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Anatolian Guard Dogs

Anatolian Guard Dog, Uthaya and his herd

Cheetah Outreach is piloting a national Anatolian Shepherd Guard Dog Programme in conjunction with the De Wildt Wild Cheetah Management Programme and have placed 6 dogs on farmlands in South Africa thus far. In March 2005, Jedi was the first dog to be placed on a farm in the Thabazimbi area. This placement was sponsored by Africa Geographic, thus ensuring that farm owner Pieter Roets can happily co-exist with predators on his farm.

Liesl Smith, manager of Cheetah Outreach is looking after the placements in the Overberg area, and accompanied Uthaya to his new home on the farm Paardenkloof, in May 2005. Here is her account of Uthaya’s first experience as a working dog:

“Uthaya arrived in Cape Town on the 24th of May 2005, accompanied by Deon Cilliers from De Wildt. Deon and myself immediately set out to take him to his new home, Paardenkloof, a beautiful farm just outside of Botriver. Valli Moosa, our previous minister of Tourism and Environmental Affairs incidentally owns this farm. The placement of Uthaya is groundbreaking work in the Overberg, since this is the first placement of a Turkish Anatolian Shepherd as a guarding dog in this area. If this is to be a success it could bring about a complete shift in attitudes and farming practices in terms of predator control in the Overberg. Farmers in this area regularly complain about small stock losses due to leopards, caracals and baboons. We were told that Paardenkloof has lost 80 lambs to caracals in just one year. An effective method of non-lethal predator control was obviously much needed. On arrival at Paardenkloof, Uthaya was placed with a small group of sheep kept temporarily at the homestead. This would give him the opportunity to start bonding with these sheep immediately; of course he would be introduced to the entire herd of sheep gradually. We left a very tired and confused, but very brave puppy behind and it took immense restraint not to just pick him up, load him back in the bakkie and take him home.

The next day when I spoke to Marais, the farm manager, he told me that they have not heard a single whine coming from Uthaya. It seemed as if Uthaya was gracefully accepting his fate and taking on the big responsibility resting on his shoulders.

My second visit to Uthaya was ten days later on a very cold, wet and rainy day. He was still kept with the same group of sheep, but several of them had given birth since we saw them last. At the kraal, we were greeted by six tiny lambs and one muddy puppy that all dashed out of the dog kennel at the sounds of our voices. Uthaya reacted with indifference to the curious humans. This signaled a positive development; bonding with his herd. He seemed perfectly happy curling up with all six
lambs in his kennel, sharing space and warmth. In only ten days, Uthaya has progressed in leaps and bounds and was well on his way to becoming a proud member of the livestock guarding fraternity. We are very proud of the newest member of the Cheetah Outreach team.”