Will an Anatolian Shepherd protect against bears?

Against black bears, usually yes. Against grizzlies the evidence is thin and mixed. A dog can make a bear uneasy enough to leave, but we would not expect any dog to be a match for a grizzly.

A USDA bulletin reports that black bears usually retreated when guarding dogs barked and approached, often with no contact. From a small sample of encounters, it suggested that grizzlies are less readily deterred than black bears, and it warned that even several dogs may fail. A four-state study from 2013 to 2016 linked Kangals, some imported from Turkey and some bought from US breeders, with about 67 percent lower black bear risk to sheep. It found no significant effect for grizzlies.

One Montana study is encouraging but small. In 2021 and 2022, researchers placed five guardian dogs (Kangal, Boz or Anatolian Shepherd) at four north-central Montana farmsteads that grizzlies were visiting for spilled grain. In 2022, cameras caught bears 58 times more often at the paired farmsteads without dogs. Those dogs guarded grain bins, not livestock.

Montana Fish, Wildlife and Parks puts the grizzly population of the Northern Continental Divide Ecosystem in northwest Montana at about 1,100. Its 2022 regional report lists poultry in 24.4 percent of grizzly conflicts in one part of northwest Montana, and the agency recommends electric fence.

The information on this page is general information about the breed, drawn from the sources listed and from our own experience. Individual dogs vary. Nothing here is a guarantee about the health, size, temperament or working ability of any particular puppy. The terms of any sale are those in our written contract.

Sources

• Green and Woodruff, “Livestock Guarding Dogs: Protecting Sheep from Predators,” USDA Agriculture Information Bulletin 588 (revised 1996)
• Kinka and Young 2019, “Evaluating Domestic Sheep Survival with Different Breeds of Livestock Guardian Dogs,” Rangeland Ecology and Management (readable copy)
• Young and Sarmento 2024, “Can an old dog learn a new trick? Efficacy of livestock guardian dogs at keeping an apex predator away from people,” Biological Conservation 292
• Montana FWP, Grizzly Bear Management
• Montana FWP Region 1 Annual Bear Report 2022
• Montana FWP, bear guidance for agricultural producers