There are a lot of Livestock Guardian Dog breeds out there. A well bred LGD of any breed will work hard to protect your stock. But the Anatolian was our breed of choice for these reasons:

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~Grooming ease. Anatolians come in a short and rough coat. In both cases they are low maintenance coats that only require occasional brushing particularly during season changes. They are not prone to matting.

Their coats are Very weather proof. They shed water and dirt easily, and shed out or thicken up for the appropriate season.

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~Weather Tolerance. Anatolian's do well in extreme weather. Here in Kentucky we have hot humid summers and cold wet winters. We need a dog who can stay with stock in any weather without risk of heat stroke or becoming too cold. An Anatolian will happily sleep in a pile of snow comfy as can be!

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~Size. We need a dog who is big enough to protect stock from coyotes and stray dogs, but still light enough to be quick and agile. We feel Anatolians are a good size without being course and overly thick.

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~Temperament. This is their most important quality. We wanted a dog who would be devoted to protecting stock but also gentle with people and children. Anatolians have lived amongst shepherds and their family's guarding the family's livestock for thousands of years. 

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~Intelligence. Discernment is a very important quality in a LGD. The intelligence to asses a situation, decide if there is a threat, and decide how to respond to that threat in a way that we would approve of. We ask them to protect chickens and chase away hawks. And once trained they often have to do this without us present. We feel Anatolians are incredibly intelligent and have very good discernment. We also feel they are very trainable as far as LGD go. 

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~Health. Anatolians are in general very healthy dogs. All of our breeding dogs will be AKC registered so we have a record of pedigree and have Good or Excellent OFA Hip and Elbow screenings before breeding.

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~Additional qualities we specifically select for. In addition to the other qualities we mentioned we select for dogs who are tolerant and receptive to visitors. We also want dogs who bark when appropriate and not excessively. Both of these qualities are a combination of personality and training. If you want a dog who growls and barks and acts ferocious to everyone who comes on your property, one of our dogs is not what you are looking for. Our dogs don't bark excessively at vehicles during normal daytime hours when its normal to have visitors and they greet the UPS drivers with a happy tail wag. We are confident that they have good enough discernment skills to know the difference between a friendly, normal visitor and a suspicious burglar.

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~Training. In addition to normal LGD duties, such as being gentle with chickens and goat kids and keeping away dangerous wildlife, our Anatolians are also taught basic obedience skill such as sit, down, stay, and heel and are house broken. They are taught to load up in a vehicle, to go for car rides without getting stressed, and to have good manners in public. They are socialized with outside dogs out of the pasture so that they are not aggressive unnecessarily, just because a dog is here. As long as the dog is polite and not disobeying rules (like harming livestock) we don't want our LGD to harm them for no reason. We desensitize all of our dogs to restraint so they will be polite for vet care and not stressed in the event they are injured and we need to care for them. We also teach them other useful commands for working with them daily.