A wonderful dog breed you probably never heard of before

Bucovina Shepherd Dog is a Romanian dog Breed, originating in the region of Bucovina (and from there, the name). This breed was obtained centuries ago, when locals took wolves from the forest and tamed them, so they started living together. The now tamed wolves defended their sheep (and this is why they are called "shepherd"), and the humans offered them love, food and shelter in return. Basically, a wonderful chemistry between a dog and a human. A family.
It is quite hard to train this breed to do lots of tricks, like you can do with a Labrador Retriever. But, they are great for defending your property (or sheep) with the price of their own lives. When in pack, they fight together and defeat even bears that can threaten sheep lives.
I used to have such a dog at home. It was brought to us by train, from Gura Humorului (which was in the other part of the country), when he was only 5 or 6 weeks old. A little puffy doggy, that would just melt your heart.

That was back in 2006. I remember that he was scared at eating from an inox bowl, because it would make noises when moving on the floor, so we had to feed him from our hands at first, until he was courageous enough to eat alone from his food bown.

As he grew older, he started to get really territorial. He was very fluffy and cute with us, but if a stranger came by, he would bark and even try to bite, considering any stranger a threat to us. Since we live in the city, there were no sheep to defend, so he considered us his herd. But if we would go for a walk in the park, away from his territory, he would be really chill and couldn't care less about its surroundings.
But it was a hard way to teaching him how to walk in public, since he got really huge and strong, and at first, the entire family was needed for a simple walk in the park. He would get anxious and concerned if the other members of the pack are OK, why are they not present, how will he defend them if something were to happen. But, after a while, he really loved walks in the park and it got part of his routine.
He loved looking at ladies passing (not dogs, real humans), and would look at them with puppy eyes, expecting them to pet him. Which would usually happen, because he was really fluffy and cute.
When he got to adulthood, this is how big he got.

On his B'day, we would make some special dog cake that he loved, and, unlike any dog before him, he would sleep on his carpet on the hallway that connected all our rooms from the house. So imagine, a huge little fellow, sleeping all day long, on a tiny carpet, that you had to jump over if you wanted to get anywhere in the house. But we didn't cared about that, because he was really adorable.

Another thing that he loved was listening to classical music. Beethoven, Mozart, Vivaldi, just 10 minutes of listening and he would be the most relaxed dog ever. However, if you stopped the music, he would start to bark, telling you that he wants more.

When he would finally get bored of sleeping on his special carpet, he would chase birds in the yard. And if one of us would pass near the window and door entrance to the yard, he would run up the stairs and just look at you.

Another thing that he loved was smiling at photos.

And, since he was so big, it was really hard to open the door, because he always wanted to guard the door for you, because who knows what could be on the other side, right? Especially when my mom tried to unlock the door each time...

Each spring and autumn, I had to fully brush his hair. This is just a little tiny part of what it looked like.

This little fellow really loved all of us. Especially my mom. She considered him like her own son. And he knew it.

He was the reason why he bought a break model of a car, because we wanted him part of our important moments of our life. And he loved car rides (only if they were as long as 30 minutes)

We even found a photographer to accept taking us a family photo this winter.

We really wanted to hang a picture on the wall with all of us - and him. Because no photo was complete without the most loved member of our family.

And this was the result:

He also loved eating snow. Each winter, he would get sick because he ate too much snow - and we could do nothing to stop him from doing so (we did try).

He was a great dog. Unfortunately, he died 5 days after the Christmas photos were taken. From complications due to bacteria found in the snow (his stomach was literally upside down and the vet could not save him). He was almost 11 years. But he was a truly great and loved dog. The first dog we had, of a wonderful dog breed you probably never heard of before. :)