Akbash Fencing And Roaming: Containment Is A Health Issue

In Texas A&M AgriLife’s work on working livestock guardians, only 52 percent live to age six, and 57 percent of deaths happen after the dog has left the property. Roaming and being culled for behavior are the two leading reasons these dogs are lost.

For an Akbash, a good fence does more for life expectancy than anything a veterinarian can offer.

Why they leave

A guardian’s job is to hold a territory, and the territory it has in mind is rarely the one on your deed. Patrolling outward is the instinct working correctly; the boundary is a human idea the dog has to be taught.

The United Kennel Club standard describes a breed bred for independence and autonomous decision-making, and Akbash Dogs International notes the breed will wander given the chance. Add the gazehound build, with its long legs, deep chest, and genuine speed, and an Akbash that decides to go covers ground faster than most people expect from a 120-pound dog.

Intact males roam more. Texas A&M found no difference in guarding ability between males and females or between neutered and intact dogs, but did find that neutering males reduces roaming.

What contains one

What contains an Akbash is a tall, solidly built fence kept in repair. Guardians go under fences as well as over them, so the ground line matters as much as the top. Check for gaps at gates, washouts in corners, and sagging wire.

Teach fence respect early. Texas A&M reports that electric fencing inside bonding pens effectively teaches guardians to respect a boundary, and the lesson is far easier to teach a four-month-old pup than a four-year-old dog.

For dogs that have already learned to climb or push through, extension guidance describes triangular PVC yokes, and lists yokes, dangle sticks, and drags as accepted tools for adolescents. These are working-ranch equipment, used temporarily during training, and they are not a substitute for a fence that works.

GPS tracking earns its keep twice: it finds a dog that is out, and the track shows you exactly where the fence failed.

Virtual fence collars, used after the bonding phase, are described as showing promise for reducing roaming in adult guardians. The research is early, so keep the physical fence.

What does not work

Invisible and underground electronic fencing does not hold this breed. A motivated guardian takes the correction and keeps going, and the same boundary then discourages it from coming home. A buried wire also keeps nothing out. Stray dogs, wildlife, and people walk straight across it, and the dog inside exists to keep them away.

Recall is not a containment strategy. A dog selected to act without direction is not going to turn around mid-assessment because you called, and building a plan on the assumption that it will is how dogs end up on roads.

Permanent tethering is poor welfare and stops the dog doing the work you got it for.

A fence that holds other dogs you have owned tells you very little. The Akbash is taller, faster, and more determined than the dogs most fences were built for.

When the dog gets out anyway

Texas A&M’s advice for a guardian found off the property is to correct it firmly, with a sharp verbal command or an air horn, and take it home, every time, so that leaving never pays. Its neighbor guidance asks people to call the owner if a dog is consistently off the property or looks injured, which only works if the neighbors have your number.

Then walk the fence. A dog that got out once has found a route, and it will use the same route again until you close it.

In a suburban yard

A standard suburban fence is usually too low, too transparent, and shared with neighbors who have their own animals. A dog that can see through the fence barks at what it sees, and the barking brings complaints.

Extension guidance asks neighbors to keep their own pets contained, particularly at night, because loose pets are a common source of conflict with guardians. You cannot rely on that happening. Building your fence so that a neighbor’s dog cannot get in is as much the point as keeping yours from getting out.

An Akbash loose in a neighborhood is a large territorial guardian in unfamiliar territory, among other people’s animals.

Gates, visitors, and a second dog

Walk and repair the perimeter on a schedule. Use self-closing gates with latches a dog cannot work, and set a rule for visitors and deliveries before you need one. Keep the microchip registration current.

Two dogs are the working recommendation for protecting stock, and two dogs also test a fence twice as hard. Build the fence for two. Fencing belongs in the purchase price of this breed, and the cost figures include it.