Why tornjak dogs of all the dogs?

Tornjak dogs are sturdy, about seventy centimetres tall, very resilient, seemingly indifferent, but actually very strong-willed dogs. They have long, luxuriant and colourful hairs, especially on the neck, tail and "pants". Well-bred and well-cared-for specimens regularly achieve very good results in the protection of cattle against wolves and other large carnivores. The ancestors of Croatian tornjak dogs have been bred for guarding the cattle in these areas for centuries. They are better adapted to natural conditions in these regions than any other shepherd dog and are especially inclined to living with the flock.
Our present tornjak dogs should be even more efficient than their ancestors.

The current breeding is targeted and selective, and they can be offered much better conditions for development than by former breeders and users.
Tornjak dogs will fully develop their inherent shepherd features only if from their early age they permanently live with those types of domestic animals that they will have to protect when full-grown.

* Livestock guardian dog - Croatian breed.

What is an electric fence?

The use of electric fences is one of the most efficient methods of protecting the cattle against the attacks of wolves and other carnivores. An electric fence is placed all around the place in which the cattle grazes during the day, or rather around the pens for keeping the cattle during the night. The fence functions on the principle that electric impulses passing through it produce an unpleasant shock for the animal that touches the fence, but do not endanger its life. Therefore, after the first experience each animal, a wolf, a sheep or a goat, remembers that the touch of the electric fence is unpleasant and does not approach it any more.

What does the fence for the protection against wolves look like?

The electric fence consists of a corresponding energy source, an impulse generator, electricity conducting wires fixed to wooden or plastic posts by means of special insulators and metal grounding rods. The simplest energy source is a 12 V car battery that may be recharged by means of a battery charger (adapter), by connecting to the car or by solar panels.

The impulse generator generates electric impulses of at least 5,000 to 10,000 V a second.

The fence for the protection of wolf attacks should consist of at least 5 wires. The fence gates are made of the same electricity conducting wire and metal springs - one for each fence wire. In this place the gate is easily opened by insulated hand grips. Posts holding the fence may be wooden or originally plastic and about 1.6 m high. The electricity conducting wire is fixed to special plastic brackets - insulators that make it possible to move and stretch them. The wire spacing must be 20-30 cm, with the lower pair closer to each other than others. The lower wire must be 20 cm above the ground at the most. The span between posts must be 5-10 m, depending on the ground configuration. Once placed, the wires must not touch the grass and bushes, because the mains voltage may be lost. If placed properly, the fence wire may be several kilometres long. Grounding is of a decisive importance for a good operation of the fence. For this purpose it is necessary to drive an iron rod into the ground for at least 1 m. A good grounding makes a half of the success of the electric fence operation.

Domestic animals coming into contact with an electric fence for the first time must be taught that touching the fence wire is painful. It would be best to bring each animal separately to the fence and let it experience the electric shock. In this way the animal will be prevented from jumping, starting to run, tearing the fence or hurting itself at the first experience.

In case of a power failure in the fence the following should be checked:

1. Is the device switched on?
2. Is the device properly connected to fence wires (wires not broken)?
3. Is the grounding wire connected to the device and the grounding rods?
4. Is there a short circuit somewhere along the fence?
5. Is any of the insulators defective or broken?


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The protection of large carnivores is one of the most complex nature protection issues. Large carnivores feed, namely, on animals, which are at the same time the subject of economic exploitation by people for food, hunting, etc. Livestock is one of the sources of food, especially if not guarded. This makes the damage caused to livestock one of the key issues with an adverse impact on the protection of large carnivores.

In tackling the problems of damage caused by wolves, a controlled supervision of livestock has proved to be one of the basic ways to prevent or minimize that damage. From ancient times the use of shepherd dogs has been common practice in Croatia 's livestock breeding areas, but unfortunately disappeared during the time. It is at the same time environmentally the friendliest form of livestock protection, returning the breed to the area of origin and to the original use.

In 1997, with the view to help livestock breeders in term of reducing damage caused by wolves, the State Directorate for the Protection of Nature and Environment of that time, supported by the INA Petroleum Industry, started implementing the programme of donating tornjak dogs as Croatian autochthonous breed to interested livestock breeders suffering damage from wolves. The first results of the programme showed a positive effect of dogs and a great interest of livestock breeders. However, certain problems arose, because due to financial constraints there was no organized control of donation beneficiaries. These problems related mainly to the fact that not all livestock breeders knew how to handle the shepherd dogs. Therefore some of them ended as pets and other unfortunately as watchdogs kept on a chain. Some of them were even killed, mostly by poison and on roads. By the end of 2002 120 dogs were donated, primarily to livestock breeders in Dalmatia where the greatest damage to livestock had been recorded.

Since 2003 the donations have continued within the framework of the LIFE III project entitled "Conservation and Management of Wolves in Croatia ". As a result of former experience a permanent control of donation beneficiaries was organized and carried out by regional project co-ordinators who in this manner help the livestock breeders use the dogs donated for the protection against wolves' attacks in the most efficient way. Besides, the interested livestock breeders have been given lectures about the way of keeping and training the shepherd dogs and conditions that have to be met. At each donation of dogs the livestock breeders are again provided with all necessary information in form of lectures and detailed written instructions about the training, nutrition, keeping and the obligatory medical treatment of dogs (vaccination, parasites elimination, etc.). The counties Primorsko-goranska and Zadarska and the State Institute for Nature Protection joined the donation programme by allocating funds for the donation of 5 tornjak females so as to encourage the raising of this breed in areas inhabited by wolves and other large carnivores.

83 dogss have been donated since the start of the LIFE project implementation or rather a total of 203 tornjak dogs since the beginning of the entire donation programme in 1997. Early in 2004 a poll was conducted on a representative sample of beneficiaries of the first donations that showed that the majority of dogs had come into contact with a predator and had chased him away. Moreover, when flocks were guarded by dogs there was no or substantially less damage caused by wolves. The recent donations have yielded similar results to the satisfaction of the programme beneficiaries.

The needs for tornjak dogs and fences exceed by far the donation programme, but the purpose of the programme is to encourage livestock breeders in areas inhabited by large carnivores, and especially by wolves, to guard their livestock. The field data show, namely, very clearly that there is less or no damage at all, if the livestock is guarded. After all, the wolf always attacks easily accessible animals, so he will preferably attack those not guarded.

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