functional breed selection and
attachment pattern in family dogs (Canis familiaris)
https://www.sciencedirect.com/science/article/pii/S0168159121000186
Would You
Detour with Me? Association between Functional Breed Selection and Social
Learning in Dogs Sheds Light on Elements of Dog–Human Cooperation
https://www.mdpi.com/2076-2615/13/12/2001
Effects
of selection for cooperation and attention in dogs
https://link.springer.com/article/10.1186/1744-9081-5-31
Dogs’ (Canis familiaris) attention to human perception: Influence of breed groups and life experiences.
https://psycnet.apa.org/doiLanding?doi=10.1037%2Fcom0000050
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