It developed in the areas of the Russian Empire and the Soviet Union that are now Ukraine and southern Russia, and is thought to derive from cross-breeding between local dogs of the Russian steppes and long-haired shepherd dogs brought to the area from Spain in the late eighteenth century together with Merino sheep.

[2] The South Russian Ovcharka is thought to derive from cross-breeding between local dogs – of both flock guardian and sighthound type – of the Russian steppes and long-haired shepherd dogs brought to the area from Spain in the late eighteenth century together with Merino sheep.

[2] These Spanish dogs may have been similar in appearance to the present-day Gos d'Atura Catala.

[2] A cross-bred dog of this South Russian type won a gold medal at the Exposition Universelle of 1867 in Paris.

[2] The Fédération Cynologique Internationale definitively accepted it on 30 September 1983 as the Yuzhnorusskaya Ovcharka or South Russian Shepherd Dog.