Research Information System
Ankara Üniversitesi Veteriner Fakültesi Dergisi, vol.72, no.3, pp.305-312, 2025 (SCI-Expanded)
This study aims to assess the skull morphological features of shepherd dog breeds raised in Poland, with an emphasis on native breeds such as the Tatra Sheepdog and Polish Lowland Sheepdog, by utilizing a detailed dataset to analyze and compare the structural traits of their skulls. To achieve this, a total of 32 dog skulls were modeled in 3D, and geometric morphometric analysis was performed to reveal skull shape variations. Among the shepherd samples used, the Polish Lowland Sheepdog exhibited the smallest average skull size. The Tatra Shepherd Dog displayed a skull size similar to that of other sheepdog breeds, although it was larger than that of the Polish Lowland Sheepdog. The results indicate that the Tatra Shepherd Dog possesses a more robust and elongated skull structure compared to the Polish Lowland Sheepdog. Both of these Polish shepherd breeds share similar skull morphology with other shepherd breeds, with the notable exception of collies. Collie breeds exhibit a markedly dolichocephalic skull morphology that sets them apart from the other samples in this study. The analysis revealed that neither Procrustes distance nor shape variation from PC1 had a statistically significant effect on skull size. To enhance our understanding of Poland's shepherd dog diversity, future studies should focus on expanding the dataset to include additional native Polish breeds and exploring a broader range of morphological features beyond the skull.