# our Anatolian Shepard is a little too excited



## OakleyFarms (Dec 3, 2018)

My wife and I purchased an 8 month old Anatolian Shepard named Tex. He was raised with cats, goats, and chickens until he was 2 months old. Since then he has been servinf as an LGD on a farm with mini donkeys. The reason he was being sold was that the donkeys (in particular the new moms of the herd) did not like him and were trying to stomp him to death. Tex is going to be our LGD for the Nigerian Dwarf goats that we will be getting in about a week and a half. Hopefully by then he will be used to the new barn and pasture. MY only problem with him so far is that when somebody goes into the pasture or the barn with him he gets very excited and starts jumping up on you trying to get some love. I know at 8 months old he is still a puppy and it is possible to break him of it. He has already accidentally head butted my wife under the chin. He didn't mean anything aggressive by it I am sure but if we don't nip this soon I am sure that he will hurt someone. What is the best way of breaking this habit? Also, he is still intact and we would like him to be neutered. I have heard pros and cons of neutering Anatolians now versus waiting until they are more mature. What is everyone's opinion on this? Thanks for he help.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

When the dog jumps up, knee him hard in the chest. Continue every time he jumps. IMHO you don't need or want an untrained LGD, but that's not what you asked.
https://wagwalking.com/behavior/why-do-anatolian-shepherds-bark-so-much


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## muleskinner2 (Oct 7, 2007)

I don't really train my Anatolians, but I do teach them manners. I do not discourage them from barking at strangers, but I don't let them jump up on vehicles, or attack people. They don't always come when I call, but when I tell them "no", or "get back" they listen.

I read the article about why they bark too much. Some of it I agree with, and some of it is BS from people who think Anatolians should be pets and guard dogs. An Anatolian is a Guard Dog first, and your friend second. If you have neighbors who are close enough to be bothered by the barking then you should not have an Anatolian. It is their job to guard livestock, not play with your kids in the living room. My Anatolians chase off or kill predators, it's their job. I don't expect them to do anything else.

An eight month old dog is still a pup, give him some time to grow up. Anatolians do better in a group or pack setting, a single dog by himself will sometimes be too aggressive or begin to wander. If you don't plan to raise pups, you should get him fixed. Your neighbors really don't want any Anapoodle crosses.


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## mnn2501 (Apr 2, 2008)

A tired dog is a good dog. Get the pup running a few times a day to get rid of the excess energy.


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

mnn2501 said:


> A tired dog is a good dog. Get the pup running a few times a day to get rid of the excess energy.





haypoint said:


> When the dog jumps up, knee him hard in the chest. Continue every time he jumps. IMHO you don't need or want an untrained LGD, but that's not what you asked.


Yes to this^^^^^^^^^
He needs lots of activity and discipline.


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## haypoint (Oct 4, 2006)

mnn2501 said:


> A tired dog is a good dog. Get the pup running a few times a day to get rid of the excess energy.


The manager of an Animal Shelter in Detroit, had a great idea. Since she had a lot of barking pit bulls, she got a dozen donated tread mills. Somehow she thought that a tired pit bull was a quiet pit bull. Was a great experiment. She ran those dogs for hours. She ended up with a couple dozen barking pit bulls, with a lot of stamina. Your results may differ.


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## ShannonR (Nov 28, 2012)

Haha she should use those treadmills to power the animal shelter!


haypoint said:


> The manager of an Animal Shelter in Detroit, had a great idea. Since she had a lot of barking pit bulls, she got a dozen donated tread mills. Somehow she thought that a tired pit bull was a quiet pit bull. Was a great experiment. She ran those dogs for hours. She ended up with a couple dozen barking pit bulls, with a lot of stamina. Your results may differ.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

it is never too early to teach a dog manners.
I raised and sold Maremma Lgd. I have strict rules .
Never teach a dog to "shake hands" ..
Never let a dog stand up and put his feet on you .
the puppies are leash trained as early as they can walk and keep up with me.. 
the adult dogs can be led with a shoe lace by a child.
I occasionally have to tie a dog up. 
my female does not like it, but she still walks to me holding the snap in my hand and lets me tie her up.
I do let my dogs come into the house. they are very calm. they will not eat off of a dinner plate, nor will they take food off of any table, even the low coffee table..
They are taught to let anybody take food away from them while they are eating..
NO growling allowed, ..
their job is to bark first, then take the next appropriate action . I never correct them from barking.
teach them what NO means. No covers most situations. no matter what they are doing, a good NO will stop them.. easy on them, easy on you..
socialize them with people.. You do not need to be sued for a dog bite.. and when they go to the vet, the vet will appreciate a calm friendly dog.
I took a female to the vet once to have a dew claw fixed.. the dog was so calm and cooperative, that the vet went ahead and trimmed all her toes on all four feet,, for free!!
we do not breed our female anymore. got rid of the male to a sheep farmer.. 
If you have poultry, the dog's presence is enough to keep preds away.. they do not have to bond with the chickens..


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## hiddensprings (Aug 6, 2009)

my Anatolians never left the pasture or the farm.That included the pups when I raised them. Momma had the pups in the pasture and they were raised there with the goats. My vet came to me for shots which I gave under his supervision since my male wasn't very fond of him. That being said, they were trained to listen to the word "no" or "back off". They didn't like strangers but would shut up if I said "no" or "back off". Friends learned very early not to bring their dogs over with them. The Anatolian breed is very independent and will try to be the alpha with you if they are allowed to. For me, it started young. If they got to jumping up or not listening, I would grab them by the throat, and put them on their backs (a submissive posture for them). They got back up when they quit fighting me. It wasn't mean or abusive to the dog, I was just letting them know that I was the alpha. You have to start young because a full grown Anatolian male is too big and too strong to truly discipline.


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## emdeengee (Apr 20, 2010)

Anatolians are very independent thinkers so training has to start young. Eight months is still a puppy - who will want affection and attention - but that has to be combined with constant training.

I found that kneeing a jumping dog in the chest did not work as well as simply taking a hold of the paws and squeezing. They hate this. When you are dealing with a big, strong dog kneeing tends to hurt you more than the dog.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

the kneeing has to be when they are young, just like any other training method.
I like the throat hold on the ground method, too.
an acquaintances not so old dog bit me once. I immediately put the dog onto the floor with the neck method. the woman just about had kittens. she yelled at me and made me let go before the dog quit wiggling.
she said that it was an "alpha" dog . whatever difference that made..
long story short, the dog turned out to be a biter..


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## barnbilder (Jul 1, 2005)

Take him back and let the momma donkeys finish training him.You really only need a LGD for a couple days anyway. If your fence is tight enough to keep one from roaming the whole countryside for a couple days, you don't have much to worry about getting in besides what a couple of cage traps can take care of. If he is too rambunctious for humans, how do you think the Nigerian Dwarfs will hold up? Maybe those thousands of years of breeding to take care of Nigerian Dwarf goats in somebody's back yard will kick in, and he won't terrify them to the point of shock.


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## farmrbrown (Jun 25, 2012)

emdeengee said:


> Anatolians are very independent thinkers so training has to start young. Eight months is still a puppy - who will want affection and attention - but that has to be combined with constant training.
> 
> I found that kneeing a jumping dog in the chest did not work as well as simply taking a hold of the paws and squeezing. They hate this. When you are dealing with a big, strong dog kneeing tends to hurt you more than the dog.


Pinching the paws works too, I forgot about that. Had a friend with a high strung Boxer. Good dog but they naturally raise up on their back legs and use their front legs a lot when play fighting.
He HATED to have his paws pinched, lol.
I know timid people don't seem to understand how important dominance is in a pack animal like dogs, but if you aren't the alpha dog in their eyes, things can get ugly really quick.


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## woolieboolie (Feb 5, 2014)

We had two smart, beautiful Anatolians, but one of the two became a big BIG problem. While one did her job, the other learned she could dig under, jump and find every weakness in our fencing. I spent countless hours fixing what she broke. She would also bark incessantly all night long! Then about a month ago she jumped the pasture fence abandoning her guard duties and then brok through the chicken run fence and ate our best laying chicken.

We ended up giving her to a friend of ours but don't really like being down to only one guard dog.


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## [email protected] (Sep 16, 2009)

first off, you are lucky the other dog did not learn from the bad one. 
I have one Maremma left. really don't need any, because we don't have any animals or birds anymore.
the one we kept is "geriatric" , according to the vet. LOL she fits right in here with us old foggies.
If I were you, I would find a young pup, Anatolian, or Maremma. I don't care much for Great Pyr's..
we sold an 8 month old male who never was around anything but our poultry. 
The people who bought him have a hobby farm. we get regular updates on Spot. Without any training he just naturally took over his duties.
I guess what I am trying to say is you shouldn't have to get an 8 week old puppy..
..........jiminwisc........


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## Reaper (Nov 26, 2018)

1


haypoint said:


> When the dog jumps up, knee him hard in the chest. Continue every time he jumps. IMHO you don't need or want an untrained LGD, but that's not what you asked.
> https://wagwalking.com/behavior/why-do-anatolian-shepherds-bark-so-much


2


farmrbrown said:


> Yes to this^^^^^^^^^
> He needs lots of activity and discipline.


3


haypoint said:


> The manager of an Animal Shelter in Detroit, had a great idea. Since she had a lot of barking pit bulls, she got a dozen donated tread mills. Somehow she thought that a tired pit bull was a quiet pit bull. Was a great experiment. She ran those dogs for hours. She ended up with a couple dozen barking pit bulls, with a lot of stamina. Your results may differ.


1- I got a Caucasian Ochvarka and ''violence'' is just an escalade, you can try the knee once or twice to see if it works but will more likely create something else if done everytime without lessons learned. 

Lots of treats when he does what you expect. Calm, sitted gets rewarded, works great if the dog is food triggered.
Mine is a bit like yours, mostly with other family members he just runs backwards stopping you to go foward and tries to steal gloves or just pestering to play. And with the kids oh boy ... 

2-3 indeed a tired dog is a good dog, But like Haypoint stated he will more likely become more and more athletic, he needs to work is head in conjunction with physical. 

Bottom line be patient, calm and train him to be


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## altair (Jul 23, 2011)

The Facebook group Farei Kennels LGD Training & Education has a lot of files and videos specifically for LGDs by people who raise and breed them in Maine.


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## Ridgetop (Feb 11, 2019)

Mules and donkeys do not like dogs and can kill them. They strike out with their front hooves and strike the dogs. We have mules and we need to be very careful with our dogs when they are puppies that the mules don't get to them. Even our adult Anatolians are leery of the mules. The mules like to try to sneak up on the dogs and bite them or stomp them. 

Your dog at 8 months old is only a puppy. Livestock guardians do not mature until they are at least 2 years old. That does not mean that he won't guard before then. You just have to realize that he is still a child and needs to be trained.

Our male Anatolian was 4 months old when we got him. He kept pawing at us which is a dominant trait, so I would grab his paw, say shake and hold it until he pulled back. I would not release it until I wanted to. Now he only lifts his paw when I give the shake command. I used that bad behavior to create a command that made me the boss. I always put my knee into the stomach of any jumping dog, but it is better to do it when they are younger. If they are big enough to knock you over, it doesn't always work. Another thing to do I to walk into the dog and force him to give way before you while saying 'BACK". When teaching the dog not to jump on you, you don't just wait to knee him when he does it, you have to entice him to jump on you so you can reinforce it several times. Once the dog is not jumping any more, you call him over and praise and pet him. They learn quickly that if they come and sit down they get love and petting. You also have to be on guard to anticipate bad behavior. When the dog does the good behavior give lots of praise. We also train our dogs to allow us to be around them when they are eating and to let us take their food away while they are eating it. You never know when you will need to do that and a dog that will growl at you or bite you over food is a big no-no.

We lock our sheep up in the barn at night, and this lets us bring our Anatolians into the house for some family time. They are very large - 145 lbs. and 125 lbs. but they are very quiet in the house. They get a treat, lay down, and relax with the family for about an hour then ask to go out to patrol for the night. They are excellent with my grandchildren whom they adore. The male is as tall as our 5 year old granddaughter but he has learned to be gentle with her.

Anatolians, especially males, are very dominant dogs. I suggest that you use a choke chain and leash, and take him to a socialization/puppy obedience class. Working on the leash and collar will be good training for him for when you need to take him to the vet or put him up somewhere if strangers come over. Also, some obedience training will teach him that you are in charge. He will enjoy working with you. Guardian dogs never really do well in obedience like shepherd breeds, but you need to get a little basic training into him. Come, sit, back off, no, are all commands that he should learn because they are the commands that you will need to use to control him around your livestock and home.

Also, guardian dogs become very protective when kidding and lambing season hits. Be aware that he may try to steal the kids and punish their mamas for trying to defend them against him. By the way, Anatolians are not known for being sociable with other dogs. 2 males or 2 females will often try to kill each other for dominance. If you get another guardian dog, get a female. You have to separate the sexes by age. Oddly enough, they will accept a toy breed of dog - maybe they don't recognize it as a dog. LOL

Hope this information helps.


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