Livestock and Predators
Will an Anatolian Shepherd protect against coyotes?
Yes. Coyotes are the predator where the evidence for guardian dogs is strongest. Dogs reduce losses but do not end them.
Texas A&M AgriLife calls guardian dogs especially effective against coyotes. A USDA bulletin notes a coyote is about one-third the size of an adult guarding dog and usually avoids a direct encounter. In a survey of US and Canadian producers, 96 percent of 56 Anatolians were rated aggressive to predators and 77 percent were rated very effective.
In Colorado surveys, producers without dogs lost 5.9 times the proportion of lambs to predators in 1986, and 2.1 times in 1993, compared with producers who used dogs. These were surveys, not experiments. A four-state field study from 2013 to 2016 linked Kangals, some imported from Turkey and some bought from US breeders, with about 44 percent lower coyote risk to sheep than the mixed white guardian dogs already on those ranches. Those were not American Anatolian Shepherds.
The USDA bulletin is plain that predation can still happen with a dog at work.
We have seen a coyote on the edge of our property. Nothing has come onto it. Our male, Tucker, has a big bark and uses it.
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
- Texas A&M AgriLife, “Livestock Guardian Dogs: An Overview,” ANSC-PU-468
- Green and Woodruff, “Livestock Guarding Dogs: Protecting Sheep from Predators,” USDA Agriculture Information Bulletin 588 (revised 1996)
- Ontario Ministry of Agriculture, “Livestock guardian dogs: selection and training”
- Andelt and Hopper 2000, “Livestock guard dogs reduce predation on domestic sheep in Colorado,” Journal of Range Management
- Kinka and Young 2019, “Evaluating Domestic Sheep Survival with Different Breeds of Livestock Guardian Dogs,” Rangeland Ecology and Management (readable copy)