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The characteristics that are observable in the Cão de Gado Transmontano seem to have been dictated by their ability to avoid Wolf attacks to flocks in the kind of grazing sheep and goats in the northeast of Trás-os-Montes, but also for its adaptation to agriculture in which society falls.

The herd is the home of the Cão de gado Transmontano. Unlike other breeds, this dog doesn't really have a territory to defend, but a flock to defend. This flock has various and numerous pastures, which vary throughout the day and throughout the year and also has several places for overnight stay or rest during the day and, as such, is not attached to a particular territory, which is reflected in the behavior of the dog. Placed outside of his flock, the dog loses its nobility, imposing character, and, above all, their aggressiveness. On the contrary, if the herd is put in a strange place with the dog, this continues to do its job. Is a very common practice the herd be sold with their cattle and dogs these, although they go to a new owner and a new place, continue to play its "craft" to perfection.

Dog's relationship with the pastor is also something different from the relationship that normally attaches to the owner and dog. Most pastors rarely touch on their dogs, hardly ever hold the leash and, in many cases, have great difficulty in the grasp, whether to vaccinate, to treat any disease, or for any other purpose. Your affection, where it exists, is transmitted to dogs for a few words and the sharing of any crust of bread during the meal. In General, many characteristics of the times, is the wife of the pastor, which distributes food to dogs, you can grab them when necessary. In other cases, children, children's pastor, who can get the highest confidence of dogs, making them all they want.

With the sheep, o Cão de Gado Transmontano have very different attitudes, depending on, essentially, of good or bad experience with these had during their growth. If you were unlucky enough to grow along with newborn lambs, sheep will surely have taken some strong currency that make fear your proximity, or at least fear some of them, once the dogs distinguish perfectly each sheep from the herd. Although it is rare, some dogs can even be killed by the thrusts of the sheep. Other, that grow in a time of year when there is no newborn lambs, try to play with the sheep or lambs and not fear. May even be too violent in his banter with the Lambs and inadvertently come to kill them. The experienced pastor always intervenes in order to avoid that this gets to occur or, if the dog kill a lamb in the game, promptly punish to prevent the incident from happening again. The adult dogs usually carry a link to affective sheep and cattle. You often see them licking or grooming the sheep, or, when the pastor tries to grab them, refuge in the middle of the herd. An adult dog who grew up without incident of death of lambs has a reaction to these very similar to the one it has with strange dogs. For example, it is possible to see lambs, with some days of age, lost in the herd, without finding the mother, trying to follow, or even suck a dog of cattle and the latter, with a sortof air, deviating, not knowing what to do.

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In relation to wildlife o Cão de Gado Transmontano, the reaction is almost always the persecution and attempt to capture the animal. Are wolves, foxes, wild boars, roe deer, deer, lizards, snakes, rabbits or hares, the reaction is always aggressive, ended with the escape of the animal or with his capture and death. Almost all dogs of cattle in the region have captured some of these animals. Sometimes, when the animal is chased a wolf or a boar, the end may be different. Often be dogs with wounds caused by bites and navalhadas of wild boar, reaching some dying. Those who survive learn to protect themselves from bites or when the Chase, avoid the confrontation at the last moment. With the Wolf, when there is confrontation, is already often end with the death of Cattle Dog if this do not use "carrancas" (collar of nozzles). Every year are killed by wolves about a dozen Dogs.

As all these herds, dogs live in a quite area, where it is often humanized the encounter with people. The frequency of these meetings is so high that it would be impossible for any pastor possess dogs that were aggressive to the point of biting someone. Certainly, for this reason, will have been, throughout the ages, a selection in dogs showing aggression to people, to the point of biting, had been dismantled. Even today, when a dog has a tendency to be aggressive towards people, the Shepherd seeks to undo him. These encounters between Dogs and people although they are not at all pleasant, mainly by the size of dogs, don't go beyond a warning bark. So it seems plausible that it was the middle where fall that have led to these dogs if necessary to strangers more for their imposing presence, and not so much because of aggression, and that once exceeded the barrier imposed by its reserved temperament, become docile and quite sweet.

The same is happening in relation to other dogs. In General, when a Cão de Gado Transmontano meets another dog seeks, firstly, to impose themselves only with their presence. The next steps depend on the caller's response. A dog who submits, showing fear or just stay firm, without reacting with aggression, is almost immediately ignored. However, a dog who reacts with aggressiveness, trying to impose, or bite, is quickly attacked, sometimes killed. This is one of the reasons why many dogs present injuries caused by lead, once to pursue the hounds, hunters often have irrational reaction to fire on the dogs. In fact, the leading cause of mortality in this race, your solar, is of human origin. In addition to the already mentioned, the other most frequent causes of death are the hit and the death by asphyxiation, or bleeding, when dogs fall in steel ties placed illegally to hunt wild boar.