Karakachan Livestock Guardian Dogs
Volo Tra Mar
AKDA number: 1188
We added Volo to our farm last July. He is currently a little over a year and has shown excellent temperment with the livestock.
Rada Nechallo Syncope Falls
MAKK MAKK 01792
AKDA Number: 590
Rada is our pride and joy at Syncope Falls Farm. She is a grand mixture of our imported lines since 2007, is dualed registered with the IKDA and AKDA, and is the most extraordinary livestock guardian dog that we have had the privilege of working along side of! She is completely fearless and takes her job very seriously, but is so gentle with the young goats that are in her care. She has a perfect temperment and dispostion.
We currently do not have any pups for sale.
As you can probably guess, any animal that faints when it is scared needs protection when grazing. We have a lot of coyotes, black bears, and random neighbor dogs coming through our fields. Since farms seems to attract children, and when we started, we had young children playing in the fields, we needed dogs that we could trust with children.
From our discussions with many goat owners across the U.S., the most successful stories were from those who were using Karakachan Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs). We were fortunate to be able to purchase a female in 2006, and realized she was worth her weight in gold. She loved the goats and did an excellent job of keeping them safe. But there are not many of these dogs in the U.S.
In order to expand the bloodline, we went to Bulgaria, twice in 2007, to bring back Pirin and Duda. We were very fortunate to be able to work with the Sedefchevs at BBPS Semperviva - the source for pure breed Karakachans in Bulgaria. In 2008, we again worked with BBPS to acquire a male pup, Rado, that is of completely different lineage than the other Karakachans currently found in the U.S. We traveled back to Bulgaria in May 2010 to pick up two females to improve the blood lines in our breeding program.
Our Breeding Standards
We breed for working abilities, temperament, health and preservation of the Karakachan dogs. We follow the breeding practices and examples that have been established by the Sedefchevs. It has been our experience that the dogs are excellent with children and very protective of our family members. We've heard the same reports from people that bought our puppies.
Raising True Karakachan Livestock Guardian Dogs
We believe the Karakachan LGDs are happiest when they are used for their true purpose, guarding livestock. From the day the puppies are born, we have them and their mother in the pasture with select goats. In this way, they have constant interaction with the animals that they will be protecting. For this reason, we only sell to working farms. We also name the puppies in the Bulgarian tradition of observing their dominant personality traits or characteristics and naming accordingly. Since 2010, we are the first and only American member to have our farm listed with the International Karakachan Dog Association (IKDA) located in Bulgaria. We have our puppies registered through IKDA.
Click To Read - our thoughts and lessons learned:
We are excited to share the news that one of our Karakachan pups is working in Alaska and you can see her on the Discovery Channel TV Show, Alaska: The Last Frontier: https://www.discovery.com/tv-shows/alaska-the-last-frontier/
We can not imagine a better home for her than with Charlotte and Otto. We have so enjoyed the stories and pictures Charlotte has shared with us as they continue to keep us updated on the beautiful Diva Zena!
