Anatolian Shepherds?

[Kodidog763]

I am starting to think about my next dog.

I lost my 12 year old dog a few years ago. Since then I’ve “inherited” a couple of my DH’s retired hunting dogs (one Chesapeake, one Lab). All of our dogs are family dogs, meaning they live in the house, and are with me all day (I work from home).

“My” dog was a non hunting dog, so she kept me company when DH was away on hunting trips. Right now that is covered by the two retired dogs, but the Chesapeake is 15, and I don’t know how much longer she will be with us. The Lab is younger, but has a history of cancer with her lineage. So, I’m planning for the future after they are gone.

Growing up we had German Shepherds, Shepherd/Lab mixes, and also had Alaskan Malamutes. My last dog was a German Shepherd/Husky/Collie mix. My DH and I have had Chesapeakes & Labs. So I do have some experience with working breeds.

I’m curious about the Anatolian Shepherd. We live on acreage, and I have horses at home. I want a protective dog, but not aggressive towards other animals, and tolerant of other dogs. Ideally I would like the dog to be able to be with me when I am doing chores around the property/horses. The Labs do not - they are too interested in finding birds, and trying to get the horses to play.

Does anyone have personal experience with them that they can share? Pros/Cons of the breed?

[mzm_farm]

I have an antolian shepherd. I love her, but she is unlike any other dog I have had (had dobes, shepherds, boxers, as well as a few “other”). Extremely smart, as well as independent. Independence is a breed characteristic - the breed was meant to do the protection work without human supervision. They feel able to make a decision, feel right about it and go on to get it done.

As a breed, they come with a warning that they do tend to roam far and wide. I do not find it to be the case with my dog. She likes her time outside, but is quite content to lay and supervise vs. actively seek out things. She is THE quietest, most mellow dog I have ever had. Runs and plays outside, never much running 5-10 mins tops, she is happy with any weather. She likes to hang out with me while I do chores, I like her company, esp. at night. She is alert but not barky over nothing. She has a deep bark, it does not come out often.

She is good with any and all animals I have ever introduced her to. Dogs, cats, chickens, ducks, horses, goats, sheep - no problems. Fantastic with kids, especially little ones. No licking, no jumping, no pawing - never a single correction. Comes up for pets and hugs, wears silly hats, but then retreats. If she is laying and some one steps on her, she does not move, very passive by nature.

NO prey drive - two corrections in her entire lifetime for speeding up after a bird or cat ran in front of her. Chickens and cat routinely steal her food, right from her mouth.

Not much to correct as far as bad behaviors, one strong “NO” and she is not likely to do it again. However, along with no prey drive, my dog also has no toy, no food, and minimal praise drive - not easy to train. She is not likely to bite, or snap over anything, you can take food from her mouth or her bowl; however giving her pills is just about impossible. While she knows what commands mean, she is not really motivated to do it and since she spends quite a bit of time off leash at the farm I only use positive training methods with her.

Easiest pup to potty train and must have bladder of steel. She can wait 18 hrs to go potty with no problems - sometimes she does not feel like going out when DH lets the other dog out and waits for me to issue her an invitation. She won’t ness. come back when DH calls, but is usually quite prompt when I call.

My dog does like affection, she is more like a cat though - she tries to get it on her terms. She comes up and puts her head in my lap or comes over and sits and waits to be noticed.

It is a very interesting breed, intelligent, beautiful, not particularly motivated to be obedient though. I find her easy and pleasant to have around 95% of the time.

I can get you in touch with her breeder - people seem to like the dogs they get from her. I liked how the dogs were raised, how the adults were and liked dealing with her.

[Kodidog763]

MZM - thank you! Exactly the sort of information I am interested in.

Since they are very independent, do you think the dog would be unhappy with close to 24/7 companionship? While we are on acreage (small acreage), we don’t let the dogs roam. We have a fenced back yard and the dog would be either with me or in the fenced portion of the yard.

Ease of training could be a concern. All of our dogs have been relatively easy to train. The Chesapeakes could be stubborn, but, I don’t think it would compare to what you describe.

Does your dog tend to be a one person dog?

Do you know of any hereditary health concerns that someone needs to watch out for?

Do you think their personality lends to being a puppy when you get them, or would an adult dog make a transition to a new home ok?

I would be interested in the name of your breeder. It will most likely be a couple of years before I’m ready, but that gives me time to research the right breed, and find a good breeder.

[mzm_farm]

Keep in mind that my answers are based on my experience with my one dog, colored by research I did. My original goal was a farm dog that hangs out with me (I am out there for hours) and lives in the barn, protects chickens from coyotes and maybe hawks. She clearly did not want to be away from us at night, so she is a house dog.

My dog likes being near her people but is not needy, at least not often. She never acts annoyed if I come to pet her, but does not seek it all the time either. She is clearly very happy when we come home even if we were all out only a short time. She shows that extreme joy by wagging her tail, going out and coming right back. No jumping, no barking, no in your face stuff. She is likely to come put head in lap after we sit down for a break. She will spend hours laying and watching stuff, she may even bark to alert but not go to investigate unless it is very clearly entering our property. Overall, I would rate her as a poor guard dog. She did not grow up with a good example though, our other dog does not bark (her choice, we never told her not to or did anything whatsoever to discourage it) and is only concerned with people coming cause they may pet/admire or feed her.

I tried to keep her away from other dogs, trying to make sure she would not be friendly to a coyote. She is friendly with any other dog I have ever introduced her to but appears very guarded and weary of coyotes (hackles up and growls/barks when they sing nearby).

I find that my dog is smart, she figures out quickly what is wanted and if she can’t get out of it, but if forced to do something that is not her idea, she def. does not do it when you can’t force her. Generally, they probably would be easy to train if you leashed the dog to you and it had no option but to do as told for a long time or if it was more praise, food, or toy motivated then mine. She thinks giving paw is a ridiculous idea, no matter how many times we take her paw and pet her, she does not offer to do it on her own, but she does not object to paws being taken from her.

Overall, I want very little out of my current dog - she knows to stay on property (ie she is not motivated to run off so she does not), she knows how to sit, and she will come when called - she walks, rarely runs to me. Once again, motivation issue. She can run quite well and is an athletic dog overall.

My dog is nice to everyone, she especially likes my DD and a toddler of our friend’s. She liked that other little girl since she was 3 and would come infrequently to visit. The dog’s face changes, she “smiles” (crinkles up corners of her mouth, no teeth showing at all), lowers her head as if cowering, wags her tail and comes over to the little girl for hugs. After greeting other guests, she ignores them. There were a few times non-friends came over and I had her on leash as she seemed to be a bit more tense and positioned herself between my kid and new people. All went well after brief introductions.

She def. listens to me better then DH or DD, she listens to the farm sitter in our absence about same as me.

It is a relatively non popular breed, most of them are still purpose bred on farms and do work. As such, it is a relatively healthy breed of large dog with ave. to above ave. lifespan, at least per my research.

I find it a strong willed and opinionated dog that gets set in their ways and does not change just because a human thinks that would be nice. On the other hand, my dog is extremely soft to correction. Getting her to stop a behavior is easy, but she does not show much initiative and is not much into “praise” of any sort so getting her to do something I want is not easily trained.

My dog is extremely gun shy. If she sees any of us pick up a gun, even a squirrel gun, she hides. She has no other fears - storms, etc, no problems. She clearly knows guns. She was close by outside ONCE when a gun was fired, I was right there with her. Gun was not fired at her.

Overall, one might think she is devoid of emotion, however, once you get to know her, you realize that there are things that make her happy and not. She is just a very passive, grounded, quiet dog by nature.

I do mean really passive by nature - she likes to lay against the freezer door, my DD wanted icecream. She talked to the dog and told it to move, prodded her a little, then took the dog by collar and started dragging her a little ways - dog did not raise her head nor make any attempt to get up. Kid got the ice cream out and proceeded to put the dog back where she got her from by pulling on some part of her again. Dog did not raise head although she was awake, dog continued laying/napping/watching us from her spot. This happened more then once. Dog knows what is going to happen, but is fine with it. I actually had to teach her a “GET OUT” command as she would continue to stay put sitting/laying even if about to be stepped on by horse I was walking into the barn. Oddly enough, the times I have inadvertently stepped on her, she does not move, does not bite, does NOTHING. It is really odd. She does not seem to mind and will continue doing the same thing. She does feel pain - I’ve checked, lol, she does not like needles although behaves just fine.

Like I said, she is unlike any dog I have ever had, quirky in so many ways. I do enjoy her quiet and grounded temperament. She is easy to have around, undemanding, but always there.

At this point, I would only take on an adult dog if it was already behaving the way I want or was relatively submissive and I had a good older dog for it to follow.

I hope others chime in, would love to know if my dog is even somewhat like the breed or not.

I’ll pm you the breeders’ contact.

[Kodidog763]

Interesting about her being gun shy. My mix was gun shy as well - as far as I know she had never been close to a gun that has been fired. When DH would bring the guns out for cleaning or to get ready for hunting trip the Labs & Chesapeake would lose their minds with happiness, and my dog would hide. I always wondered if it was the smell of the gun.

Got your PM - thank you!!!

[moving_to_dc]

We’ve had an Anatolian as a working LGD since December 2010. She is our first Anatolian, and first LGD, so like mzm farm, my experience is fairly limited.

She came from a line of ONLY working LGD’s, no house pets anywhere in her lineage.

She HATES being confined without access to the outdoors. She has jumped thru windows to escape the tack room, and after 1 attempt to jump thru the sliding glass door, we have never let her in the house again. She escapes every.single.cage the vet has ever tried her in… But, she will happily lay in our sunroom where she can hear/see all of the livestock, and she will hang out in the horse area of the horse trailer (NOT the tack/dressing room!).

She’s not fond of being in the open during thunderstorms. She’s fine if she is in the barn, but freaks out if she can’t get in the barn.

She will tear apart any strange dog that sets foot on our property, unless I am with the dog. She will tolerate strange dogs in my presence, but I can never trust her with them unattended. She is 100% fine with ANY dog she encounters off property - at the vet clinic, or if she wanders to a neighbors - she is fine with their dogs and will even play, but she will tear them apart if they follow her home onto her property.

She DOES bark at night if there is a hint of sight - sound - smell of a predator or unfamiliar vehicle. She has different barks - an alert bark, which we generally have tuned out and sleep thru, and a deeper rhythmic consistent something is DEFINITELY wrong bark. The alert bark is what we hear 99% of the time, and it doesn’t last hours. It’s usually 30-seconds or less when she feels the need to announce her presence to a threat. The definitely wrong bark gets your attention, and will continue until you come to see what is up, or she has resolved the situation herself.

She has alerted us to a neighboring house being engulfed in flames, we were the only ones to call 911. She has alerted us to countless thefts of property on the road we lived on in Oklahoma. The cops told us over and over that SHE was the reason we never had anyone try to steal from us.

She has learned which vehicles belong on our road, and ignores them. But any strange vehicles are announced immediately.

She does not and has not responded to any attempts to train her. She recognizes her name, but generally does not come immediately when called. She is not unruly or crazy - she is a joy to walk on a leash when needed, no pulling or tugging. She never jumps on anyone.

My Anatolian IS prey driven, and did love to kill and eat chickens when she was younger. She does not hesitate to kill and eat rabbits, possums, mice/rats, etc. Thank the Lord she has yet to kill a skunk. She accepted the cats that were on the property when we got her, but is having a hard time accepting the 3 new feral barn cats. Maybe because she hasn’t seen us handle them, so she thinks they are pests???

She is 125lbs, needs LOTS of brushing 2x a year when she blows her coat, but other than that is low maintenance. I do not trim her nails. She has them worn down to literal talons, and I want her to have them as a defense - they are seriously that sharp! She eats 2 cups of a 30% protein dog food once a day.

[Kodidog763]

Thank you Movin to DC! I appreciate the insight!

She came from a line of ONLY working LGD’s, no house pets anywhere in her lineage.

Good to know - I would have never thought of asking that. I do want the dog to be with us in the house. My mix was standoffish and would do her own thing in the house, so no problem with that, but I wouldn’t want a dog that couldn’t tolerate being in the house!

She will tear apart any strange dog that sets foot on our property, unless I am with the dog. She will tolerate strange dogs in my presence, but I can never trust her with them unattended. She is 100% fine with ANY dog she encounters off property - at the vet clinic, or if she wanders to a neighbors - she is fine with their dogs and will even play, but she will tear them apart if they follow her home onto her property.

That could be a concern - we do have neighbor dogs that will come uninvited (and I wouldn’t mind them being chased off), but we also seem to be dog sitter of choice for many of our friends, so something to consider.

[cbv]

I have never had one but been intrigued by them. I had a student that grew up on a farm with house dogs and LGD’s and believe they were anatolians. He said the LGD’s were fine with the house dogs “outside” the livestock enclosures, but if the house dogs came inside the livestock pastures the LGD’s would take them out.

But I did not get the impression they were a threat to farm visitors.

I would love one to tolerant of current cats but would keep feral cats and wild animals that enjoy cat food out of the barn area. But I have herding dogs/house dogs and don’t want to chance conflict.

[Epona142]

Livestock Guardian Dogs are not pets - for the most part. I have five currently on the property, one of which is an Anatolian, a young bitch.

However, the Anatolian Shepherd is one of the most laid back of the LGD breeds, and many lines are quite happy to become pets. I have even met a couple who became service dogs. This is also the breed that is raised with Cheetahs in zoos to spread awareness of how they protect livestock in Africa from cheetahs, removing the need to eliminate the endangered cats.

Anatolians, like most LGDs, are not human aggressive. They are bred to surround and hold a human intruder. Our girl - Zeni - is one of the sweetest dogs alive. She loves people and wants to be cuddled and kissed. I would trust her completely with children. From the moment I brought her home and placed her in the goat pen, she only wanted to love and bond. She is gentle with my small dogs and probably would appreciate being a house dog if it was allowed (which it’s not).

But I have seen her working, and while she does not have the heavy weight our Great Pyrenees and Akbash do, she is far faster and more agile, and I would not want to be a coyote or feral dog in her sights. She watches the hawks that live on our property. Though LGDs do not naturally guard poultry and need to be trained, she has never harassed our free range turkeys, guineas, and chickens. Unlike her Akbash friends who played a few to death.

Honestly though, the three pups (The Z-Team) I currently am bringing along to replace our two old boys are some of the finest LGDs I have ever worked with. Mileage can vary immensely, as we all know. Know your breeder - but know your gut too. I found Zeni on a Facebook giveaway group and went and snatched her up. No regrets!

My Youtube channel has a few Z-Team videos and there are more coming.

[Kodidog763]

I really appreciate everyone who has taken the time to respond!

This is also the breed that is raised with Cheetahs in zoos to spread awareness of how they protect livestock in Africa from cheetahs, removing the need to eliminate the endangered cats.

I saw this while googling the breed (Jack Hannah had a cheetah & Anatolian Shepherd on David Letterman and was discussing it).

I think a lot of what I’m reading would make an Anatolian a good fit for our circumstances, but there are a few “concern” areas. I think I’m going to see if I can find anyone locally with one, that might allow me to meet their dog and get a feel for the dog’s daily life.

I feel like it’s so much more complicated to get a dog now. I got Kodi, as a puppy, from the humane society and took a chance on her mix of breeds. But I was single, had no other pets, etc. I could be pretty adaptable. Now I need to analyze my wants, balance that with specific needs, and make sure I consider the impact of the horses, our hunting dogs, etc.

[Kodidog763]

More of a specific question…

This morning I went down to feed horses and they were losing their minds over something in the neighbors field that I couldn’t see. It took several minutes to get them to calm down enough to come accept their nosebags and eat.

I don’t bring our labs with me when I feed, but I know what the reaction would have been. A couple of the dogs would have thought this was a fantastic new game invented by the horses and joined in the madness, a couple would have been concerned for my safety and gone after the horses to “make them behave.”

What do you think your dog’s reaction would have been to something like this?

As FYI… we do have coyotes around, but it would be rare for them to get this close. I suspect there was nothing in the field, and it was created by the imagination of my gelding (who is blind in on eye and has limited vision in the other). Once he started, the mares simply joined in. But, of course, I don’t know for certain there was nothing out there.

[Epona142]

If there was something out there to be concerned about, our dogs would be up against the fence line threatening it away.

Keep in mind that LGDs are bred to bark. All night long. People who get them and then complain that they bark at night make my brain swell a little.

Anatolians however tend to be the quietest. If it came down to killing something, I think it would be her coming around silently to kill while the Pyrs and Akbash sound the alarm and threaten.

If there was indeed nothing, our dogs will walk among the goats and lick them and show that there is nothing by the body language. The goats do not fear and do communicate on some basic level with the LGDs.