Working Dogs - The Akbash

by Lorna Wall
(Poplarfield, Manitoba, Canada)

Although the Akbash are considered the most aggressive of all the livestock guardian breeds we have found them to be extremely gentle with their charges.

We have 2 litter mates, Barney & Fred, who have been with our herd of Dorper/Katahdins since the fall of 2006. We have seen them quietly take a lamb with their mouth across it's back and walk it away from a new mother lambing with out leaving a mark .... or take a ewe's head in their mouth and move her away to keep a space around a lambing ewe open.... they will tolerate little lambs jumping on them and will lay with a sick lamb until you come to care for it. They will even guard a carcass until you come without touching it in any way.

They respect the herding dogs, in our case Border Collies, but do not tolerate dogs that do not belong in their sheep's area, and if it doesn't leave when told, they will kill it.

They clear an area for 4 miles in all directions from their home and in years there has been no coyotes in our quarter, even though there are on the neighbors. They respect fences, most of the time, but are most inclined to just stay near their sheep. One of their commands is "get back to your sheep"

For our pair we started them with the ewes at lambing time, and put them in a pen while I bottled lambs so that being confined was not an issue.... lambs were there...everyone got fed ... then they got a cookie. Now we can "kennel" them if necessary and it is not the end of the world... we have never tried to tie them but they do wear collars to identify them and for the benefit of anyone seeing them to know that they are not wild.

For more info or to see pictures visit www.wall2wallsheep.com

Thank you for this opportunity to cross-post. Lorna : )