Mongolia & Raising the Guardian Dog

Back from the Gobi, with plenty of blood, milk and feces from sheep, goats and camels.

Here are some pictures from our trip!

A shot of the Gobi landscape and one of the Landcruiser trucks we used for transportation.

Beautiful Gobi mountain pass in Bayasah Bogd

Our good friend and community leader, Sugar receiving his Bankhar Pup.

One of Sugar's many relatives posing with the pup

Finalizing the placement, which means going over the manual once more, signing contracts and injecting the pup with an electronic microchip for identification.

UAZ, 80, 80, 80.

Garbanzo (Banzo) has a home! Placed with Tuvshinjargal and his wife Altansuvd, the young couple who see's snow leopard's frequently at there winter camp in the mountains. I have high expectations for Banzo and I believe his host family does too.

Miga, a man of very few words, and even fewer snacks. He drove the second Landcruiser truck and was incredibly patient, easy going and a celebrity with everyone who traveled in our group. He is a geologist and had some interesting things to say about the landscape of the South gobi.

Our third puppy placed with this couple, Murdorj and his wife Enkhtuya. There only child lives in UB, so they spend a lot of there time tending to their herd. They were one of the most ideal host families we had interviewed, with few livestock, only one ger dog, a victim to predation and high livestock depredation. They expressed the most urgency and need for protection of their livestock and would likely suffer the most if their livestock were to be killed.

And the last puppy placed with his Murdorj's brother, Otgonbayar. Although they may not need the dog as much as his brother. The pup will be treated well and has lots of livestock to protect.

And as usual, things never go as planned. We left with 6 dogs and came back with two. The picture below is one of the the pups we came home with. She is one of the more aggressive pups, first to bark and most aware of her surroundings. However we did not realize how important the color of the dog is to the herders. This pups was the offspring of Arslan, our orange colored Bankhar. Half his litter came out with a tan/orange coat like Garbanzo. And when presented to the host families, they did not hesitate to refuse the tan colored pups. Reasons varied slightly but the main concern was that their sheep would become accustomed to this color dog and would not be able to distinguish it from a wolf. Then sheep would not run from the wolf thinking it was the dog that protects them. Or the sheep would already be used to this color as the color of a wolf, run away from the pup and be lost and killed.

It all sounds a little ridiculous to me and is frustrating to see them turn down a pup with great potential. Alas two tan pups, Black Beard and Almost are back in Gachuurt looking for new homes in the countryside.

Here is the pup Almost aka Chickpea playing on the singing sand dunes in the South Gobi.