Livestock guardian dog

Livestock guardian dogs stay with the group of animals they protect as a full-time member of the flock or herd.

[2] Unlike herding dogs which control the movement of livestock, LGDs blend in with them, watching for intruders within the flock.

[3] Herding dogs originated in Western Asia, on the territory of modern Iran and Iraqi Kurdistan in association with the beginning of livestock breeding.

The main task of dogs in the early period was to protect herds from a variety of wild predators, which were very numerous at that time.

[7] Both Aristotle's History of Animals and Virgil's Georgics mention the use of livestock guardian dogs by the Molossians in the ancient region of Epirus.

LGDs guard livestock on pastures throughout the year, and also protect sheep from attacks of predators during seasonal migrations.

[11] In Namibia in Southwest Africa, Anatolians are used to guard goat herds from cheetahs, and are typically imprinted between 7 and 8 weeks of age.

[12] The experiments of Lorna and Raymond Coppinger and the studies of other specialists have shown the effectiveness of protecting flocks with the help of dogs.

After the reintroduction of wolves, that were eliminated in the United States in the 1930s, American farmers were losing about a million sheep annually to wolf attacks.

In all farms, where, in the absence of dogs, up to two hundred attacks of wolves per year happened, not a single sheep was lost under the protection of LGDs.

[10][13] For the protection of flocks, on average, five dogs are used per 350 heads of sheep, but the need for LGDs depends on many conditions, such as the landscape and size of the territory, vegetation available in the pasture area, the species, breed and number of animals in the herd, the presence of a shepherd, the presence or absence of fences and other means of protection, the number and species composition of predators, as well as the breed, age, health status of LGDs and their experience.

Protection is more reliable if the herd is guarded by dogs of different breeds, for example, powerful Pyrenean mastiffs, who prefer to lie close to livestock, in cooperation with more mobile Maremmas or Kangals, who control the perimeter of the pasture.

Livestock guardian dogs working with the herds in hot areas are lighter in bone and shorter.

In fact, in some communities where LGDs are a tradition, the runt of a litter often was kept or given as a household pet or simply kept as a village dog without a single owner[citation needed].

LGDs invariably remain an integral part of the industry in places of traditional sheep breeding where large carnivores have survived, such as the Carpathian and Balkan regions, in central Italy, on the Iberian Peninsula, in the mountain regions of the Middle East and Central Asia.

Thanks to this advantage, LGDs are now used to protect herds in the US, Scandinavia, and a number of African countries, even despite the absence of such a tradition in these regions.

The use of livestock guardian dogs for the protection of herds reduces losses of animals between 11% and 100%, without requiring significant investments, special technologies and government assistance.

Attempts to return the LGDs into agriculture are supported by government programs and public organisations in a number of countries.