Our Goals

Our goals are simple: to produce healthy, structurally sound, even tempered guardian dogs.

Getting there is the complex part

We rely on our Anatolian Shepherds to be active participants in keeping our farm safe from predators. In order to do that, they have to have appropriate working temperaments, they must be structurally sound to decrease wear and tear from an active lifestyle, and they must not have health issues such as hip dysplasia which could negatively impact their working longevity.

WORKING TEMPERAMENT

One of the most important aspects of breeding Anatolian Shepherds is their working temperament. As is stated upfront in the breed standard, they are a working guardian breed without equal. Their working ability is the key foundation to what makes this breed what it is. Breeders who are not using all of their breeding dogs as working guardians in environments where predators would injure or kill livestock are not selecting for the correct temperament that this breed needs to possess. We raise our puppies from a young age with livestock and carefully select for correct temperament based on their interactions with livestock. If a breeder possesses no or only a few livestock they are not able to appropriately select for appropriate working temperament.

Most of our puppies have been raised with a few dozens of goats. While we did dramatically reduce our herd size last year due to extenuating circumstances, we are working to rebuild our herd both in terms of goats and sheep as well as poultry and cattle in the coming years.

STRUCTURAL SOUNDNESS

Structural soundness is key to ensuring dogs that are capable of elite agility, speed, and power needed to engage with predators when necessary. Dogs that are balanced with appropriate front and rear angulation, flexible toplines, and broad chests can better withstand a lifelong working career. We believe that it is important to show our dogs in conformation because kennel blindness can become a problem and we do want third party eyes on our dogs. Additionally, if working dogs are not out in the show ring it will only perpetuate the gap between working lines and those that are just show dogs. Judges are already selecting for and have preferences for animation, biddability, and happy dogs in the show ring when this is expressly against the standard. The best way to combat this split is to get working dogs with appropriate structure and temperament for working lives out in the show ring to promote the true nature of the breed.

HEALTH TESTING

Health testing is the last keystone of our goals. All working dogs need to be screened for breed appropriate health conditions and breeders need to be transparent about their dogs potentially heritable health conditions. A dog being a working or show dog does not preclude them for having health issues and there are several conditions that we have testing available for. Unfortunately, there are many heritable conditions that we currently do not have tests for that are prevalent in our breed, such as entropion, seizures, and OCD. It is important to be wary of breeders who are not upfront with their health testing or health issues in the dogs that they have and are breeding.

Our Anatolian Shepherds are tested through OFA for hip and elbow dysplasia as well as heritable thyroid conditions. Additionally, we have begun doing PennHip evaluations on all breeding dogs since PennHip provides an objective measurement of joint laxity whereas OFA provides a subjective evaluation of joint conformation. Lastly, we perform Embark genetic testing on all of our dogs. There are currently no known genetic markers for disease in Anatolian Shepherds but this may change in the future with increased availability to genetic testing. We also use Embark’s genetic Coefficients of Inbreeding and Diversity Markers to make appropriate breed pairing decisions when we have that information available. Our lines are not perfect, and potentially have untestable heritable conditions behind them, but we will always be open and honest about any health issues we encounter. As new tests are developed we will continue to update our health testing protocols.

Pan with his goats.

TEMPERAMENT.