Sheepdog guides Mount Ararat climbers to summit for fourth time

ERZURUM – Doğan News Agency

DHA photo

A sheepdog named “Lord” has become the first dog to summit Mount Ararat in eastern Turkey four times, as he frequently accompanies tourists willing to climb to the top of the mountain and intuitively guides them through bad weather and the geography of the terrain.

Lord, a four-year-old sheepdog from the Çevirme village located on the outskirts of Turkey’s tallest mountain, was the first dog to ascend its 5,137-meter-height, Turkish tourist guide Mustafa Tekin said.

Tekin said he knew the dog since its infancy and it was very intelligent. 

“I have been guiding tourists coming to climb Mount Ararat for years. Lord started to come with us [climbers] as he grew up. He knows climbers love him very much and feed him. Lord has such an amazing intuition that if he gives up climbing at a level of 4,900 meters, where the glaciers begin, we give up climbing, too,” Tekin said.

Lord was skilled at intuiting possible dangers and acted accordingly like a meteorology expert, said Tekin. 

“That is why we regard him as a guide [while climbing] and we feel safe when he is with us climbing,” he said.

Tekin said he had never seen a dog ascend to the summit of Mount Ararat as a climber who had been climbing there for around 20 years.

“Lord has become the first dog that made it to the top of Mount Ararat four times,” he added.