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B) The following are articles appeared in Choban Chatter previously.
1-Comparative Analysis of Two Different Strains of Anatolian Shepherd Dogs
2-Stray Street or Pariah Dogs
3-Interview with Ismail Kara “Beşli”
4-The Steppe Monster: Bozkir Canavari
5-Malak
6-The Greyhound of Anatolia: The Turkmen Tazi
7-Bogus: The Wrestling Anatolian
9-Interview with Geygel and Sarikecili Yoruks
11-Dwindling Flocks and Vanishing Coban Kopegi
13-Yal
14-Annihilated Yoruks And Goats; Prospering Pine Needles And Kangals (not appeared in CC)
15-Prisoners Of Humane Society, The Cats (not appeared in CC)
CASTRATION FOR ECONOMY
A vet friend of mine recently attempted to castrate a Buck who was 8 years old; he died in three days in pain. His witty reasoning was to eat buck meat without any buck odor! He did not castrate him early, because he used him as a stud buck for several years. Then the buck died in agony after all his service! This is how humane people can be, including industry sponsored vets.
If we look at Old Spanish cattle history, Spanish had no neutering practices and they bred the Long Horn that formed the basis of American cattle industry for about 100 years. No castration was practiced on the black fighting Bulls and they were the basis of the Long Horn Cattle. Steers exhibit a different horn growth compared to Bulls. J.F. Dobie, in his book the Longhorns noted “Bull horns were generally thick and stubby, though some grew rather long, and many were very sharp. Stag males castrated late in life, develop horns more like those of a bull than those of a steer.” Neutering pets is another modern practice like cattle or dog shows or pedigree keeping.
Both growing an ASD to its full potential and neutering it at the same time are not possible. Should neutering happen before the dog is 9 months old or before it starts marking its territory by raising his leg he will end up with an incomplete growth. The ASDs enlarge their bulk after about 9 months old and that is when their heads become larger and this process continues all the way up to 20 months. The humane approach would be to shoot the dog that needs to be neutered. For some the process of cutting that is neutering must be required to make the dog complete! The alternative humane approach is neutering the dog when it is about a week old, like a castrated child, when it bleeds less and feels less pain.
Neutering a dog when it is 24 months old would give its owner a larger dog only. However the neutered dogs cannot secrete the same hormones that the intact ones can. Therefore they cannot excel at their protective duties. The trauma that the dogs go through is not humane (I have a different understanding of being humane), considering the age of the dog.
Castration specialists do not consider the effect of the hormones on the mental and physical health of the dog into consideration. All the hormones produced by the brain have purposes. They are regulators, triggers and even neutralizers.
Some ASD owners advocate neutering the dogs so that they would not wander for mating purposes. ASDs are roamers and the negative aspect of roaming is offset by their territoriality. Roaming is also an extending patrolling. An ASD whose instinct has not been removed via surgery will evaluate its territory differently than the neutered one. For such a dog, the distance it can see is its territory. Today roaming may not be acceptable for farm conditions, but then a mastiff and a Ridgeback or a GSD could do the same job. Why do we need an ASD? I know roamer dogs that come back with foxes and wolves and wild boar piglets. On the other hand I know a female ASD in Turkey that the shepherd initially thought was a cowardly dog, but then he realized that she loves sheep. If she were neutered when she was very young, the shepherd could not possibly know how good a shepherd dog she was. She could not have reached the stage of being selected as a good breeding dog. She was a white dog and it was impossible to tell that there was a dog in the flock. She was very quiet. She would just stick her head among the sheep and watch. Some males do the same thing. They are never castrated. Let’s keep in mind that what an ASD means, not what it is that we envision. It is now time to admit that “neuter” is a safe, soft and dishonest word which we exchange for “castration”.
Above is a clue for cattle ranchers in the USA who are concerned about wolf attacks on the cattle. Cattle protection requires roaming. People discussed this before and concluded that ASDs are not good for cattle protection, however there are Turkish cattle dogs that protect cattle that I have seen in Kayseri in central Anatolia and Rize in northwest Anatolia. Most Turkish dogs roam because of the historical and traditional animal husbandry in Anatolia.
The question that needs to be posed to the pro-castration folks is: What makes the dog roam or what goes on in the mind of the dog that makes it roam?”
I have different approaches of reasoning against the castration, but I also believe that the owner should make the final decision and should not be judged or prosecuted by the clubs or animal rights hobbyists.
The animal rightists as a political power needs to be approached carefully when castration in discussed. I met a few of them. According to them “it is OK to crop the tail of a hunting dog, but it is not OK to crop a tail of a GSD or crop the ears of an ASD, yet the dewclaws must go! Castration is healthy. It is about animal welfare. It is OK to make double holes on the both ears of a cow to tag her, but it is not OK shoot a fox, and again it is acceptable to kill badgers suspected having TB”. If it exists, I cannot follow their divisive logic. People can be so hypocritical. They respect more the rights of a dog, but they do not respect the animals that they eat. The same mentality secretes beliefs like “A horse is a noble animal, but a cow is dumb.” I can extend this infected mentality right into the politics but it is not necessary. I have visited a cattle market and watched cattle cry with large tears in their eyes as their horns are cut of with saws as their faces covered with blood. Yet a group of people in the USA is putting all their efforts into stopping Greyhound races!
There is a very simple description of a neutralized animal: testicle-less, ovum-less animal. But it is not the same with ear-less or dew-claw-less, because it is about a future without any reproductive possibility.
This is not about animal rights. It is about communistic repression. A dog without ears can still pass its genes, but it is not possible without the reproductive organs. Those two surgeries cannot be compared.
My sister neutered her English Cocker recently when the dog was about eight years old, because she did not want to breed her. She was neutered when it was clear that she was going to have health problems and it was too late to breed her.
The vets might say “well it is good for the animal’s health, if it is not going to be bred”. What if he or she needs to be bred late in their lives? I know a few bitches that they have not been bred until they were 6 years olds and then they gave birth to healthy puppies from promising males. Apart from that I really believe that we need to ask another question which is “what happens when we castrate?” Take at a look at the bull’s case; it becomes more docile, when it becomes a steer/bullock. Bulls are not suitable for draft purposes but only oxen. A horse is converted into a gelding because the rider needs a calmer and more manageable horse. It is the same with the dogs. Docility is the opposite of aggression and protection requires aggression without violence. If one does not need protection then he does not need a protection dog like ASD. Yet some recent research about the behavior change in dogs after the surgery found that castrated dogs could become more aggressive than their intact siblings. This kind of aggression is one that is caused by the lack of balancing hormones that they are supposed to be part of the general mechanism of the dog. The appointed experts are like children who like to fix things even when they are not broken. No wonder they end up with comics instead of real characters. Striping the organs and qualities of animals and plants in order to optimize or rather maximize their production is simply modern Frankesteinism. I wonder why modern Frankesteins build new domestic life forms by combining various organic parts of animals and plants. Perhaps they work on this subject in cooperation with GM voodooists.
Another concern: most of the time someone who is experienced enough can tell about the temperament of a dog when the dog is about a month old, but there are exceptions. Some dogs show their true color when they are 6-9 months old. I had an ASD and he was a coward until he was 5 months old and one day he transformed into a Samurai. Had he been castrated he would not have had a chance to pass his valuable genes. Some dogs need an opportunity to show their deeply buried values. Some dogs are shy like people, but they can change when they are in a comfort zone or when they accomplish something important for them.
Again, agreeing with the castration practice in general is one thing; managing and oppressing the owner of the animal is another. The owner should have the final word about what part of the animal needs to be chopped off, not the institutions of technocracy or irresponsible but authorized, power hungry midgets of bureaucracy. I find it hard to listen to the so-called “animal lovers” when they repeat the memorized slogans about animal welfare. The impression they make is if you are not like them, then you must not be an animal lover. Does it sound familiar to you? “He that is not with me is against me”. This dilemma is so false that it can only generate fallacy.
I wonder if anyone calculated the money annually spent on “chop off operations” on dogs and cats in the USA and in the United Europe. The dogs and the cats are not the beneficiaries for certain.
Sep 03, 2007
STUB TAILS and CROPPED EARS
But what is a tail? It is the most posterior terminal appendage of the vertebral column. It extends beyond the main structure of the body. It is basically the end part of the vertebrae consist normally 23 mobile vertebrae. Some dogs do not have tail. Some have undeveloped tails. The undeveloped tails are called rudimentary tails. They are very short but visible.
As it applies to ASDs, not all dogs have a tail. Some dogs are born with short, rudimentary tails. Other dogs have their tails docked short soon after birth. Dogs without tails and those whose tails are commonly docked often belong to the herding and working breeds of dogs. In these breeds, a long tail is considered a disadvantage or a hazard, depending upon the dog's intended usage or line of work.
When people talk about dog tails, they associate the tails with communication. It is perceived as an organic and silent tool for communication. According to this approach tailless dogs must be lacking communication skills. The fact of the matter is that tail is the barometer of the dog’s mind. Dog does not communicate with its tail; although it cannot be denied that the visual position of the tail may have some affect on the communication, the tail movements are essentially the end result of mental state of the dog. We humans are very creative at the process of identifying the sources of our information. Some attribute the tail movements to communication. Dogs can use their tails and ears in the absence of dogs or humans. Reaction is not communication, but only taking a position. Our interpretation is limited to our perception.
Most veterinarians may believe that ear cropping, the removal of the earflap for purely cosmetic reasons, is inhumane, so they refuse to do it. They may also believe that dogs communicate with other dogs and with humans through their ear language. However droopy-eared dogs cannot effectively maneuver their ears like GSDs. Therefore since they have almost no ear position they must have very limited means of early communication. If they wanted to, they could have seen that by cropping half of the ear, they could have been helping the dog to communicate better. Clearly their choice is subjective one. The same vets do not mind pulling the dewclaws off the dog. Because they reason that they can get caught by the thorny brush! ASDs in their native conditions can manage without their dewclaws getting caught much like Great Pyrenees. And they have been effectively communicating with their cropped dewclaws. What the bright observers are terribly missing because they have probably never become one with the dog is that dogs communicate with their torso, eyes and vocal cords. The tails is located at the rear of dog. A tail does not function like a human’s hands. Then human hand communication differs from one culture to another. The head, eyes and mouth of a dog are the organs that face another dog. They are the front liners. A dog that does not want to communicate turns its back to another dog. In addition to these, dogs’ scents give them material to process and it takes place in the brain not in the tail.
The ears of some goat breeds with very long ears in India are sometimes cropped because of the vegetation with thorny barks and branches. Long, hanging is not natural so they are shortened to help the goat move easily. Some goat breeds like Maltese’s udders are covered with a goat bra in Anatolia so that the udders do not get caught in the maquis. ASDs working in the maquis can easily tear their ears.
ASDs hear better with cropped ears. One can try to hear the same sound with an open ear and then try it with a folded ear. It is the same with the dogs. Dogs with pricked ears can rotate their ears towards the source of sound. ASD with ears can do the same but what they receive is not the same with that of a wolf receives. By cropping the ears the dogs not only can rotate the ear, but receive more input as well.
Shepherd dogs have larger ears than wolves. Hence a dog’s large ears which increase its effective surface area. Heat loss occurs by pumping blood into its ears of any mammal. By removing half of the ear the surface are is reduced in to half. That way a shepherd dog looses less heat from its ears. The same can be observed in Polar Bears and Arctic Fox clearly.
Lost heat can be compensated either by moving and therefore eating or only by eating alone. This solution is not viable under traditional and natural settings. Although ear cropping for this reason only may not be received as a just reason, its benefit in lowering the heat loss is apparent.
Swollen earflaps are technically called Aural Hematomas. They are a fairly widespread condition in dogs. It is believed that there is a link between swollen earflaps and excessive flapping of the ears. Swelling is caused by a ruptured blood vessel after bleeding has occurred inside a tissue. When a blood vessel within the earflap ruptures the earflap swells with blood. This condition causes a significant change in the carriage of the ear. An aural hematoma can disfigure the ears. A dog with cropped ears does not have such problems.
Long droops ears protect the eardrum from external substances such as rain, dust and wind. This protection comes with a drawback. Whatever enters the ear, cannot exit by itself. Assistance is required. A foxtail enters the ear needs to be pulled out by a vet with special tools. No air circulation in the hanging ears makes the ear stinky and uncomfortable for the dog. This conditions invites fungal growth as well. While hair is growing inside, dust, mites, and tick use ears as breeding ground. I have witnessed that a GSD, Ridgeback-cross used to have sever fly infestation during the summer in Texas. Medication was a temporary solution since he lived outdoors with horses at all times as a guard. His summer ears were so bloody that other dogs had to help him by licking his ears.
A dog scratching its ears for either it is infected with mites or fungus will cause the ears bleed that will invite more problems. One may object all the above by reasoning that modern medicine can cure everything. Nevertheless the subject here is about unspoiled Anatolian Shepherd Dog that works independently out in the open for the whole year under any kind of weather.
Ears are cropped in Turkey in the villages also because cropped ears are less subject to be ripped during an encounter between two dogs or between a dog and wolf. Apart from that it is believed that a cropped ear dog is a handsome dog. The modern medical and scientific philosophies claim that they provide answers for any problem and situation. The traditions of that past may seem brutal and meaningless to many, but this conclusion is out of convenience not out of knowledge and experience. It seems to me that is too expensive to waste the accumulation of thousands years of traditions thinking that the recently released version of “Homo-Consumer” knows better.
Tail has survival functions. A thick tailed dog would curl its tail around its body in the freezing cold, cover its face and insulate energy. Very swift dogs use their tail as a counter balance tool when they make sudden sharp turns. A tail also can be used as a stirring wheel in the water and a fly repellent in the fly infested areas.
Yet some dogs born without tails and some dog breeds come without tails like Old English Sheep Dog and ASD. These dogs like hyenas have very short tail can perfectly communicate and even survive in the freezing temperatures. Stub tailed dogs have a tendency to be shorter horizontally.
In the northeastern part of Anatolia some shepherds get rid of 1/3 of the tail. Most shepherds anywhere in Anatolia do not like very long tails. Whether it has a logical base or not they feel long tail comes with less courage.
Tail docking seems to be a cultural practice more than practical use. As explained above cropped ears have several advantages like not getting chopped of during a fight. Some dogs are very sensitive to flies in the summer. Their ears are infested with blood sucking flies. If we let Alabias leave in their traditional settings we might as well possibly see some individuals coming up with tail and parasite related problems. This has not been tested so we cannot explain the validity of health related docking reliably. However the crevices of a long fat tailed sheep’s tail is a breeding ground for some flies. A very curled tailed of a dog may serve a similar nest under certain conditions. On rare occasions I have seen dogs with broken tails. Who knows how they were broken. Itmust be very painful.It is like castration thesooner the better -less painful-.
No tail docking or the infrequency of it in Anatolia proves that ASDs are from Anatolia mainly not from Turkmenistan although Turkmen tribes migrated to Anatolia 1200 years ago. Why would they leave their practice behind but not their dogs? Turkmen might have become a minority among the natives. Finally they must have abandoned the practice. Perhaps the suggested Central Asian flies did not escort the dogs all way into Anatolia!
Tail docking is not about nature but nurture kind of choice. Inflicting pain on the dog is has indirect benefits for the shepherd to observe the puppy under physical pressure. This is purely cultural. It is a sort of test. A shepherd does not crop the ears of a puppy to inflict pain but takes advantage of the reaction of the puppy when the ears are cropped. He can see which puppy screamed most as he cuts the tail or the ears. Testing is not about pleasing and pleasure. It is about selection. There is nothing such “humane selection”. There is either aesthetic oriented and culturally biased politically correct selection or purely commercial selection.
Circumcision, ear piercing and aesthetic surgeries that people go through are “humane”, because it is a human thing. Humans like to alter looks either on themselves or on animals or plants. Pets are now inserted electronic IDs by piercing their skins or cattle’s ears are pierced for management reasons which I am not for marking animals as a forced policy on people. Animals are for their owners not for the clubs or governments. Governments should have no right to intervene with people’s cultural and personal choices. Besides animals are not citizens.
Breeding stump-tailed dogs is not illegal so far, but docking is in some countries, but again it is OKto breed English bulldog.Is it not cruel to alter and bastardize a life form, furthermore genetically fix those traits because that form entertains us?It is OK to castrate but not to dock. According to the masters of twisted logic, one is humane the other is cruel because of their biased egocentric culture. This kind of culture not only loves to ban anything that does not suit it well but also likes to crush minorities and their way of life. That is how the way to repressive communistic society is paved.
Curly tails are being a new interest among the ASD breeders recently. A curly tail is basically a deformed vertebrate and man like to breed deformed animals. Deformation is a branch of domestication. Increasing the head size is another form of deformation. It has to be noted here that ASDs do not guard with their tail, so there is no correct tail type that one can base on a scale of “absolute correct”. If one thinks curled tails are pleasing the eye, he should go for it, but setting standards out of nothing is misleading and distorting. Some of the ASD breeders may have exaggerated souls, but exaggerating the dogs is torturing them. ASDs must be strong and fast, not necessarily big and large. Largeness comes after strength and speed in order to support the guarding ability.
Whether curly tailed, kink tailed or stub tailed, ASDs do not lack any shepherding qualities, just because they have no tails. Alabais may come with stub tails or their tails are cropped as a general practice. There are several heresy about ear and tail cropping, but apart from them the practice has been practiced not for showing, but for either practical or belief reasons. Missing performance is more important than missing parts. Tail and ear cropping in Doberman must not be confused with an Alabai or ASD tail and ear cropping. The former is practiced for mainly aesthetic reasons; the latter however is for functional or cultural and traditional reasons although it eventually leads to an aesthetic alteration. One may like the altered looks or not. It is purely subjective. Prejudiced standards have no place in real ASD selection for the tail does not wag the dog.
20070811
Ocean Park, WA
2
SUGGESTIONS ABOUT CHEETAH DOGS ANATOLIANS FOR THE MODERN SHEPHERD AND CONSERVATIONIST
-Environmental concerns; -Crossbreeding;-Number of LGDs;-Castration;-Tick collars and parasite resistance;-Coat type and color;-Training or conditioning
-Feeding;-Hip problems;-Breeding and selection;-Breed related species matching
My suggestions in this paper are not personal and they may sound radical and exaggerated, but they are genuine. They should be read and perhaps discussed without any cultural bias in order to relate them to every Anatolian owner’s special situation.
Sometime ago, Janice Frasche wrote me about Laurie Marker’s opinions on LGDs. Marker is Co-Founder and Executive Director of the Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) based in Namibia, Africa. She feels that the LGDs are disruptive to the normal bio-system, because they chase the game and other non-predators away and sometimes kill small animals in the environment. Unfortunately, her approach also considers crossbreeding some of the LGDs to native African dogs to try to produce a 'middle road' dog that will still be protective of stock, stay with the stock, and not chase the other animals.
There might be several reasons why Anatolians do not perform well under various settings. Although it is preferable to address the individual problems, lacking specific data will not permit to do so. Instead, one can devise a system to produce laws for better LGD management when “ready to go laws” are not present. The basics of devising principles of laws understand what makes a system work and what fails in a system. Although these two basic approaches would not provide a manufactured pill to cure the disease, it would give us tools to formulate it.
Environmental Concerns
It is true that Anatolians kill hares, foxes, jackals, wolves etc but the numbers could be ignored, since they are not significant. Man goes after wolves in the westernized countries and eliminates them with bounties. There is neither a bounty nor protection for wolves in Turkey. There has never been a case Anatolians killing wild sheep, goats, or deer. It is known that well trained Anatolians of proper size and drive can kill wild boars. This happens in an organized hunting event. When a flock of sheep approaches a herd of wild game, -for instance; wild boars- wild boars will set off for another location. Boars and Anatolians rarely encounter each other under normal herding conditions. This is not any different for deer and wild sheep populations, which are relatively swifter than the boars.
It is claimed that dogs have taken over the reserves for the livestock. One of Marker's recommendations was to not allow the herders to have dogs with their livestock in the reserves!
That makes some sense when one thinks with a preferred perspective in her mind. This is about balance between nature and man. The dogs bring back part of the lost balance. The huge numbers of flocks will overburden the land and it is not natural yet man preserves them. When man overstocks his herds, the excess numbers of ruminants will compete with deer etc. not the dogs. The herds would also damage the pastures and forests when the land is overstocked.
However, the absence of flocks does have negative impact on the ecosystems too. There are highland pasture bans in the southeast Turkey against the Kurdish terrorism for several years. Last year it was lifted in a few places, some of the flocks became infested with ticks, so many of them died along with some people. The flocks lost their resistance against the tick diseases. These flocks have been part of the ecosystem for thousands of years after man decimated the wild ruminants. Man interrupted the natural cycle and nature made a compromise on this situation. So many carnivores prey on these flocks. The bans on the highlands interfere with their diets.
Markets and modern consumers changed what breeds are kept and how they are raised. Cokelez Mountains in Denizli used to handle about 5000 Karabas sheep in one of its highland pastures only about 30 years ago but it could not have handled the same number of Awassi breed, because Awassi is not a perfect grazer like the Karabas. When Karabas sheep were in those mountains, the belief among the shepherds is that the pastures were healthier. They left more manure behind to be decomposed and rotated, but Kivircik and Awassi breeds of sheep cannot effectively take advantage of the rocky mountain pastures. Switching to different breeds led to a decrease in the total number of sheep. So not only does removing the flocks from wild life has unwanted impacts on the predators, but also changing the breeds brings negative results.
The flocks provide food for the carnivores and their presence replaces the lack of deer and wild goats and sheep. Dogs also control the numbers of the carnivores. This was a nice balance. Even in some cases, Yoruk nomads who travel with 1000-3000 goats bring a wolf pack with them, because the wolves’ main diet became the goat herds along with mice, hares, and wild boars. One of the shepherds I know in Konya has 800 goats and sheep mixed together excluding the kids and lambs. He looses a few animals every year to the wolves and he thinks it is not a big deal. This area receives only 14 inches rain annually and being a high steppe between 3000-4000 feet above sea level without any bushes and trees but only rocky hills does not allow any wild boars to survive to fall prey to the wolves. In his area, the total number of sheep and goats are close to 10,000, this allows wolves to feed on them year around.
In May 2005, a shepherd from Antalya told me that he shot an Anatolian Leopard in 1974 in the Taurus Mountains near Antalya. The leopard’s seasonal diet was made up of local sheep and goat herds since the flocks visit the area for five months a year. He also explained to me that five of his shepherd dogs circled the leopard but the dogs did not dare touching the leopard. If the shepherd did not shoot the leopard, it is very likely that it would have gone free without being harmed by the dogs.
Crossbreeding
The solution to crossbreed the Anatolians could be a partial solution. Crossing could be good for transferring tolerance against the endemic diseases but ensuring the right balance of guarding instinct in the crosses could be problematic. The dogs also need speed and size in order support their drives.The Anatolians in Anatolia need speed against the wolf and compromising their speed in Africa against Cheetah will lead to inefficiency. It would be helpful if the cheetah conservation people study the working examples in lands like Persia and Anatolia.
From the shepherd’s perspective, as long as the goal is having effective LGDs, crossbreeding is acceptable since the bottom line is performance. However, crossbreeding is a very sensitive field. Since Anatolians have been bred and selected for guarding purposes for untold generations the attained balance of guarding and physical qualities can be easily lost in crossbreeding. In addition to this not mixing but fixing the desired traits will more likely be very difficult.
Number of LGDs
The practice of keeping one dog per flock indicates that the shepherd dogs are not being efficiently used. The minimum and ideal number should be always two dogs. Even flocks in coyote dense regions in the USA require at least two Anatolians. A single dog is fine for close confinement farms. The quantity of the dogs per flock should be determined by the size of the flock and the type of grazing land. If the pastures are hilly instead of flat, one needs definitely more dogs since the complete sight of the flock is limited. One dog can be present at one point of the flock in a given time. I have seen goat flocks composed of 200 goats guarded by five strong dogs in very mountainous regions in northeast Anatolia in which bears, hyenas are wolves were abundant.
Even if the flock is on a mesa type of flat surface, if the flock experiences a cheetah attack, it can disperse and even if the cheetah is chased by the dog, the scattered sheep could be snatched by jackals or hyenas. In return, the cheetah might be blamed for the loss. The cheetah and the jackal need to make a living. The dog is responsible to protect the flock and the shepherd is the one to be blamed for his inadequate protection management.
Castration
There is already a working system. Why not imitate it? These dogs are not about breeding but about selection in Anatolia. Castrating the dogs that are sent out to the ranches so that the dogs do not roam or crossbred cannot be a long-term plan. Turkish shepherds know how to castrate but they do not.
“What happens when a bull is castrated?” The major premise of the advocates of castrating is that “the dog that is not neutered would roam.” These dogs are roamers and each dog has different degrees of roaming needs. Some dogs are like ticks on the sheep. They never leave sheep. Some dogs like to cover and check the surrounding area in large circles. The diameter of the circle could be 100mt (300ft) to 2000mt (6000ft). A dog that is a far-reaching roamer could be a good asset for a large flock since it can work like radar for the remaining dogs. These kinds of dogs are rare and they are called kurtbogan (wolf killers) in Anatolia. They are extremely independent and brave dogs and they are not good for small flocks. All the varieties within the same litter could be employed for a different part of the same task.
Castrating is blocking the dynamics of the brain and the future of the individual. A castrated dog can never reach its potential. Why would one not want to get the maximum amount of interest for his principle?
If castration is necessary, it must not be practiced before the dog is 12 months old. Castration at six months will not allow the dog reach its potential. One must keep in mind that Anatolians continue growing for two to three years old. A dog castrated before 12 months old will have a smaller head than an intact one.
Tick Collars and Parasite Resistance
Using tick collars for the dogs is a temporary but not a radical solution to keeping the parasites away since I heard that the dogs are still covered with ticks. The species of the ticks need to be studied in the region where dogs work. Some ticks may be responding differently to different collars. Sometimes two species of ticks can be found on one dog. The best practice is to choose the dogs, which are resistant to ticks.
I have seen the answer in the South Eastern Anatolia. The temperature reaches to 115 Fahrenheit in the summer in Urfa and they keep Awassi type of sheep and the local shepherd dogs. Neither the shepherds nor the dogs know anything about the tick collars. If one takes a dog from northeast of Anatolia to southeast Anatolia, for example from Erzurum to Urfa; it would most probably die because of the parasites of the region. The solution is to breed many puppies and select the resistant ones. Apart from that if the dog is castrated and if turns out to be a very sharp shepherd dog with perfect instincts and good parasite resistance then its genes cannot be included into the gene pool. As it is the case with sheep and goat, there are hereditary lines of dogs with resistance to worms and ticks. The answers are in the traditions, yet conservationists perhaps unknowingly try to develop methods. The wheels for shepherding have already been invented.
One of the puppies from the same litter may have tendency to harbor a heavier load of parasites. This is about nature. The nurture side of the parasite problem is about what the dog eats. The mineral intake of the dog also has an effect on how many parasites a particular dog carries. A missing mineral may invite parasites since the physiological balance of the dog is off.
It would be a mistake to keep long coated dogs in Australia and in Africa in general. Especially expecting Great Pyrenees in those countries, in Texas and Florida performing like short-coated ASDs or Alabais is not realistic. They can be all right when they rest, but when they run, they overheat.
Coat Type and Color
It is sensible not to employ dogs with heavy Kangal type, although dogs from Sivas are perfect to stand against the wolves, the hot African climate may overheat them. Gladiator looking Malaks are definitely the worse choice for African shepherding. White dogs with pink skins should not be preferred. Short coated white dogs with dark skins and black or brown noses could be preferred. Dogs with pink skins will heat up faster. The same goes for large boned dogs. Pinto dogs are OK as long as they have good skin pigmentation and dark noses. Color does not matter where the climate is cooler with less sun. Dogs with black or red masks are better equipped against the sun. A pink skinned, white dog with no mask is not a good choice for daytime guarding. A suffering dog will not focus on the task. As a rule where the average annual sun exposure is below 6hr/day, a white dog will manage the daytime guarding. The higher the altitude or the lower the latitude the more comfortable will be a darker pigmented dog.
Long coated Yoruks can do well in heat, as long as the heat is a dry one. Climate in states like New Mexico and Nevada would not harm kaba (long coated) dogs. Humid heat is detrimental, that is why working ASD in TX, FL, and Africa should be preferably kirik (short coated).
Another problem with kabas comes with when they shed in the summer time. Kaba dogs have softer summer coats than kiriks. Thicker hairs of kirik dogs collect fewer parasites.
Highlands over 1000mt may be suitable for kabas in South Africa (SA), which corresponds to the average altitude in Turkey. Cape or Ghaap; Free State Plateau; Highveld; Lesotho Highlands etc. are acceptable regions. Lowlands below 900mtmay be problematic.
I remember what happens to long coated dogs in Ankara (central Anatolia). Ankara steppes are covered with thistle species after May and the kaba dogs collect all kinds of garbage in their fur. That is why most dogs are kirik in Ankara. However, in Kars or in the high altitude places not only the climate is colder but thistles or thorny plants are not that frequent. There are either rocks or alpine pastures.
Kirik and semi-kaba successively could be employed in SA, but any full kaba dogs should be avoided like Great Pyrenees. The coldest temperature being –15C in SA does not pose any freezing or activity problem for even kirik ASDs and they can and should handle the entire year outside without any cover. Semi Kaba dogs can stand temperatures down to –30C and kaba dogs can tolerate cold weather as low as –45C. Kaba dogs should not be kept if the lowest temperature is above –10C, and the highest temperature is over +35C, factoring the relative humidity into the hot months will alter the heat resistance. Naturally, the climate in countries like the UK is an exception since no extreme temperatures are seen there. Both types and especially the long coated dogs are fine in the UK. I based the above generalization on my observations in Anatolia, which must not be taken as a set of solid rules. One must calculate the comfort zone for the dog. A kaba dog is perfectly fine even if winter temperatures do not fall below +10C; however, the maximum summer temperatures must be included into the consideration.
When we look at the climate of SA, we see that it is a Mediterranean climate. Therefore, dogs from a Mediterranean climate will adapt better to SA. Considering the increasing global warming, it is wiser not to employ dogs from cold steppes and highlands of Anatolia.
Training or Conditioning?
The issue of training the dogs is always important but if a dog really needs to be trained, it must not be good enough. It must be wired for the nomadic guarding job when it is born. If a dog does not perform in Anatolia, it is either destroyed or given to someone who is willing to use him as a tie dog. In general they are shot, since shepherding is not about pet loving but for a living. The bottom line is the dog’s success not the owner’s or animal right people’s impractical feelings.
Introduction of puppies to the flocks is crucial instead of training: the earliest the better. A four-week-old puppy can be easily introduced to the flock. Eight weeks for separation of the puppies from their mother is overkill. The puppy may have a brother or sister or an unrelated puppy. If two dogs are going to protect the flock, the temperaments of the dogs must be different in order to reduce the rivalry and tension between them. In Anatolia, the puppies are occasionally born in a sheep or goat barn. This area is a separate section. The bitch may dig the ground or give birth simply on the dry hay. The puppies are not protected; they should be taken care of by their mother. They should not be handled, since they are going to be shepherds not pet dogs. Occasional check up handling is acceptable, but petting or affection must be minimized. The mother should provide everything they need. If the mother does not have good maternal instincts, neither the puppies nor the bitch should be kept. This is the best practice for the success for the future generations. The puppies will inhale the goat and sheep odor and register it very early in their life. If the puppy is brought from somewhere else, it can be either tied next to the sheep with a protection like a fence so that it will not be stepped over or it can be put in a separate section with the other puppies.
Dogs are social and pack animals, therefore they need to be preferably raised as pairs. This will teach them to understand two languages; sheep and dog. Puppies will understand some basic human language anyway, since they will be fed by the shepherds. More than one puppy will also secure their future teamwork abilities. Being a shepherd dog is about dynamic guarding with the understanding of division of labor. Puppies are not supposed to wrestle with the lambs and the kids, but they need to practice their chasing and wrestling skills with other dogs. Dogs that are bored may harm the flock or simply desert it.
Being soft with the puppies will not work with ASDs. Cruelty cannot be justified but puppies can learn the strength of the man only via shepherds. They should also learn that man could inflict pain. This is not advocating torturing the dogs; however, physical correction is necessary, although these dogs respond to verbal commands better. Once the puppies are about eight months old, physical correction may turn against the shepherd, since the dogs can gang up on the shepherd. Physical and mental correction must be completed before the dog is eight months old. Dogs that know man can stand against man. If dogs think that men are generally nice, it would conflict with their instincts of mistrust. A dog that does not trust strangers is the best asset.
Turkish shepherds correct the behavior by talking or shouting at the dog and if necessary, they can combine verbal correction with an ear grabbing, stone throwing or showing a stick. They do not beat the dogs, because a beaten dog loses its self-respect. However, rough wrestling with the dog helps the dog understand the human body movements and capacity of the man. No time is wasted for a dog that does not like to join the flock or attacks the livestock. It is shot if it cannot be used for guarding a house or wrestling. Shepherd dogs need to be bred right and conditioned. The need to train indicates a genetic behavioral problem or simply inadequacy.
Bitches are very important aspects of the guarding activity. Especially an experienced alpha bitch can create guarding miracles.
These dogs are not comedians. They should be raised like commandos. They should be companions primarily for sheep not for man. Man is always an element of corruption for their instincts. Man should minimally interfere with these dogs’ decision-makings. ASDs hear, smell, and sense better than man. Let them do what they have been bred for.
Anatolians perform much better after it gets dark. ASDs are indexed to the night. If the guarding ASD is a night shepherd, then the color of the dog does not matter. Their higher success rate during the night has its own historical and evolutionary reasons. Night grazing is a common practice in Turkey during the summer months. It brings out not only the protection instincts of the dogs, but also helps better grazing in the cooler air.
Feeding
Feeding the dogs is another important point and high protein food is not recommended. The “Yal” article might give the reader some insight about the feeding practices.
Apart from Yal, raw meat and bones in addition to dead livestock is fed to Anatolians in Turkey. As opposed to what is widely believed in the Western hemisphere, this practice has no negative impacts on the guarding ability of Anatolians.
Eating newly born dead kids and lambs by ASDs is a normal practice that prevents dead bodies decomposing in the grazing land. Otherwise, predators will be attracted. ASDs may eat their own dead or weak offspring for the same reason, which is entirely natural.
Hip Problems
This is a controversial area that I expect no support from mainline breeders, but taboos especially when they are taken, as the absolute right way to go must be challenged. Only shepherds of Anatolia will be with me on this because they believe in working with practically proven dogs not hypothetically proven certificates.
Dogs with apparent skeletal problems must not be bred obviously however using negative hip test results, as the sole determining factor of the good health of dogs is a far-fetched attitude. Although a dog with “bad hips,” results can compete with a dog with good hip results, a dog with practically and really bad hips cannot. So far, I am not convinced that evaluating a dog’s hip quality with hip X-rays is explanatory about a dog’s functional hip quality. A dog that performs well should not be judged based on only written record. One must produce practical reports. If the dog can jump, sprint, wrestle and have stamina that dog must not be penalized just because hips are not aligned as lab specialists dictated it. A dog with “imperfect hips” as the label goes may have a better muscular structure. A good bone structure with weak muscles is a real failure. Strong muscles do support the skeletal system. Muscles and heart provides the speed and stamina aspects of performance.
Health papers collection along with pedigree dependency will only produce mechanical dogs that fit into the designed artificial parameters. Anatolian owners should occasionally remember that they do not own GSDs and they should not apply GSD standards on Anatolians. Dogs found with “bad hips,” but with no apparent gate problems do carry out without any problem until they are ten years old. It seems that the real argument is against the architectural design and the angles of the joints that those are not welcome by the taxonomists. If an achieving dog is the ultimate goal then the dog must pass real life tests like guarding instinct, reasonability, swiftness, and intelligence. Bad hips must be avoided since they lower the performance of the dog and it is painful.
The migration route between Konya and Mersin is 200 miles one way. A Yoruk shepherd dog in Taurus Mountains covers about 50 miles a day. This is about 30 miles for sedentary shepherds. A dog with “bad hips” cannot last in Taurus Mountains for a single day. If a hypothetical five-year-old active Yoruk dog, native to Taurus Mountains have OFA tested and found with bad hips, what do we do? Can anyone explain to its owner that his dog is no good, because it failed a modern world testing? If “shepherding” is good, then what seems to be the problem?
If an ASD can reach 30ml/hr, can pace or trot for one mile nonstop and jump over a 5ft hurdle in addition to having the right guarding instincts, it can do the job. A dog with weak muscles and problematic hips can hardly complete 500-yards trotting. Applying Belgian Horse standards on Arabians makes no sense when an Arabian performance is the concern. Anatolians must be compared within themselves. Performing must not be confused with exhibiting. Anatolian is a landrace dog. A landrace dog is about complete balance. The only yardstick for performance is performance.
Breeding and Selection
Genetics is obviously very important. The priority in breeding should be given to the performance not to the looks or to the written standards that are written by a kennel club. Written standards are not necessarily misleading by themselves. What is misleading is the interpretation of them. Breed standards give one a general idea about a specific breed, but that is about it. They cannot guide one about breeding and selection. Breeding and selection require experience and understanding the breed’s authentic mission. Guarding drive, reliability, sharpness, reasonable aggression (aggression required to protect the sheep even if it leads to the death of the dog) and speed must be rewarded in the breeding program. Vicious, insane, lazy, and coward dogs must be castrated and retired or converted into pets if not destroyed.
Since the purpose is to protect flocks and Cheetah, dogs with good sprinting skills, instead of long distance stamina better fit in where flocks are protected against Cheetah. Even the best sprinting dogs will never catch Cheetah in a sprint chase. Sprinter Anatolians will also not pursue Cheetah until the Cheetah is exhausted. When only deterrence needed against Cheetah, dogs bred to go after wolves for tens of miles is not a good choice for breeding.
Limited inbreeding should be considered once a nice performance level is achieved. Both genders are equally important in breeding. One can have the best male but a mediocre bitch may ruin all the nice balances that the male gathered from his ancestors. Maternal side of the breeding must not be neglected. Trying to upgrade the qualities only via males is a mistake for this practice disregards what the X chromosome could bring.
Shepherd dogs were made tough. Why does one not choose to keep them that way, select for hardiness, swiftness, distrustfulness, natural aggression, and productive traits? Dogs that do not have the will to survive should not be assisted to breed. Stocks must be tested and upgraded continuously. Every generation is a new start. Pedigrees are for peace of mind. Although pedigree information could be employed and important in upgrading the stocks, they cannot be relied on. Testing the dog is the bottom line.
Breed Related Species Matching
One last point is about the sheep breeds in Africa. British descent sheep graze in loose order. Whereas the Turkish sheep form a tight flock and this makes the shepherd dogs’ job easier. The behavior of the sheep is an important element of herding in Turkish style. Since the dogs are only part of the equation, therefore the South African sheep breeders may consider raising either native sheep or Turkish type sheep with Turkish dogs, which would increase the percentage of success. These two worked together for thousands of years and they make a perfect pair. The problem with an average Turkish sheep breed is their large tail type, but this can be avoided either by crossing or by choosing shorter tailed Turkish sheep like Kivircik x Akkaraman (or Awassi) crosses. The other more reasonable alternatives could be raising hair sheep like, Africana, Barbados Blackbelly Black Head Persian, and Masai.
A serious “shepherd dog” keeper, the shepherd must put a high fence between their sheep related activities and the dog showing. Traditions have reasons behind them and traditional practices have been tested for centuries with obvious positive results. If one expects an Anatolian perform like a Turkish Anatolian, then his dog needs to be bred, selected, and treated like a Turkish Anatolian. Otherwise, the full potential of the dog will never be employed.
Anatolians can be related to any wild life protection. Stopping predators with Anatolians is far more peaceful and less hazardous than traps, poisons, firearms, and mass elimination. I hope this paper would initiate reviewing the existing observations on Cheetahs and other wildlife in relation to Anatolians as well as Anatolians with flocks and possibly lead to re-design the management policies and help wild life.
Guvener Isik
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