Since time immemorial, the Sila has been an area where the pastoral activity of transhumance is short range, with seasonal movements between mountain and coastal pastures along natural paths (transumi). Still today, in the month of May, the shepherds head off to the plateau to graze their flocks. As they work, they are accompanied by numerous Sila Sheepdogs: vigorous and agile animals that are large in size and that pave the way for the flocks to help them with the transfers, and that watch over them to protect them from wolves and wild dogs.

The descent from the upland plains takes place in September, before the cold weather sets in. Indeed, in winter, the Sila area is affected by a continental climate, characterized by sub-zero temperature and snowfall.

The circumscribed scope of the transhumance and the context of the plateau have fostered the development of a series of characteristics of adaptation in the Sila Sheepdog in response to the demands of the territory, from which the dog takes its name. The impervious pathways have made this type of dog an agile, good climber, and the climatic contrasts have made it resistant to the cold. The continental climate that in the winter brings the cold and the snow to the lowlands as well has endowed this breed with a thick seasonal undercoat.

The shepherds, on their part, have contributed to selecting the dogs best suited to the task of guarding their flocks, preferring characteristics such as robustness and the colour of the coat, which resembles that of the flocks they look after, thereby fostering a kind of “formal symbiosis” between dogs and sheep.