Our foundation stock is from well known and established lines. Our foundation bitch, Daniska’s Fesat Fiona is renown for being an ASDCA Awarded Guardian Dog, a fabulous working livestock dog, a winning show dog, and a versatile family companion. She has a wonderful temperament towards people but is quite serious and tenacious with predators. Gentle and protective towards sheep and goats as well as a loyal family guardian. She is large, powerful and athletic, very graceful, and has a beautiful head that she passes to her offspring.

We have five Anatolians at our home, all descended from Fiona. All four of the adult dogs have earned their AKC Canine Good Citizen Degrees. One young female, Basari’s Kara Elmas, has earned her Therapy Dog Certificate from Therapy Dog International. Kara is owned, trained, and loved by 10 year old Kathryn O’Shea. The Anatolians live with goats year round and sheep during the spring and summer. All the dogs share in the livestock guardian duties as well as are given a rotation into the house for family bonding time. There is a day shift and a night shift. That way all our dogs can be maintained as family/livestock guardian dogs daily.

We raise our puppies the same way. They spend their nights in the house with the family and their days with pygmy goats. The puppies that we raise and send to new homes are well socialized to many household and environmental experiences. These include goats, sheep, children, early obedience training, grooming, noises, strange objects, assorted dogs, many cats, horses, etc. They are each individually held and handled every day. At seven weeks they are temperament tested, evaluated for conformation, and evaluated for their livestock affiliation. After careful screening and several discussions, the puppies are placed with their new owners according to a match in the personality of the owner and the puppy. We also look at the future environment of the new puppy and try to place each temperament where it should go for maximum chances of success.

We occasionally show our dogs at AKC shows. They usually win. Fiona has won either Best of Winners or Best Opposite Sex at the last two Western Regional Specialties she has gone to. Her son Basari’s Asil Tazmin won Best puppy in Sweepstakes in 2004 and was awarded Best of Breed in 2005 at his second show ever! Fiona’s daughter Jewel of Basari won Best Puppy Bitch in Sweepstakes at the Specialty in Napa in 2004, handled by her owner, teenager Erin O’Shea. Jewel won Best Opposite Sex at the ASDCA Regional Specialty in Placerville, Ca. in 2005 at her first show as an adult, at 21 months old. Another daughter, Mezi, owned by Amerikan Anatolians won her first major at 9 months.

Basari’s Kara Elmas has been exclusively trained and shown by Kathryn. When Kathryn was 8 years old, she was given Kara to be her own. When Kara was 10 weeks old and Kathryn had just turned nine years old, they began puppy kindergarten classes. They progressed to Novice Obedience classes, Agility, and Conformation/Jr. Showmanship classes. They began to compete at 4-H shows together when Kara turned nine months old. Now they have several 4-H shows and matches under their belts. They have also shown together at AKC shows. Kathryn and Kara earned their Therapy Dog Title in June of 2005. Quite a feat for a 10 year old and a 110 pound livestock guardian dog! They are a very bonded team.

Our number one family goal is to enjoy and love our dogs. We give them the best possible life that we can. They have livestock to guard, family time, great food, minimal exposure to environmental toxins ( very important! ) good training, and FUN everyday. We screen puppy buyers carefully to match our pups with families who share our philosophies. Our dogs are wonderful livestock guardians and great family companions. They are given the best start in life that we can give them.

Our dogs are carefully screened and evaluated for superior conformation, sound temperaments with people, and working ability. Working ability is something that can’t be truly evaluated without the dogs living with the stock everyday. Stable temperaments are best evaluated by taking the dogs into many different environments and documenting their responses to a variety of experiences. Dogs today are called upon to perform a variety of jobs. Overall stability of temperament is crucial here. Temperament is largely determined by the mother. Studies show that the attitudes of the mother are passed or taught to the puppies. The father’s temperament is important too, but behaviors are learned and modified by the mother and early experiences of the pups. Stimulation and exposure of the pups to a wide variety of experiences can make a difference in how a dog experiences the world for the rest of its life. We do our best when raising a litter of puppies and stand by our puppy buyers with support and encouragement.

Much of the puppy’s future success rests with the buyer naturally. Early and lifelong training that is firm but gentle, daily attention with love, and the correct experiences with livestock all are the puppy buyer’s responsibility. With all these factors in place, the Anatolian puppy has the best chance of a wonderful life.