Catalburun Split-Nose Dog: What That "Two-Nosed" Look Really Is — and What 2025 Genetics Found

By Daon  |  Updated August 2026  |  Written for general readers, based on published veterinary and genetics literature.

Photo note: every image in this post shows a general pointer-type hunting dog, not an actual Catalburun. The breed's split nose is not pictured.

Across the veterinary genetics literature on bifid nose, one detail keeps showing up: the dogs everyone photographs as a novelty turn out to be far more medically interesting than they look. The Catalburun — a rare Turkish pointing dog whose nose appears split down the middle — spent decades circulating online as a "dog with two noses." Then in 2025, a research team that included the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute and Cornell University published the gene behind that nose, and the conversation shifted from curiosity to human birth defects.

If you landed here after seeing a viral photo, here's the honest version of the story: the split nose is not a bonus nose, the breed is not something you can order, and the trait carries a real cost that Spanish hunters figured out generations before anyone sequenced a genome.

🚨 Real Talk: What Every Split-Nose Dog Fan Needs to Know About the Catalburun

• It's an unfinished nose, not a double nose: The medical term is bifid nose. The left and right halves of the muzzle never fully fused along the midline during embryonic development, leaving a deep cleft between the nostrils. It's a surface-level fusion failure, and there's no published evidence that it duplicates the scent-detecting structures deeper in the skull — which is why the "twice the smelling power" claim doesn't hold up.
• "Catalburun puppies for sale" is almost always something else: The breed isn't recognized by the AKC, the FCI, or any other kennel club, there is no pedigree registry, and the surviving dogs are working hunting dogs concentrated in one region of southern Turkey. Any U.S. listing advertising the breed deserves heavy skepticism.
• The same mutation can produce a cleft palate, not just a cleft nose: This is the part owners skip. Breeders of Spain's split-nose pointer learned the hard way that doubling down on the trait can produce puppies whose palate is open too — a condition that turns nursing into an aspiration risk within days of birth.

What a Split Nose Actually Is — and What It Isn't

During early development, the face is built from separate blocks of tissue that grow toward the midline and fuse. When that fusion falls short at the tip of the muzzle, you get a bifid nose. When it falls short further back, you get a cleft palate. Same process, different stopping point — which is the single most useful thing to understand about this breed.

The Catalburun's name says it plainly. In Turkish, çatal means forked and burun means nose. No romantic embellishment attached.

One correction to the popular version of this story: the trait is not limited to three breeds on earth. Three populations are known for maintaining it deliberately — Turkey's Tarsus Catalburun, Spain's Pachón Navarro, and Bolivia's Andean tiger hound. But the 2025 study also recruited eight additional bifid-nose dogs that lacked significant Catalburun ancestry, and one of them turned out to carry its own disruptive mutation in the same gene. The trait can appear sporadically outside these three populations — it's just that only a few groups of hunters ever decided to keep breeding for it.

A Few Hundred Dogs, Concentrated in One Corner of Turkey

These dogs have been bred for centuries around Tarsus, a town in Mersin Province on Turkey's Mediterranean coast, for one job: pointing partridge and francolin. Because hunters believed the forked nose signaled a superior scenting dog, they repeatedly bred split-nose dogs to split-nose dogs. That decision produced an extraordinarily narrow gene pool inside an already tiny population.

A 2012 survey estimated roughly 200 dogs remaining. Later breed descriptions put the number at a few hundred. Either way, this is a landrace maintained by working hunters, not a registered breed with a studbook.

Trait	Recorded Range
Height at shoulder	About 19–20 inches
Weight	About 44–55 lbs
Coat	Short; brown most common, then brown and white, liver and white, black and white, black
Build	Deep chest, athletic frame, drop ears, long straight tail
Estimated population	Roughly 200 as of a 2012 survey; described elsewhere as a few hundred
Kennel club status	Not recognized by any kennel club

Does the Split Nose Mean a Better Sense of Smell? No.

This is the myth that built the breed, and it's worth separating carefully from what these dogs can genuinely do.

A cleft at the tip of the muzzle does not duplicate the nasal turbinates or the olfactory epithelium inside the skull, and it doesn't double the number of scent receptors. There's no published evidence that a bifid nose improves scenting ability. What almost certainly did improve it is centuries of ruthless selection for one thing: dogs that found birds.

The field reports on these dogs are legitimately impressive, and none of them require the nose myth to explain:

• Ground and air scenting at the same time. Most pointing and trailing dogs lean toward one style. Studies of Tarsus Catalburuns describe most dogs using both concurrently.
• Pointing instinct before training. Puppies as young as two months have been observed locking into a point. Formal hunting training typically begins around six to seven months.
• Silent work. These are pointers, not baying hounds. The dog freezes and aims its whole body at the bird instead of announcing it.
• Two temperaments. Descriptions consistently say calm and quiet in the home, high-energy in the field, and highly trainable.
• Modern jobs. In recent years some have been trained for narcotics and explosives detection and for search and rescue.

(Heads up: this pattern — a dramatic physical trait getting credit for performance that actually came from generations of hard selection — shows up constantly in breed folklore. When a breed claim explains a talent through anatomy that doesn't physically do that job, it's usually marketing that outlived its origin.)

What the 2025 Genetics Study Found

In March 2025, an international team published in Genome Research after analyzing coding variation across more than 2,000 dog genomes. The collaboration included KTH Royal Institute of Technology in Sweden, the NIH's National Human Genome Research Institute, Cornell University, Embark Veterinary in Boston, Utrecht University, the University of Helsinki, and several Turkish universities.

They traced the Catalburun's split nose to a splice-acceptor variant in a gene called PDGFRA. In mouse models, the same gene is essential for medial nasal process development and palatogenesis — the fusion of the nose and the roof of the mouth. Every Catalburun in the sequencing group carried one copy of the variant; no dog was found carrying two. A mixed-breed dog with an unexplained split nose turned out to carry a separate mutation disrupting a splice site in the very same gene.

Worth knowing before you go hunting for photos: not every dog in the breed has the nose. Of 14 additional Catalburuns genotyped in the study, one carried no copy of the variant at all — and in Spain's Pachón Navarro, only some dogs display the split nose to begin with. It's a breed characteristic, not a breed guarantee.

The human relevance is stated cautiously by the researchers, and it's worth repeating in their register rather than inflating it. Orofacial clefts in children have many genetic and environmental causes, and a PDGFRA missense variant has been reported in one family with cleft lip and palate without being fully penetrant. The study offers one more clue in a crowded picture — not an explanation for cleft palate.

"In humans there is just too much genetic variation, making it hard to identify exactly which genetic mutation causes a specific disease. Studying the very inbred dog breeds is an excellent tool for finding the genetic reason for many morphologic traits and diseases in humans." — Peter Savolainen, KTH Royal Institute of Technology

There's an uncomfortable irony in that quote. The closed breeding that put this population at genetic risk is precisely what made it readable to scientists.

One more finding worth flagging for large-breed owners: the same paper identified two additional variants in LCORL, a gene tied to body size — a frameshift found in breeds over 55 lbs and an intronic variant common in breeds under 22 lbs.

The Origin Question Just Moved

The standing theory has been that the Catalburun and Spain's Pachón Navarro share a common ancestor, dating to the eighth century when southern Turkey and Iberia both fell under Umayyad rule. Which direction the dogs traveled has been argued for years.

The 2025 haplotype analysis nudges that debate. The Catalburun chromosomes carrying the mutation clustered among Spaniel and Setter haplotypes and looked nearly identical to them apart from the mutation itself. Combined with the artistic record in Iberia — a bifid-nose dog appears in a 1623 Rubens and Brueghel hunting scene, and again in eighteenth-century masonry at the Palace of Bertemati in Andalusia — the authors conclude the mutation most likely arose in Western Europe or the Iberian Peninsula.

The Trade-Off: Cleft Palate in Newborn Puppies

Long before anyone sequenced PDGFRA, Pachón Navarro breeders understood that using split-nose dogs in their lines risked producing puppies with fully cleft palates. That breed has even been used in surgical research on palate repair. The 2025 findings essentially supply the mechanism behind a rule of thumb hunters had already paid for in litters.

This is the section that matters even if you will never meet a Catalburun, because cleft palate happens sporadically in ordinary American litters too — and it is a genuine neonatal emergency. A puppy with an open palate cannot generate proper suction, so milk enters the nasal passages and, from there, the airway.

Signs that warrant a same-day call to your vet in a newborn or very young puppy:

• Milk bubbling or draining from the nostrils during or right after nursing
• Coughing, gagging, or choking while feeding
• Persistent nasal discharge or noisy, congested breathing
• Failure to gain weight while littermates grow normally
• Lethargy or fever, which can signal aspiration pneumonia

A vet can visualize the palate directly, and management usually involves tube or assisted feeding to protect the airway while the puppy grows, with surgical repair by a board-certified surgeon considered once the puppy is old enough. This is not a wait-and-see situation, and it's not something to manage at home based on a blog post.

Health Notes — and What We Genuinely Don't Know

Here is where I have to be straight with you: there is very little rigorous health data on this breed, and anyone claiming otherwise is guessing. With a few hundred dogs and no registry, no one has run the kind of epidemiology that produces reliable breed risk numbers.

Breed descriptions mention hip dysplasia, allergies, and hypothyroidism. Treat that as a plausible list for a small, closed population rather than an established risk profile — the sourcing behind it is thin. Worth noting from the 2025 paper: the dogs carrying the PDGFRA variants had no reported health concerns of their own.

The widely repeated claim that split-nose dogs suffer lifelong chronic sinus infections because of the cleft is one I could not find supported in veterinary literature. I'd rather tell you that plainly than pass along a tidy-sounding detail.

I care about this distinction for a specific reason. I lost a Golden Retriever at fifteen to cancer, and afterward I learned that some of what I'd watched happen was documented breed risk I could have been screening for. That experience cuts both directions, though. Vague breed rumors don't help anyone prepare — they just generate anxiety. Real, sourced, breed-specific risk does.

Can You Own a Catalburun in the U.S.?

Realistically, no — and I'd push back on wanting to.

There is no recognized breed registry, no U.S. breeder network, and no pedigree paperwork to verify. The population is small and functionally spoken for as working hunting stock in Turkey, so international placements are rare to nonexistent. Any American listing using the name is far more likely selling a pointer mix, and paying a novelty premium for an unverifiable "split nose" creates exactly the market incentive that makes this trait more common in careless breeding.

There's also the practical piece. "Calm and quiet at home" describes a dog that spent the day working a field. Strip out the scent work and that energy reappears in your living room.

If what actually drew you in was a lean, driven, nose-obsessed bird dog, the U.S. has an oversupply of them sitting in shelters right now. Pointer, setter, and hound mixes wash out of hunting homes constantly and end up in county shelters and breed-specific rescues, many of which run dedicated pointer and sporting-dog programs. Give one of those dogs a scent game, a long sniffing walk, or an introduction to nose work and you'll see the same switch flip that hunters in Tarsus have been describing for centuries.

(Heads up: if you're specifically drawn to unusual-looking dogs, ask what the look costs the dog. That's the single most useful filter I've found for evaluating any rare breed.)

FAQ: Catalburun and Split-Nose Dogs

Does a split nose really give a dog a better sense of smell?
No verified evidence supports that. The cleft is at the surface of the muzzle and doesn't duplicate the internal nasal structures where scent receptors sit. The breed's scenting reputation is much better explained by centuries of selecting only the dogs that found birds.

Can I buy a Catalburun puppy in the United States?
Practically speaking, no. The breed isn't recognized by any kennel club, has no registry or pedigree system, and the small remaining population is concentrated in southern Turkey as working hunting dogs. U.S. listings using the name should be treated as unverified.

Is a bifid nose dangerous for the dog itself?
The split nose alone is a cosmetic result of incomplete midline fusion, and dogs carrying the variant in the 2025 study had no reported health issues. The real concern is that the same developmental process can also leave the palate open, which is a serious neonatal problem. If a puppy has any facial midline difference, have a vet examine the palate and airway directly.

Bottom Line: Judge the Nose by What It Costs, Not How It Looks

The Catalburun is a genuinely remarkable working dog, and the 2025 research turned its most photographed feature into something useful for human medicine. But the trait everyone shares online is an incomplete fusion, not an upgrade — and the population that preserved it paid for it in narrow genetics and in litters that hunters learned to expect problems from.

Two things to take with you. If you ever see milk coming from a newborn puppy's nose, that's a vet call today, not tomorrow. And if a breed's selling point is how strange it looks, the honest next question is what that look is doing to the animal.

📌 Split-Nose Series — Next up: the Pachón Navarro, which was widely believed extinct by the early 1970s after myxomatosis wiped out the wild rabbit population it hunted, and the Andean tiger hound, dismissed as a tall tale from a 1913 expedition account for nearly ninety years until photographs surfaced.

Related Reads

• Old English Sheepdog: The "Bunny-Hop" Gait and a Coat That Hides Trouble
• Siberian Husky Genetic Health Problems: 3 Inherited Conditions Every Owner Should Know (Plus Early Warning Signs)

Sources

• Buckley RM, et al. (2025). Analysis of canine gene constraint identifies new variants for orofacial clefts and stature. Genome Research, 35(5):1080. DOI link — PDGFRA splice-acceptor variant and bifid nose; LCORL and stature; haplotype evidence for Iberian origin
• KTH Royal Institute of Technology (May 7, 2025). Rare hunting dogs' unique noses may offer clue to cause of cleft lip and palate in humans. Press release and researcher interview
• Oğrak YZ, Urošević M, Drobnjak D (2012). Tarsus Çatalburun Breed of Turkish Hunting Dog (Turkish Pointer). — population estimate, scenting style, training timeline
• Oğrak Y, Yoldas A, Urosevic M, Drobnjak D (2013). Some morphological traits of Tarsus Çatalburun breed of Turkish hunting dog. Eurasian Journal of Veterinary Sciences, 30:25
• Yilmaz O, Ertuğrul M, Wilson RT (2012). The domestic livestock resources of Turkey: breed descriptions and status of guard and hunting dogs. EAAP Annual Meeting
• Paradas-Lara I, et al. (2014). — Pachón Navarro cleft palate and surgical palate repair models, cited in the 2025 Genome Research paper
• Pointing Dog Blog. The Turkish Pointer's Spanish Connection. Link — breeder-reported cleft palate risk when doubling the trait
• BBC News (Aug 10, 2007). Double-nosed dog not to be sniffed at. Link — Andean tiger hound

This article is for general informational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional veterinary advice. If you notice any signs of abnormal behavior or symptoms in your dog, please visit a licensed veterinarian for a proper diagnostic exam (X-ray, ultrasound, or bloodwork as needed).

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This article is for educational purposes only and is not a substitute for professional veterinary advice. Please read our Medical Disclaimer and Editorial Policy for more information.