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Israel Canaan canines The top authority on Israel’s national dog, Myrna Shiboleth, continues her work in Italy By Patricia Golan EL AL AGENTS at Ben-Gurion airport’s departures terminal were a bit overwhelmed at having to process a dozen or so dogs in air- line crates at once. A year and a half ago, Myrna Shiboleth, the world au- thority on Canaan Dogs, was leaving the country on a one-way ticket for Italy. In addition to the Canaans, there were some of her cham- pion Collies and Portuguese Podengos, tiny service dogs. The scene was quite an at- traction. As the agents were checking documents and weigh- ing the airline crates to be loaded onto a plane bound for Milan, a large crowd gathered, peering into the crates. None of the dogs was barking; they were all show dogs and were accustomed to crates. Shiboleth and her prize dogs were leaving for Italy to set up a kennel, after losing her appeal against eviction orders from her home of 47 years in Sha’ar HaGai (near Jerusalem) initiated by the Israel Lands Authority. (See box on page 27) The Canaan Dog, indigenous to the region and known in Hebrew as the Canaani, is Is- rael’s official national breed. Featured on the Israel Kennel Club’s logo, the dog even ap- pears on Israeli postage stamps. It’s a breed long associated with the Bedu- in, who, while historically herders, don’t use the breed for actual herding. “The dogs guard, chase away predators, they notify them if strangers are coming, that’s what they need a dog for. Beduin don’t need herd dogs; that’s the job for children and women,” explains Shiboleth. Like other “primitive” breeds of dog, Myrna Shiboleth with Canaans are athletic, square-built, medi- one of her prize Canaans um-sized dogs. Their tails curl over their YIGAL PARDO YIGAL back, ears are erect and they have a double THE JERUSALEM REPORT APRIL 16, 2018 25 Israel coat that withstands all elements. They can India for the untouchable castes. They were When Shiboleth immigrated to Israel from be cream colored, black and all shades of “untouchables” because, apparently, they Chicago in 1969, she met Menzel, who gave brown. wouldn’t let any human being touch them. her some of her first Canaan dogs. Togeth- “They can be trained as working dogs, to It emerged this wasn’t true. “The Menzels er with the late Dr. D'vora Ben-Shaul, at the search and rescue, because they use their discovered that the Canaans were actual- time the chief biologist for the Israel Nature natural scenting abilities to find the missing ly domesticated and were excellent guard Reserves Authority, Shiboleth started her person, and they love it, says Shobileth, an and rescue dogs,” states 87-year-old Esther own breeding group. They named the Sha'ar animal behaviorist, world-champion dog Cohn, a retired child psychologist and veter- HaGai Kennels for the rugged plot of land breeder and international dog show judge. an dog trainer. As a child in the 1930s, Cohn high above the gorge known as Sha’ar HaGai “The breed has existed for thousands of became an avid student of the Menzels. on the main highway from Tel Aviv to Jeru- years in this part of the world, exactly as “They came here in 1938 from Austria salem. it looks today,” she says. “It’s never been with their kennel of boxers and other trained Canaan Dogs, which have been used by something that has been selectively bred for dogs. They’d give dog training courses, and the IDF for scenting and guard work, have a particular appearance or purpose. This is because I liked dogs and my parents didn’t keen senses that tell them when something is what nature created and there are very few of very much, i began hanging out there,” she different or wrong. Shiboleth insists that they these dogs left in the world.” recalls. cannot be trained to be aggressive. “With In addition to the Canaan Dog of Israel, the Interviewed in her apartment in a retire- few genetic or health problems, Canaan dogs ancient breeds that are closest to the original ment home in Haifa, Cohn recalls those early have a lifespan of 16 to 17 years.” ancestor of the dog include the Carolina Dog, days in Kiriat Motzkin north of Haifa. “The the Indian Pariah, the Dingo and the New Menzels’s little house was always the cen- FOR MANY Israelis, the Canaan dog is Guinea Singing Dog. ter for dog-related activities. Officers from considered the local mutt, often found aban- “When you see references in the Bible to the British army used to stop by. They were doned. There are indeed many dogs that the dogs that barked or didn’t bark when the dog lovers,” she says. “They didn’t have any show physical characteristics of the breed Jews left Egypt, it was this type of dog,” she children, so they took me in somehow and I who find their way into local animal shelters. says. Archeological evidence of this appears learned a lot from them. “Just like the United States is full of pit in 1st century rock carvings in the Sinai and During World War II, Menzel trained dogs bulls in their animal shelters, we’re loaded a 2,500 year old dog cemetery in Ashkelon for mine detection for the British. (Later with Canaan dogs in our shelters,” says Cha- containing skeletons of 700 dogs that were those same dogs would be used by the Brit- ya Bailey, in charge of the intake of dogs and apparently buried in ceremonies. ish to find secret hiding places for weapons cats at Jerusalem’s privately funded SPCA hidden by Jews.) As teenagers, Cohn and animal shelter. THE CANAAN was first identified as a her future husband Alex edited a newspaper Like many involved in rescuing and proper breed in the early 1930s by Austrian started by the Menzels for dog trainers. In re-homing dogs, Bailey strongly disapproves chemist and animal behaviorist Professor 1948, she and Alex served in the first canine of dog breeders. Rudolphina Menzel during her travels in unit of the new Israeli army; she still teaches “My whole problem about any kind of British Mandate Palestine. She and her sim- at the police canine unit. She shows visitors breeding is that millions and millions of dogs ilarly named husband Dr. Rudolph Menzel an old German book written by the Menzels, are killed all over the world because there are immigrated in 1938 and soon became leg- the first known published text about the Ca- just many more dogs than people want,” says endary in the local dog world. The Menzels naan dog. an exasperated Bailey. “When people take eventually would become the first to publish “Unfortunately this was never translated,” a Canaan dog, which is basically a work- a proper stud book in Israel, in which ped- she says. ing dog and try to make it into a family pet igreed dogs could be registered in an orga- What the Menzels had discovered was that it’s very difficult. They’re very intelligent, nized fashion. this “Pariah Hunde” was a true native breed very independent and they also have a lot of At first, they worked with the Hagana, ideally adapted to local living conditions. hair. They’re not really meant for families. the pre-state underground army, to develop They began a breeding program and named They’re not really pets, and difficult to raise and train dogs for military use. (The Haga- the dog after the biblical Land of Canaan. In – especially in an apartment. So people take na’s canine unit was the forerunner of to- 1966, the breed standard was accepted by the them when they’re puppies and then dump day’s dog-handling Oketz unit in the Israel World Canine Organization. them when they’re older. It’s really a shame.” Defense Forces.) The Menzels realized that “This is the original Canaan dog. These That may be true, says Shiboleth, but, she the breeds of dog most commonly used for were wild dogs the Menzels took to breed,” maintains, most of these dogs are not true guarding and war dog tasks suffered from the says Cohn, pointing to the photographs in the Canaans. “I’m telling you all these dogs difficult local climate. They began looking book. “They decided that they would like to they call Canaans are not Canaans. A dog has for local dogs that would be more suitable for create a stable breed that would be the breed to look like a Canaan, with the phenotypical army service, and noticed the dogs hanging of Israel, or then, Palestine.” characteristics of a Canaan.” around Beduin Arab camps. They referred Menzel, who also trained guide dogs for She insists the Canaan is a great family to them as “pariah” dogs – the name used in the blind in Israel, died in 1973. dog, but with a very specific personality. 26 THE JERUSALEM REPORT APRIL 16, 2018 “If you don’t expect it to behave like a Labrador retriever, a Canaan is very loyal and devoted to THE STORY BEHIND THE EVICTION its people. A Canaan is not an aggressive dog. He warns; he doesn’t attack. But he is independent, and n 1970, together with D'vora Ben- uation of the Canaan breed. An on-line you have to have a partnership with him.” Shaul, other friends and their dogs, petition protesting the eviction garnered From the beginning, Shiboleth and Ben-Shaul I Myrna Shiboleth moved into long 40,000 signatures, but in the end Myrna managed to keep the breed’s genetic base broad by abandoned buildings built by the British and the other residents lost their case and bringing dogs from nature into her breeding pro- during the time of the mandate following subsequent appeal against the eviction.

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