Dogs in the Mongol Empire: hunting, herding, and war dogs

Part 1

What role did dogs play under the Mongols

Nomadic herders relied on dogs to guard their livestock against predators such as wolves and snow leopards. One family is said to have lost seventeen colts to wolves in a single night, showing how much was at stake for herding households. If your own dog mostly guards a sofa rather than a herd, it still helps to know how differently dogs and people depended on each other on the steppe.

Marco Polo described Kublai Khan's hunts, where thousands of men managed close to five thousand dogs sweeping across the plains for game. Two brothers held the title Keepers of the Mastiff Dogs and were responsible for supplying the court with game each day. Friar Odoric, who traveled decades after Polo, described similar hunts in which dogs and hawks drove animals toward the khan.

Part 2

The Bankhar: Mongolia's ancient livestock guardian

The Bankhar is a large dog, with males standing up to 75 centimeters at the shoulder and weighing between 50 and 60 kilograms. Their coat comes in red, black, or black and tan, and dogs with light markings above the eyes, called Four Eye Dogs, are especially prized because the markings help people tell dogs from wolves in low light. Bankhar dogs are known for being loyal and affectionate with their own families but formidable toward intruders, including wolves and snow leopards. They tend to live long lives, often 15 to 18 years, and hip dysplasia and other joint problems are rare among them.

Unlike many guardian dogs shaped through deliberate selective breeding, the Bankhar is described as a landrace, a type shaped by climate and by the needs of nomadic herders rather than by a breed standard. If you ever compare guardian breeds with another dog owner, it helps to know the Bankhar's working style came from generations spent living beside sheep and goats, not from a kennel club standard.

Herding families traditionally saw Bankhar dogs as sharing the same spirit as humans, and dogs were the only animals given individual names in camp. When a Bankhar died, its body was traditionally placed on top of a mountain rather than buried, so it would rest closer to the spirit world. Losing colts to predators could cost a family a significant part of its annual income.

Part 3

Dogs and the Mongol court

Marco Polo wrote about Kublai Khan's dogs when he traveled through Asia. He described small, golden coated dogs alongside much larger mastiffs used to hunt wild oxen and other large animals. Other travelers, including a friar who visited a later Mongol ruler, left similar accounts of large hunts organized with dogs and hawks.

At court, thousands of dogs took part in great hunts, while on the steppe, guardian dogs worked to protect herds from predators. If you think about your own dog's daily routine, it is worth remembering how much variety existed even within one empire's relationship with dogs.

Part 4

What happened to the Bankhar over time

During the Communist era of Mongolia, which lasted from the 1920s into the 1990s, Bankhar dogs were let loose or killed as nomads were forced into state-run settlements. Dogs were also targeted because of a mistaken belief that they spread illness to people and livestock. Their pelts became fashionable for stylish Russian coats, and the largest dogs were killed to supply that trade. By the 1980s the breed had almost disappeared, and the loss of guardian dogs led herders to rely more on shooting or poisoning predators, which reduced local wolf and snow leopard numbers.

Since then, groups including the Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project have worked to identify remaining Bankhar dogs, using DNA testing to find animals without modern breed genes. The project breeds, trains, and places these dogs with nomadic herding families so the dogs can return to guarding livestock. Research associated with the project has found that livestock guardian dogs can reduce predation on herds by 80 to 100 percent, which lowers the need for herders to kill predators in retaliation. If you care for a dog today, it is a reminder that a dog's working instincts, however far from the steppe your own dog lives, can still trace back to a very old partnership between dogs and people.