#livestock guardian dog

This is Cynna currently, at 6 months old! This girl is a giant sweetheart. ½ Sarplaninac, ¼ Caucasian Ovcharka, ¼ Great Pyrenees.

Meet Cynna! This is a throwback to the day she arrived here in June. She’s our livestock guardian dog - ½ Sarplaninac, ¼ Caucasian Ovcharka, ¼ Great Pyrenees.

The Bankhar is an ancient livestock guardian dog breed. It is raised with sheep or goats and view them as its family, living and sleeping with the herd to keep wolves and snow leopards away. They are sometimes referred to as “four eyed dogs,” because they have a pair of light colored spots above their eyes. There are folktales about them being able to see spirits.

Bankhar were nearly lost as a breed during Mongolia’s communist period, when the government tried to “settle” nomads and their flocks in fenced-in agricultural areas, and most of the dogs were killed. There was even a brief fashion for bankhar-fur coats in Moscow.

The breed is making a comeback thanks to the Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project, which used DNA testing to find remaining pureblood bankhars and is breeding them and giving puppies to herders to raise with their flocks.

Photos by Anne Bailey, you can see more of her photos or read about the Mongolian Bankhar Dog Project here: The Return of the Guard Dogs of the Steppes.

Inside the goat pen and puppy shenanigans.

Luci stole a pair of Jr.’s underwear while he was swimming an brought them over to sheep try and engage them in a game of tug-of-war. They weren’t terribly interested. =P

Luci pals around with the lamb and they actually do play together. For whatever reason the goats ignore him so he latched onto the puppy. I’ve also seen the lamb chasing roosters around the yard and grabbing their tailfeathers in his mouth! It’s a real sight to gaze out the window while doing dishes and see him crest the septic mound pasture in hot pursuit.

July 21, 2017

Life on the farm. Happy kid, happy animals. Black currents and other things in the garden…

The first photo is the recreational area I put in the garden, behind the cedar with a sandbox in a tractor tire. It’s the burned sod I got for free and nursed back to health, contrast that with the next picture and you can see how sad our pasture is. It’s been over-grazed so the herd spends much of their time in the pen but we bring them out to play, walk in the woods and eat brush, etc. They are eating mostly hay this year, but I toss them garden weeds and leafy/piney branches when we cut wood.

In the garden shots are herbs in raised beds (tires) and I’m using baling twine from our big hay bales to train my climbing rose (‘Wiliam Baffin’, the hardiest climber I could find) to wrap around the cedar. The new pup is getting big and her and the older livestock dog spend all day together, playing and patroling.

July 20, 2017

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Greek Molossus of Epirus, source.

livestockguardiangod:

Greek Molossus of Epirus, source.

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Greek Molossus of Epirus, source.

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The Mongol nomadic livestock guardian, the Bankhar Dog, source.

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Sage Dahmarda mother with pups, source.

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Working-line Spanish Mastiff, source.

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Sage Dahmarda of Tajikstan, source.

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Greek Molossus of Epirus, source.

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A quite old working Bankhar whose coat has a tan hue (source).

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Karakachan next to (and cuddling with) sheep, source.