The Anatolian Shepherd

A guard dog without equal

The Anatolian Shepherd is probably the best guard dog that has ever been, probably the best that ever will be.

This dog started out in ancient Mesopotamia probably around 6,000 years ago, this Mesopotamian dog was then taken to Turkey; once there the dog became widely used in the guarding of the nomad’s sheep. Now, this is a big dog with big bones and a lot of muscle, something that no predator in his right mind would want to mess with. Along with this big tough body, the Turkish people managed to put in this dog the desire to protect his flock, not herd the sheep, but protect them.

This dog has a most ingenious way of going about the business of guarding the flock; he will establish a perimeter and patrol that perimeter after which, this giant of a dog, will find an advantage point from which he can see the whole flock. That done he will then periodically do a run of the perimeter just to make sure that nothing is threatening his animals.

In the 1950’s America discovered this dog and quickly fell in love with him, exporting him from Turkey, setting up a proper breeding program, and getting this breed out of the wilds of Turkey and in to the less dangerous job of guarding the home and family.
This is a large dog that is extremely powerful and rugged; because of the type of work this dog had to do he has great endurance and agility, he is calm unless something challenges him.

This dog should be in perfect proportion, the males being 29 inches at the shoulder, the females 27. This is a dog that can reach the weight of 150 pounds (pure muscle).The muzzle should be black or preferably a darker color, disqualifications for this breed are blue eyes or two different colored eyes, overshot, undershot and wry bite.

If you are considering on getting yourself a puppy, please, in the first place do a whole lot of research on the breed you are considering, why pay a couple of hundred of dollars just to find out that you don’t get along with your new pet? After you have made your decision look for a breeder that has a good reputation, even if it means looking in another town or county or even another state.

When you have found your breeder do some further checking and make sure that the puppy has received proper socialization with people and other animals. If possible, ask to see the mother and the father of the puppy; are they friendly, do they have any obvious faults? When picking your puppy out never pick an individual that is shy or bold because these are puppies that will most likely grow up to be aggressive dogs, and nobody wants that, now do they?

Never look to the puppy mills for help in finding your puppy, these dogs usually are not socialized, have had no vaccines or any medical treatment, you can not get any guarantee of health for the puppy. The dogs that they have are not properly bred to the breed standard with no regard to the different health problems that are specific to the breed, because of this they are going to most likely have health problems that will only cost you in vet bills later on.

On the other hand, a good responsible breeder should be able to show you health checks done on the parents of your puppy and health checks on the puppy himself, not to mention vaccines and all that. Its just, if you are going to spend a couple hundred dollars on a puppy, why not go the extra hundred yards and make sure you’re getting something that is of good quality?

After you have brought your brand new Anatolian shepherd home, it is a good idea to get him enrolled in obedience classes because these dogs have a mind of their own and the muscle to get their own way, these are not apartment dogs, they need room to move around and they need something to guard; that is when they are happiest!