When a breed name follows tidy linguistic logic, it is tempting to assume that if there is a “large,” there must also be a “small.” As an example, we cite breed names like Large Münsterländer and Small Münsterländer. To the uninformed, the names set up an expectation that one breed is a smaller or larger version of the other. They are not.
For the sake of clarity, we digress for a moment. These two unique breeds share the word “Münsterländer” because both come from the Münsterland region of northwest Germany. They were standardized at different times out of somewhat different dog populations. In both cases, fanciers simply took the existing regional descriptor “Münsterländer” and then added a size adjective (Kleiner/Großer) once it became necessary to distinguish the smaller, spaniel‑type versatile dog from the larger, longhaired-pointer–type dog. In other words, the shared part of the name refers to geography, not to a single original breed that was officially split into two sizes.
And here we pivot to the Polish Lowland Sheepdog. It never occurred to us that someone might think there must also be a Polish Upland Sheepdog. but given the “Münsterländer logic,” we shrugged our shoulders and thought that it wasn’t the craziest thing we’d ever heard as dog people. After all, “lowland” implies geography, and geography has opposites.
No breed is formally recognized as a “Polish Upland Sheepdog,” but neither is the intuition entirely misplaced. Poland’s herding tradition does feature a natural geographical complement, a plains‑herder versus mountain‑guardian contrast, if you will. However, while Poland does have a mountain sheepdog — the Owczarek Podhalański (or the Polish Tatra Sheepdog), it is a livestock guardian breed from the southern highlands, not a herding counterpart to the Lowland.
The PON (the acronym for the Polish breed name, Polski Owczarek Nizinny) is a smaller, more agile herder suitable for the farm-rich plains of central Poland. In contrast, the “Upland” or Polish Tatra needed to be massive and white so they could blend in with the sheep while being large enough to fight off predators—a job that requires a much bigger physical presence than a lowland herder.
Different function. Different development. Different history.
In other words, while the Münsterländers invite some to think in pairs, the Polish Lowland Sheepdog stands alone in name. The ‘upland’ opposite exists geographically—but the Tatra is a guardian of the heights, not a herding twin to the PON. In the sheepfold, the guardian and the herder remain worlds apart.
Image: Polish Tatra Sheepdog by NiseriN/iStock