ASTANA – The people from the Kenshoky village in the Karagandy Region recently initiated a Kazakh tazy breed fan club to preserve and popularize the nation’s unique breed, according to the region’s akimat (city administration).
Previously, tazy were used to hunt gazelles and saigas (small antelopes). Photo credit: region’s akimat (city administration). Click to see the map in full size
Dias Meirkhanov created an Instagram page for the club, which now has more than 4,000 followers. “We share videos from the hunt and show how to take care of the dog properly. Our goal is to promote national values,” he said.
Being one of the jety kazyna (seven treasures) of the Kazakh people, the tazy is considered to be a human’s closest and most devoted friend.
Tazy has always enjoyed great respect for its incredible hunting qualities, its endurance, sensitive smell, and ability to chase animals at high speed for a long time. They are not afraid of animals that are twice their size and easily hunt for hares, foxes, and wolves.
The leading breeder in the village, Askhat Amanbayev, has been engaged in breeding tazy and finding responsible owners for 30 years now.
Village residents with their dogs. Photo credit: region’s akimat (city administration).
“I have loved this breed since I was a child. Several passionate hunters used to live in our village and I have always dreamed of having the same dogs they had. Later we took puppies from them,” Amanbayev said.
He said he had 300 adult dogs with puppies approximately three or four years ago and now has 30 tazy. Some of them won the grand prix at the international competition in Taraz five years ago.
Amanbayev also noted that there are two subspecies of tazy.
“The southern dogs have a soft undercoat and short hair on the ears, paws and tail, while dogs from cold regions have a thick undercoat and withstand frost well. Most of our dogs belong to the second kind,” Amanbayev said.
