Our Anatolians Shepherds Page!

I remember the day, I'll never forget it. When we got our first Anatonlians. We bought 3 girls all sisters. Itty named after our red nose pit bull we had when we were young married in the ministry that we loved sooo much, Bella & Ella. We still have Ella. I call her El Bell she is spoiled rotten. She loves company & everyone who comes here for a pup will meet El Bell & Wiggy my hippy rooster because they love company so its their thing to visit company. All 3 sister were beautiful! I loved them all equally. When they were about a year old, we thought we dont need 3 big dogs like this (lie from the devil) so we gave Bella & itty to a goat farmer we knew. I told him several times Id take them back if he ever needed to get rid of them. He said, NEVER. LOL Him & his family have lots of family land all butt up to one another and them girl work all their properties. I have pictures of the 3 sisters when they were 5 weeks old when we bought them home. The people were glad we took all 3 & so were we. The Anatolian Shepherds are beautiful. When they are teenagers, they can do stupid things like try to work the highway, go to the neighbors, play with a chicken or two until they die but once they settle & know their boundaries the are priceless on a farm. The old saying is, they earn their keep.

Just yesterday, Ella & Titus ran off a chicken hawk that swooped down to try to get a chicken. Our Anatolians watch all our farm animals. We have chickens, turkeys, peacocks, genies, cows, we had goats & sheep, we have horses, we had rabbits. No matter the farm animals we bring in they naturally protect. Plus, they make excellent pets & companions.

Ella Bell is a LGD Livestock Guardian Dog. AKA Anatolian. We get people call all the time looking for a pup, but we might do a litter a year. Every morning her & Wiggy my Polish Rooster That Pastor Cam & Pastor Melissa Wiggins gave us & my stray cats that showed up here follow me everywhere all day long. They make good company while I do my chores although I know they just want a lil dog food. Lol my cats love it too & Wiggy eats it out my hand.

Ella Bell loves the cold weather, the colder the better for her, on cold cold mornings Ella Bell prances up & the way she does it makes her look so so so pretty. Her whole-body wags & she's smiling, and her front legs comes up very high, high stepping like a Tennessee walking horse does. So pretty & graceful. I have to catch it on video for yall to see. Then when she reaches me, it looks like she takes a bow like you'd do in reverence of royalty like to say hello. She knows how to make you fill honor. I mean just beautiful. She's such a good dog. 

Then we have Titus he's a smooth coat Anatolian. Hes a serious dog you don't want him to catch you here when we are not here. When he growls the hair stands up on the back of your neck. They are bred to take down bear & wolves. They're serious dogs. 
And don't let Ella fool you either she loves company but not when we are not here. She's whole different animal. 
They're very protective of their territory. We keep Titus in back, that's where he's needed most. Our property butts up to a coyote pen.

 Since we had Anatolian, we don't lose a chicken to hawks. They don't miss nothing. They watch the sky for that too.

 Don't think Titus can't jump the fence he is in.  He'd jump that with just a little hop if he wanted to. Thats nothing for him. Hes just a good dog to stay in the fence but I've seen him during an emergency get roweled up & come over like superman. He could be way down the powerline & if we come out seems like he's by our side in 3 long strides of a step. Hes fast fast. When he was a puppy, he bit Ella for food and cracked her jaw, she couldn't eat for a while. The bit pressure PSI is the greatest of all. The PSI (pressure per square inch) is 700 which is 3x more than a pit bull. They protect their people too. My granddaughter got bit by a wasp and was crying & her Mom was trying to help her and he taught she was making Klo cry. He was ll upset. 

 "I am the good shepherd. I know my own and my own know me." — John 10:14.

According to an article in USA Today, 1,500 sheep fell off a cliff to their deaths in Turkey in 2005. One sheep fell, so the others followed suit and jumped. In the end, 450 sheep died. The ones that survived only lived because they were cushioned by landing on top of their fellow herd members. As a child growing up in church, I remember seeing a picture of Jesus with a lamb wrapped around his neck. As I grew older and visited more churches, I remember seeing similar pictures at a lot of places. I never questioned the image. The Bible is clear that God is our shepherd, and we are the sheep of his pasture, so I assumed the image demonstrated that biblical truth. However, several years ago while I was attending seminary, the image of the lamb wrapped around the neck of Jesus was explained to me.

Because sheep tend to stray and will also follow wherever they are led, shepherds often had to discipline lambs that would stray from their shepherd. The shepherd would use his rod to break the leg of a wandering lamb. After binding the break, the shepherd would carry the lamb on his shoulders while the wound healed. If the lamb struggled and fought, it would quickly realize that the broken leg wouldn't allow it to flee. The lamb learned during the healing process that the shepherd could be trusted. The lamb needed the shepherd to provide food, transportation and protection. Once the wound was completely healed, the lamb was fiercely loyal to the shepherd and wouldn't stray from the shepherd's leading.

A few years ago a news story broke about Shrek the sheep. Shrek was a Merino sheep who lived in New Zealand. Shrek became famous because he managed to avoid being captured and shorn for six years. His wool continued to grow and thicken, and his eyes were eventually hidden behind the thick coat. Shrek dodged the sheering by hiding in caves and running from his master. Once Shrek was finally captured and shorn, he carried 60 pounds of wool on his body, nearly six times the average amount. The wool on Shrek's body was enough to produce 20 men's dress suits. It's easy to see why the Bible compares us to sheep. We often follow the crowd, even when it leads to our own demise. We stray from the shepherd who loves us and seeks to protect us. We don't appreciate when God disciplines us. But if we surrender to him we learn through the discipline that God can be trusted. We are often like Shrek the sheep as well. We hide from God, clinging to the things that need to be shorn from us. We become weighed down with the burdens God could easily remove from us. The Bible also shares with us that God anointed his people with oil just as the shepherds anointed the heads of their sheep with oil. This wasn't just a symbolic ritual. Sheep are easy targets for flies, lice and ticks. A sheep that was not covered in oil on his head could easily become the victim of infestations of these pests. However, it wasn't just a nuisance. Bugs would crawl through the ear canal of the unoiled sheep and nest in its brain, eating away at it. The pain from the bugs would be so severe on the sheep that the sheep would bang his skull on rocks and against trees to ease his suffering. The sheep could break his own skull seeking relief from the brain-eating parasites. When God offers to anoint us with his oil, it means he offers us protection from the parasites of this world that seek to eat away at us.

If we hide in caves, or jump off the proverbial cliffs of this world, dodging his anointing and protection, we may become victims of this world. We may become so filled with pain that we hit our heads against rocks to ease our suffering. God seeks to shepherd us through this life. Oftentimes that is through discipline, sheering or anointing. But it is always with love, and it is always with our best interest at heart. He is our shepherd. He can be trusted when we surrender to his leading.