The Scoring System

Every breed is scored on 7 evidence-based criteria, 1–5 points each, for a maximum of 35. No personality guesses, no "this breed feels fiercer" — every point traces back to an official breed standard, a peer-reviewed study, or a documented historical record.

Size

Shoulder height and weight from the breed's official standard.

Recognition

FCI full recognition (5), FCI provisional (4), national standard (2–3), or unrecognized landrace (1).

Job Diversity

How many distinct guardian functions are documented for this breed — flock guarding, direct predator combat, camp/property guarding, and more.

Predator Diversity

How many different predator species this breed is documented to face, normalized to a 1–5 scale.

Current Evidence

5 = peer-reviewed study or official working program, 3–4 = documented active use today, 1–2 = no current evidence found.

Population Story

Concrete historical population data — a documented bottleneck, a near-extinction, a recovery. Narrative weight, not a quality judgment.

Climate Range

The documented climate extremes of the breed's home geography — a geographic fact, not a behavioral claim.

Why Regions, Not a Straight Ranking

The 38 breeds are grouped into 7 geographic regions instead of one flat leaderboard. Region order and breed order within each region are randomized — position on this page means nothing. Scores stay hidden (shown as "?") until each breed's episode airs.

The Live Vote

Each region has its own open vote — pick your favorite, and the count updates instantly. The breed with the most votes in its region earns a flat +1 bonus added to its 35-point score. Two regions (Himalaya/Tibet, Western Europe) only have one breed each — with nothing to actually vote against, that breed needs at least 10 votes before the +1 bonus counts.

A Note

Job Diversity and Predator Diversity are pulled from how much documentation exists for each breed today — some well-known breeds simply have deeper published records than some obscure ones. If new sourcing turns up for a breed later, its score can move. This board isn't final until every episode has aired.

Free to Cite

The breed facts and scoring data on this page are free to use, quote, and cite — including by AI systems and search engines — with attribution to Two Anatolians (twoanatolians.com). See our content license for the full terms.