Anatolian shepherd dog puppy in training
they live with the herd and the herd accepts them as part of the herd, just, “that’s our Dave, he’s a bit strange but we love him, knew him when he was just a lamb you know” and the dog just lives among them as one of them but then if a wolf or somethin comes along the herd is like “O Reely? Have you met our Dave” and the wolf gets to make the acquaintance of Dave, 200 lbs of teeth and muscle who believes the wolf is there to kill his actual family and is pretty upset about it.
that is the difference between a shepherd guarding dog and a shepherd herding dog. Herding dogs are NOT part of the herd, they use modified hunting techniques to bully the herd into moving where they are meant to go. They are built for speed and agility, often as small as 35 to 45 lbs, and are absolutely no match for a wolf. Plus, the herd doesn’t trust them, is suspicious of them, which is how the herding works
This is also why herding breeds are often very intelligent and trainable, because we made them to work with us, while livestock guardian dogs most often do not make good pets for most modern lifestyles - we bred them to work independently, away from people, and make their own decisions without human input.
This addition is SO true. Livestock guardian dogs rate low on traditional dog “intelligence” tests not because they’re stupid, but because they’re so independent.
I read one scientist’s remark on why they scored a Great Pyrnees low and it as essentially “this dog knows exactly what I want him to do but he’s ignoring me.”
doomhamster