Alp Kurt is a Director of the Anatolian Shepherd Dog Club of America.
I was born in a small village on the Black Sea coast of Turkey. My family had a hazelnut orchard and Livestock. My family had ASD to protect the sheep from predator such as Bear and Wolf.
My first encounter with ASD was when I was a baby. My grandparents would take the sheep to highlands (Yayla) during the summer months. I would go there and help out for a month or two, sometimes even working as a shepherd.
The dogs were used to protect the sheep from bears and wolves. We didn’t have electricity or telephones on the highlands, and in the dark of night, our dogs were our only defense against wild animals.
In 1989, I was talking to a cousin who lived in the US, and with her help, I came to the US. My goal was to travel for a year or two and then return, but after living here for a while, I decided to stay. After working various jobs in New York and New Jersey and learning English, I bought a business and a house in Delaware.
With my very little computer skills, I began researching how to get an ASD. However, the dogs I saw online, labeled ASD, weren’t like the ones I was used to in Turkey. Our dogs in Turkey were large and strong. One day, while researching online, I discovered that David Nelson had Kangal dogs. I contacted him, visited his dogs, and adopted a puppy from him. Some time later, I wanted to get a second dog. Since I wasn’t very happy with Nelson, I decided to import a puppy from Germany.
Later, for various reasons, I had to move to New Jersey and gave my dogs to a friend who owned a farm and livestock. While living in New Jersey, I visited ASD breeders in East Coast and gathered information on how to bring dogs here from Turkey. I helped many breeders import dog from Turkey.
Meanwhile, I maintained constant contact with breeders both in Turkey and the US. Every year I visited Turkey, I visited different breeders.
In 2014, I moved to Oregon and was reunited with the dogs and sheep and the farm life I’d always wanted to return to. My passion is to continue to network with breeders in US and Turkey and other countries, help others understand the history of the breed, and look out for the welfare of the breed.
I also look forward to carrying out the mission of the club, upholding the club’s values, and helping ensure the organization operates effectively.
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