The Caucasian Shepherd Dog is one of the oldest, most ancient Molasser breeds, and the origin of these gigantic, protective dogs is a bit of a mystery. They hail from the Caucasus Mountain region and have been around for more than 2,000 years. Some believe they came from wolves that were domesticated, while others believe their ancestry includes Mastiffs and other breeds. Many experts claim that the Caucasian Shepherd Dog is descended from sheepdogs that migrated from Tibet, but some modern archaeological evidence suggests the breed dates back to Mesopotamia. Wherever they originally came from, Caucasian Shepherd Dogs made invaluable companions to the shepherds of the Caucasus region for centuries. They fiercely guarded flocks of sheep and their owners from dangerous wildlife such as wolves, jackals, and bears. They needed to be fearless, strong, and intimidating while being resilient to cold weather and harsh conditions. Shepherds bred the qualities they needed into their dogs, and because the Caucasus Mountain region is so vast, many different variants of the breed emerged, though the Caucasian Shepherd Dogs that developed in Georgia came to be the breed standard that is recognized by most kennel clubs today. Sometime in the 1900s, the communist USSR started using Caucasian Shepherds as prisoner guard dogs and used them to develop other breeds in army kennels. In the 1960s, East Germany put the breed to work as border patrol dogs along the Berlin Wall. When the wall came down in 1989, some 7,000 patrol dogs were dispersed, and many were given to families in Germany to live out the rest of their days. Today, Caucasian Shepherd Dogs are mostly family companions, watchdogs, and property guardians, though they are still used by shepherds to tend to flocks. They have retained many of their cautious, standoffish, and sometimes aggressive traits, so they need early socialization and firm training to avoid incidents. It is likely that breeders will try to weed out some of the less desirable tendencies from the breed as it becomes more popular.