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. gram. World War I. The beige stone buildings The ILA refused to pay any compensa- “We try very hard to keep them natural, not to originally housed the workers and engi- tion. change them, and one of the ways we do this is to neers who ran the nearby water pumping Last summer, the ILA razed the mod- bring dogs from the Beduin or free-living dogs to station (a red British post box is still on est house Shiboleth had lived in for four add to the population. It’s becoming very hard to the site.) and a half decades. In order to prevent find them because they’re disappearing.” "When we moved in the buildings anyone else from entering the buildings, This has meant going to increasingly remote lo- were in a state of total ruin, the ceilings once everyone is evicted, the ILA in- cations to find pure specimens. Over the years Shi- collapsed, and everything was full of tends to raze all the structures on the site, boleth and Ben-Shaul cultivated relationships with sheep droppings from the Beduin who even though some have been designated Beduin herders in the Negev desert in the south who had passed through and camped over the formally as historic buildings. (The Je- used Canaan dogs with their flocks. years," Myrna recalls. rusalem branch of the Council for the “Beduin don’t breed dogs, they use males to guard, They slowly renovated the houses and Conservation of Heritage Sites in Israel but they know where the females are. The children cleaned up the property, building fences is looking into the matter.) Bizarrely, the and women can usually approach the dogs, but the and kennels. They spent the first several highway planning division recently built men consider dogs beneath their dignity.” months without water and 17 years with- a new turnoff to the site and erected of- One of Shiboleth’s favorite stories is about the out electricity. The group signed a lease ficial signs. time she went to a Beduin encampment in the Negev with Mekorot (the national water com- Sha'ar HaGai is not alone. In recent to get a particular male she’d spotted on a previous pany) believing it was the owner of the years the ILA has launched a coun- visit the family had promised to catch for her. After property. try-wide campaign to evict people living the requisite polite formalities over sweet tea and In 1980, Mekorot refused to extend the on state lands, regardless of the circum- coffee, she finally asked where the dog was. lease and told the residents they had to stances or investments of the residents. In “The dog was tied up to a tractor 200 meters away, vacate the property. In subsequent court many cases, precise ownership and legal looking very unhappy,” she relates. “We took our hearings it turned out that the Israel Land status of the property is muddled, but the crate out of the car, but how to get him into it. The Authority (ILA) and not Mekorot, was residents inevitably lose their appeal. men won’t have anything to do with dogs, so we’re the actual owner of the land. "There's no such thing as having formal standing there looking at the dog, and the dog is According to Shiboleth, they asked re- rights to live in a place that's been desig- looking at them, and no one is happy about the situa- peatedly for a lease so they could stay on nated state land," admits attorney Yaacov tion. Suddenly one of the women comes along, sees legally over the next 30 years, but never Amster, a real estate lawyer who repre- what’s going on, grabs the dog’s chain, and pulls him got a response, despite paying local prop- sented Shiboleth. "She lost because she into the crate. That was that.” erty taxes. When the ILA finally decided didn't have rights. It's true that for years Today, after decades of careful management in to evict the residents in 2011, the Sha'ar they tried to obtain legal status and were building up the foundation population, the Canaan is HaGai Kennels became the focal point ignored, but if you pitch a tent in a field acknowledged everywhere as a purebred, pedigreed of a four-year legal battle. Despite the and sit there for 10 years, it's still not go- dog, recognized by all kennel clubs in the world. Be- kennel’s longtime existence on the site, a ing to be your property." cause there was no other place in the country where statement from the ILA stressed that “the Asked if he'd take on a similar case she could maintain her kennel once the eviction was land is owned by the State of Israel.” were he approached, Amster replied, final, Shiboleth moved to a friend’s house in Tos- “These are trespassers who took over "Yes, just to drive them crazy, because cana Italy. So Israel’s national dog, the first dog that state lands and six historical buildings in I believe in justice in these situations. It became partner to man, is now learning Italian. Shi- Sha’ar Hagai, a national park in which would have been so simple to come to boleth plans to come back to Israel to continue her residences were prohibited,” the ILA's these people and say, 'you've lived here searches for new desert dogs and still work for the unusually harsh statement read. “This is a for many years, you've invested in devel- preservation of the breed wherever it is in the world criminal offense punishable by up to two oping the land, you have a strong connec- now. years in prison.” tion, you're not bothering anyone, let's es- During the legal proceedings Myrna tablish a legal status,' "continues Amster. Myrna Shiboleth’s book, “The Israel Canaan Dog and her famous kennels became a cause "It's just cruelty, people with a narrow Book,” has recently been reissued. Information on it célèbre, both in Israel and internationally, outlook, a stupid state that can't see the is available at [email protected], or the pub- for people concerned about the contin- benefits. " – PG lisher [email protected]) 

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