Livestock protection dogs

Livestock breeding sheep dogs guard dogs and they both fall under the umbrella category of pastors, but it is important to understand that these are two very different breeds of dog. livestock guardian dogs (LGD) were developed and bred to protect livestock from predators such as wolves, jackals, coyotes, baboons, leopards, bears, etc., other herding dogs have been developed and grown in ... na herd!

Cattle guardThe dogs go back thousands of years and even as far back as 2000 years ago were a common sight in many parts of the world. Although many of these dogs were working on the West as recently as in the rare breeds, the truth is that there were millions of these dogs and are plying their trade to protect livestock in the world. In fact, the livestock protection of humanity could be used as one of the first primary for dogs.

It isis not unreasonable to suspect that dogs guarding the cattle home from the Middle East, especially if you consider that cattle were domesticated. Following this pattern of thinking, it is not unreasonable to say that the protection of animals can breed cattle for several thousand years, though certainly not older than the first domesticated (sheep, about 8000 years). There are many historical references and drawingslivestock guardian dogs for thousands of years.

If you think that the protection of animals in the control dogs of breeds in mind. These races are as follows:

Anatolian Shepherd Dog

Kangal

Akbash

Caucasian Ovcharka

Pyrenees

Tibetan Mastif

Kuvasz

Komondor

Maremma Sheepdog

Polish Tatra Shepherd

TibetanMastiff

Sarplaninac

Size and appearance

The above list is certainly not exhaustive, although some of the races are not sufficiently known, others. A notable feature of guard dogs, most animals is that the canines are generally larger than most. This should not really come as too much of a surprise, since these dogs were bred to fight predators, some of which reach very large, such as bears and wolves.Another notable feature of the livestock guardian dogs is that very often are white (a characteristic of the breeds most commonly found in European terms). There are a number of reasons for this trend in favor of white dogs, ranging from plain superstition of the ancient myth that the white represents purity strain.

Most local pastors say they prefer dogs, because they know perfectly in the pack and are thus difficult to detectpredators, wolves or other predators. Another argument along this line of thought is that the shepherds at night are less likely to mistake a guard dog for a white wolf, and thus inadvertently club to death. But whatever the topic, the fact remains that a good number of dogs are white, the fact probably gets credit for the culling of the litters of local pastors more than anything else.

Livestock guard dogstend to have large litters of something that brings an economic burden it is clear the minister. Not only is it economically viable for the pastor to keep all the puppies, dog, of course, tend to be a bit 'run-down cattle to protect them in their responsibilities to the simple fact that it has a great shot to do. Instead of killing pastors white puppies for all these reasons in favor of what process (also known as postzygotic selection - Refining a naturalRace) ultimately leads to generation, the race for the desired pure white coat.

Another motivating impulse in favor of killing white puppy is being sold to foreign tourists and farmers breed puppies are more willing to pay top-dollar for white snow. That is, there are many canine animal protection and who do not know a thing about different local breeds is that their coat patterns often tend to mirrorthe cattle to guard them. For example, the Kangal apparently has a light red-dark gray jacket with a black head mask, surprisingly, this model does not reflect the characteristics of the region, see the sheep. No doubt the reason why the pure breeds Kangal these characteristics is probably because the local pastors favored those animals which properties are displayed, for example.

What makes a good watchdog?

Typically, the largestthe dog will be better protector of cattle. Ironically, the impact of larger size is not so much to ward off enemies, but to ensure that the dog suffered hardships that these dogs often encounter groups. In countries and regions where even the pastors distances to go to vacation with their migratory trek Crude huge cost to the animals (both sheep and dogs), can be enormous.

A bigger dogthe advantage of not only able) to longer distances more easily than a smaller counterpart (step length bigger, bigger dog who are also able to withstand food shortage better, because it has greater reserves of fat. A large dog is also an added benefit, it can be hard cash, stand the cold much better, because less heat loss because of its lower surface to volume.

Some breeds seem better suited to the task of protectingOther animals with selective breeding for desirable traits for hundreds if not thousands of years. For this reason, they tend to protect livestock canine congenital

Independent thinking (what some call stubborn and aloof);

Wary of strangers:

Dog hostile;

Planning and

Much protection for their stations.

These are all characteristics that the working conditions used dogs to train, work on the protection of livestock and as a genetic basisare what makes "nature vs. nurture" component "nature" of the equation. The external factors) influence the behavior of potential herd Guard (the first component contains the early socialization of puppies with their future stations so that at the end as the social bond, the primary companion dogs.

Dogs that are LGD are the best people who are critically properly socialized within the term (usually 4 to 16 weeks in canines) and alsojust the genetic makeup for the task. In other words, inherent in dog breeds of cattle with the genetic make-up guard who are socialized early with their stations LGD livestock guardian of the future is better than the dogs socialized lack of time, the innate.

Livestock protection dogs