Akbash Size And Appearance: Height, Weight, Coat, And Color

Male Akbash dogs stand 30 to 34 inches at the withers and average around 120 pounds. Females stand 28 to 32 inches and average around 90 pounds. Those are the United Kennel Club figures, and they put the breed among the tallest livestock guardians.

The standard asks for weight in proportion to height, producing a well-muscled, lean dog. An Akbash that looks like a mastiff is not in correct condition.

How that compares

The top of the Akbash range is taller than the breeds it is usually confused with. The American Kennel Club standard puts male Great Pyrenees at 27 to 32 inches with a minimum weight of 100 pounds. The UKC Kangal standard gives males 30 to 32 inches and 110 to 145 pounds. The AKC Anatolian Shepherd standard asks for males from 29 inches and 110 to 150 pounds.

The side-by-side detail is in the comparisons with the Great Pyrenees, the Kangal, and the Anatolian Shepherd.

A sighthound wearing a guardian’s coat

The UKC standard describes the breed as a combination of two types. The gazehound side gives long legs, a deep chest, an arched loin, a shallow lower jaw, a tucked-up flank, and real speed and agility. The mastiff side gives the height, the weight, the broader head, and the overall impression of power.

An Akbash moves far better than a dog of its size should, and owners who fence for a slow, heavy guardian find that out the hard way. See fencing and roaming.

Two coats, both correct

The coat is double, with coarse outer guard hairs over a dense undercoat, and the standard recognizes two lengths. Medium coats run short to medium and lie fairly sleek. Long coats are distinctly longer and often slightly wavy.

Neither is preferred. The practical difference shows up in hot climates and in how much hair ends up in your house. Texas A&M AgriLife flags the Great Pyrenees’ long coat as a significant problem in Texas heat, and the same logic applies to a long-coated Akbash working in the south. A medium-coated dog is the easier animal in a hot region.

Both lengths shed heavily, both blow undercoat seasonally, and neither is hypoallergenic. Grooming and shedding covers the workload.

White, and only white

Color is white. Light biscuit or gray shading around the ears is permitted, and that is the entire allowance.

The standard disqualifies any overall color other than white, defined spots, black whiskers, black eyelashes, albinism, blue eyes, and complete lack of pigmentation on the nose, eye rims, or lips.

There is no such thing as a rare-colored Akbash, and anyone advertising one is selling either a cross or an Anatolian Shepherd. A white coat is also supposed to come with dark pigment on the nose, eye rims, and lips, and a pink or partly pink nose is a fault.

Ears, tail, and dewclaws

Ear cropping is acceptable only on dogs imported from Turkey, where it is traditional working practice intended to leave a predator less to grip. On a domestically bred dog, cropped ears are a disqualification.

The tail is uncut, set low, carried low when the dog is relaxed and curled over the back when it is excited.

Dewclaws may be absent, single, or double, and may be removed. This distinguishes the Akbash from the Great Pyrenees, where double rear dewclaws are required and their absence is a fault. It is a quick check when you are trying to tell two big white dogs apart. See Akbash versus Great Pyrenees.

Faults worth knowing

The standard lists as serious faults an overshot or undershot bite, more than two missing teeth, a butterfly nose, very pale yellow eyes, loose eye rims, and cow or sickle hocks.

Loose eye rims matter to buyers because the Akbash Dog Association of America tracks entropion, an inward-rolling eyelid that puts hair against the cornea, through its breed health surveys. Eyelid conformation is one of the things to ask about when you are looking at a litter. More in health.

Cryptorchidism, viciousness, and marked shyness are disqualifications alongside the color faults.

Growing into it

The breed matures slowly, over two to three years. An Akbash at 12 months is tall, unfinished, and often gangly, and the filling-out continues long past the point where the dog looks adult in photographs.

That long growth window is the reason exercise during the first two years should be self-directed rather than forced, and the reason keeping a growing puppy lean matters more in this breed than in a 40-pound one. A dog headed for 120 pounds carries every extra pound on joints that have not finished.