, 1874 The Euskal Artzain Txakurra is a traditional breed of the
Basque people, and dogs of this type appear in
Basque mythology. Similar dogs appear in
frescoes in churches and monasteries of the Basque country from the sixteenth century onwards, and later also in the drawings and paintings of artists such as
Luis Paret y Alcázar,
Gustave Doré and
Adolfo Guiard. The breed was recognised by the
Real Sociedad Canina de España in January 1996 in two varieties, Iletsua and Gorbeiakoa; the Gorbeiakoa originates from the region of
Gorbea, and Iletsua means "hairy" or "shaggy" in Basque. It was officially recognised – and the
breed standard published – by the national government of Spain in 2001, initially only in the Gorbeiakoa type; the Iletsua variant was recognised in the following year. Also in 2001, the breed in both its variants was included in the official list of autochthonous
Basque breeds published by the
government of the
Basque Autonomous Community; specific legislation regulating breeding and registration was published in 2003. In 2009 the total number of both subtypes of the breed was estimated to be 500. Although the Gorbeiakoa is historically linked to the
municipios of the
Parque Natural del Gorbeia, both it and the Iletsua are distributed throughout the historical Basque region. In the 1950s some
Basque people took sheepdogs with them when they travelled to the United States to work as shepherds. In 2026 it was among the sixteen Spanish breeds considered by the
Real Sociedad Canina de España to be
vulnerable. == Characteristics ==