Livestock Guardian Dog Breed Research

After the passing of Apollo our Siberian Husky we noticed that the wild life was venturing closer and closer to our homestead. Apollo lived outside and in his younger days he was ever alert to cars pulling in or what ever animal might wander by. After a short while of him being gone deer even began getting into the nearby garden wear as they never used to.

There are many predators in the north woods and from time to time we would lose our poultry to them. We raise chickens, ducks, geese and guinea's. We never lost anything bigger than that but, there has always been the potential for it. We have been fortunate.

In our region we have birds of prey, eagles, hawks and owls. Black bear are prolific. Coyotes and fox are common. In recent years the wolf population has exploded. And from time to time you hear a report of cougars being spotted and or their tracks being found. Cougar sightings have increased over the past two years.

Over time I have entertained the notion of getting a livestock guardian dog and began to research the various breeds. Great Pyrenees are fairly common in Wisconsin but with the caliber of predators we have around here I leaned toward finding a breed of greater stature and more athletic. As far as I could tell Anatolians and Akbash were the closest to what I was leaning towards. We were able to see a pair of Anatolians up close a half dozen years ago or so and I was impressed but, I did not care for the variety of type. The ones with the tan bodies and black masks are the ones I was attracted to most but I was worried that if I got into them then I might not find the ones with the appearance and build that I liked. Later I came across the Kangal Dog which had the exact look and stature that I desired in a LGD.

Last year in one night we lost many chickens and turkeys to coyotes after a couple of our movable pens blew over in a strong wind. I also wonder if wolves got into the action as well because there were many wolf sightings in the area at the time. The amount of meat consumed made me wonder that as well. Wolves are becoming an increasing problem in that they are killing or injuring hunting and pet dogs. Click here to see a news story titled "Wolves kill five more hunting dogs in northern Wisconsin".

We began to worry about our growing flock of Shetland Sheep and figured it was just a matter of time until something bad happened. So from then on I began doing a more serious research of LGD breeds. In my opinion the Turkish Kangal Dog came out on top for what I thought we needed to keep the wolves and coyote away from our livestock. Plus we know that cougar are in the area as well.

The Great Pyrenees breed would have been the easiest to acquire near to where we live but, I kept going back to the Kangal every time. What began as some research turned into almost an obsession into the Kangal Dog breed. The more I learned the more I was convinced that this was the breed we needed here.