If Old MacDonald had a farm in Colorado these days, he’d want some of the livestock guardian dogs Jan and Pat Stanko breed.
The couple, who own Emerald Mountain Ranch outside of Steamboat Springs, breed Turkish Boz Shepherds that can weigh 180 pounds as adults and hold off a predator, yet have the joyful exuberance of a puppy with a package of pig ears.
On websites dedicated to their breed, Boz are described as “even tempered, calm and assured,” as well as “not easily startled, timid or anxious.” They have “a stronger need to love and be loved by (their) family than other breeds,” and they can be “so quiet while sitting or lying near their flock,” they look like a giant stuffed animal.
These descriptions proved true on a blustery day in August when three Boz puppies from one of the Stankos’ litters poked their 6-month-old noses through a pen they shared with several Nigerian Dwarf goats. The female pups — Leona and May — weighed around 80 pounds, while their lanky brother, Brinks, approached 100. Their ears had been cropped at birth, because Boz can get to playing so hard they’ll shred each other’s ears, and also because cropped ears are one less thing a predator can grab onto in a fight, Jan said. But it was hard to imagine these pups fighting anything as their tails wagged in loose circles while Jan delivered pats on their heads and when they snuggled up to “their” tiny goats to take a nap.
“A Boz puppy’s happy place is curled up with its mother, siblings, livestock or on a lap,” Jan said later. But her adult Boz are ready to stand down any bear, bobcat, mountain lion, coyote or wolf that sneaks onto the Stankos’ 40-acre ranch looking for a chicken, calf, lamb or guinea hen.
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