Namibia Dog Names

Bonzo is an Anatolian Shepherd dog with a job to do: protect his herd of goats from predators. It is a job that Bonzo takes serious, sniffing the air and marking the landscape on which he roams. Bonzo’s owner is farmer Retha Joubert, who explains that Bonzo is not a pet. The Anatolian Shepherd, which descends from ancient livestock dogs from what is now central Turkey, not only protects sheep and goats; but inadvertently saves the lives of many cheetahs, who without the dogs, would wind up in conflict with the farmers. To save their flocks, the farmers often have to kill the cheetahs that are preying on them. With the dogs keeping the cheetahs away, this does not have to happen.

The Cheetah Conservation Fund (CCF) breeds the dogs, who are placed with a flock when they are only a few weeks old. This allows them to bond with the livestock that they will protect. The dogs live permanently with the animals, sleeping with them at night and heading out with them daily to keep hunters away. Breeding the livestock dogs began to promote cheetah-friendly farming after around 10,000 big cats (the current worldwide population) were killed or moved from farms in the 1980’s. About 1,000 cheetahs were being killed annually, mainly by farmers who were concerned that they would kill their livestock. Since the dogs have been employed, there has been a significant reduction in losses experienced by sheep and goat farmers and there has been less action taken against the cheetah.

Over the last 19 years, 450 dogs have been placed with farmers with more than 3,000 farmers being trained. Laurie Marker of CCF stated that when farmers have the dogs, there is an 80-100 percent decrease in livestock loss. The program has a two-year waiting list for the dogs (either Anatolian Shepherds or Kangals) and the program now serves other countries with predators.

Joubert, Bonzo’s owner, explains that while her farm lost 60 animals in 2008, she no longer worries about her sheep and goats coming home. The presence of the dog is usually enough to keep predators away, however, the dogs will attack if the hunter does not back off. Bonzo has killed jackals in order to protect his flock and has been bitten by snakes, stung by a scorpion and attacked by baboons. Joubert is training a four month old Kangal named !Nussie (Nama people start names with an exclamation mark) to follow Bonzo’s lead. !Nussie goes out with a flock each day on a leash with a human herder and stays in the animal enclosure at night as she gets to know her job and those that she will protect.