Anatolian livestock guardian dogs are fierce enough to take on grizzlies and wolves, but gentle enough to babysit toddlers. Montana rancher Lauren Stoddard told Cowboy State Daily that she wasn’t the least bit surprised by the account of an Anatolian Pyrenees rescuing a lost toddler in Arizona this month. After all, her huge dogs of similar breed, Anatolian Shepherds, are gentle with and protective of her own toddler daughter. “That doesn’t surprise me at all,” she said of reports of Bodin Allen, 2, being protected and led to safety by an Anatolian Pyrenees dog named Buford. Anatolian Pyrenees are a combination of Anatolian Shepherds and Great Pyrenees breeds, both of which have been historically relied upon as livestock guardians. “These dogs identify need, especially in young livestock,” Stoddard said. “I’m thinking he (Buford) identified that toddler as young livestock.” According to local reports, Allen went missing from his home in Seligman, Arizona, on April 14. His frantic parents were left imagining horrible scenarios – including wondering if their son had been snatched by human traffickers. It turns out that at some point in his wanderings, Allen crossed paths with Buford. The dog led the toddler about a mile to safety. Roughly 16 hours after Allen went missing, he and Buford were discovered by Buford’s owner, rancher Scotty Dunton. Stoddard and her family have long relied on their Anatolian Shepherds to protect their goats, sheep and cattle. They raise their livestock on 200 acres in remote northern Montana, about two miles from the Canadian border. The surrounding country is rife with wolves, grizzlies and other predators. Stoddard previously told Cowboy State Daily that her dogs aren’t the least bit afraid of chasing hungry apex predators off her property and away from her livestock. And since the Stoddards’ daughter got big enough to go outside, the dogs have taken a shining to the little girl. “Immediately, when she entered their environment, she became part of the farm. She became part of their job,” Stoddard said. “They follow her. They’ll put themselves between her and a hazard. Or they will push her away from something that she shouldn’t be getting into. They are excellent babysitters,” she added. Anatolians take naturally to their protective tasks, Stoddard said. “If our dogs are doing something that we don’t understand, we try to take a step back and try to figure out what they’re doing. They’re smarter than we are” when it comes to doing their jobs, she said.
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