Polish Lowland Sheepdog

The Polish Lowland Sheepdog (Polish: Polski Owczarek Nizinny), also just Nizinny or PON, is a medium sized, shaggy-coated, sheep dog breed native to Poland.

History

Known in its present form in Poland from at least the thirteenth century, the PON is most likely decended from the Puli and the herding dogs of the Huns.

Kazimierz Grabski, a Polish merchant, traded a shipment of grain for sheep in Scotland in 1514, and brought six PONs to move the sheep. A Scottish shepherd was so impressed with the herding ability of the dogs that he traded a ram and two ewes for a dog and two bitches. These dogs were bred with the local Scottish dogs to produce the Scottish herding dogs, most obviously the Bearded Collie.

Almost driven to extinction in World War II, the PON was restored mainly through the work of Dr. Danuta Hryeniewicz and her dog, Smok, the ancestor of all PONs in the world today, who sired the first ten litters of PONs in the 1950s. The breed standard was written with Smok as the model, and accepted by the Fédération Cynologique Internationale in 1959.