Anatolian shepherd dogs

[wateboe]

Does anyone keep Anatolians and flock protectors? I have a friend with five pups (out of a litter of twelve) from wonderful working parents and I am considering buying a couple of them. The price is right and they have been raised well, so it is hard to resist.

 

[hrhta812]

I'd jump at that chance! I've not had experience with them as flock guardians, but here's an article about it: http://www.anatoliandog.org/poultry.htm

My family fostered & adopted an Anatolian, and we loved him. I think they are a wonderful breed. He'd been left behind when his family lost the house to foreclosure and moved out. He was 12 when he came to us and lived to be 14. His arthritis was really bad and he had to be in an indoor/outdoor run because he'd never been neutered and never kept indoors, so he'd wee on things in the house. We felt like it would be too cruel to put him through another winter, so we said goodbye to him that year before it got too cold. He was a treasure - I hope you enjoy having them as part of your "family."

 

[RockerHen]

We don't keep our Anatolian as strictly a flock protector, but he doesn't bother the chickens, even if we put him in this run, and he will attack raccoons/stray dogs and runs after and barks at any large flying bird (ie vultures and hawks). We haven't had a raccoon attack since we got him and we used to have terrible problems with them. You HAVE to take a strong leadership role from the beginning though, they are very strong willed and independent and could be very difficult to control if they don't respect you. Our Kota is a big loving baby to us though. If you sit down, he'll lay beside you with his head or front legs across your lap. We can take him to petsmart/public places, and doesn't mind the dogs there. He'll only attack something he sees as a threat to us. Generally, if we're okay with something, he's okay with it. We just got cows, and he doesn't completely trust them yet though. He makes sure to escort me around the pasture so the murderous cows don't get me lol. He spent his first winter in the house following a surgery on his shoulder, and did wonderfully. He's quite calm most of the time (not hyper like our lab, who is Kota's best friend, along with our cat with no tail, in pics) and spends a lot of time perched on a hill watching over 'his' family and territory. But if he sees a threat, he moves like lightning.

 

[chickenneighbor]

Rocker Hen, that second picture with the silkie is priceless!

 

[babsbag]

I have an anatolian mix female that lives with my goats and chickens as an LGD. For the most part she is good with the chickens, but there have been some tragedies, especially when she was young. I have worked pretty hard with her to leave the chickens alone. Much depends on how they are raised the first few months and what the dam has imprinted on them regarding chickens. My female had no bird exposure until she was 4 months old.

One thing I learned the hard way is that she does not like new birds. I have to introduce the new chickens to her or she sees them as a threat and will kill them. I have a flock of about 12 that live outside the goat pen and roost in trees at night. If any of those chickens wake up on the wrong side of the fence they better get out of the pasture in a hurry or it may be the end of them.

I put new chickens in a dog run for a few days that is inside the pasture. After my dogs see them for a few days I can release the chickens and the dogs are ok.

The dogs keep the critters away, and bark at all hawks and vultures. But during the day when the dogs are asleep I wouldn't count on them keeping all the air born predators away.

 

[animals1981]

will the LGD hurt the border collies?


I find great pry not aggressive enough to be a serious no bluff LGD and not worth the time or money. Ive heard anatolions are reallly good though. THe less showdog the better.

 

[Hummingbird Hollow]

I have a 16 month old ASD who I purchased as a 9 week old puppy, partly due to losing a chicken to a bobcat several months before. If you are considering purchasing an ASD puppy, please do your research and read as much as you can about the breed before you adopt. These are awsome dogs, and can make wonderful livestock guardians or household guardians, but they are large and tend to be interested in moving up the domniance ladder if not raised with a strong, firm hand. I have been working with my dog since he was a puppy, around the chickens, around other dogs, around people and a variety of locations and situations to be sure that he is not only a reliable chicken guard, but also safe to bring to the vet if he needs treatment, tollerant of people coming to visit, the trash man and so forth. It is a large responsibility and it seems he tests the limits every time he reaches a new stage of development...what I thought I had a lot obedience issues covered during his puppyhood which reared up again when he hit puberty. After neutering and a lot of work, those issues (food aggression and dog aggression the most alarming) seemed to be "handled" only to have them resurface at around 12 months. These dogs continue to mature physically and emotionally until they are around 4 years of age, and ususally can't be expected to be reliable livestock guardians until they are almost 2 years old. The up side is they can live to 14 or even 16 years old if fed properly (low protien diet). The down side is how many of them end up in need of rescue and rehoming because they hit their naughty teens at 80-110 pounds of alpha dog and folks aren't prepared to deal with them.

An excellet resource is the NASRN.com website (National Anatolian Shepherd Rescue Network) where you can ask experienced ASD owners for their opinions, find articles on training and get other support.

Here's my Aslan at 12 months:

 

[DavidILoveYou22]

Hello. I do not have an Anatolian Shepherd or any kind of Livestock Guardian Dog, but a few months ago we were considering getting one to protect our family and chickens (though in the end changed our minds.) However, I spent probably 15+ hours researching LGDs on the web. As far as I know, they are excellent at their job. One of the websites that was extremely helpful was this forum: livestockguardiandogs.com. The people there are very helpful. I highly suggest you visit it, you can get some very good info there and the people are really friendly.

 

[animals1981]

i would not get one as a house pet/protection there are much better breeds suited for that

 

[LoneStarHen]

One thing to remember about LGD is that they require training. I worked in rescue for a long time. People would get LGD dogs and expect to throw them out with chickens and they'd automatically guard. Some dogs may do that, but most don't. I just trained Anatolian/GP mix and without a current LGD to help teach the ropes, it took me about 10 months. There were three poultry casualties, but now everything is fine.

Get with someone in your area who has LGDs to help you train them.