Another Anatolian Shepherd

We had to face the fact that our Anatolian Shepherd, Leila, wasn’t going to come back home. Emotionally I wasn’t ready for a replacement. It doesn’t matter whether I’m ready or not, I just know we need another guardian dog here to protect our alpacas. We have a big place with a lot of coyotes so we need at least two working dogs on our ranch at all times.

When Pac’s sister Sadie died, Pac worked all of the time. He was running himself down, working day and night for a few weeks. Then he became a recluse in our barn. It was so sad because he went into a deep depression. We replaced Sadie with Leila and then slowly Pac returned to his old self once again. Now that Leila is gone I’m not going to give him a chance to get weird on us.

I’m going to stick with the Anatolian Shepherds. They are amazing dogs. Anatolians are an old Turkish breed and they are specifically bred to be guardian dogs for livestock. I found a beautiful full Anatolian Shepherd not too far from Hot Springs, Arkansas at Livestock Guardian Angels. They have beautiful Anatolian Shepherds and they raise all of their dogs with goats. They are wonderful people to do business with.

We named our new guardian dog, Lacey. She is marked almost the same as Leila except she has red hair. Lacey turned 8 months old this month so we had her spayed quickly. Our dog, Pac, accepted her as his companion right away. Since she was raised with goats she made an easy transition to guarding alpacas. We were happy to see that Lacey fit right into her guardian role so easily. I still miss Leila… she was an amazing dog and she will always have a special place in my heart. Lacey has big paws to fill but she is off to a great start!