I take it you don't know much about shepherds. They know better than to employ a strictly defensive predator management strategy. You see, they either hunt, a lot because it takes a lot of hunting and trapping to keep wolf numbers down, or they hire a hunter to do it. It's been that way for thousands of years. The problem is that hunting alone rarely works completely. One can kill 50% of the wolves or coyotes annually and the numbers will remain static; a 70% take is necessary to bring the numbers down (that's according to the preeminent wolf biologist in North America, L. David Mech by the way).
The failure to grasp the numbers is why the Montana and Idaho "wildlife management officials" are still scratching their heads while the wolf numbers grow to proportions that have already been catastrophic to the elk herd. Either raiding dens or poison baits are the only things that truly work. The former is how the first humans on the continent killed off Canis dirus. The latter is how Americans purged the continent of wolves in the late 19th and early 20th Centuries.
There's a shepherd featured in the latest copy of Range Magazine page 38, Pete Arambel, who breeds livestock protection dogs. He uses a combination of breeds with different training and attributes to protect his flocks against increasing numbers of coyotes: border collies for the flock, Great Pyrenees, Kuvasz, Komondor, Maremma, Akbash, Anatolis, and Kangal to circle the flock and provide defense. He crosses them too.
Guess what? It's not enough. He's only barely making it. He's adding the Spanish mastiff. Now he not only faces coyotes, but wolves too, with the prospect of grizzlies to come.
If people allow this problem to go unchecked, the packs will grow and get bolder as they run out of food. I've heard of wolf packs in Russia of over 40 animals. Shepherd dogs would be no match for a coyote pack that big. Nor have you addressed the question of controlling the dogs doing that job in an urban park.
Tell you what: You get out there in a Golden Gate Park full of kids and pet dogs with your killer dog pack and I'll use 1080 baits and we'll see which one of us makes money. My bet is that you won't be able to afford the insurance to even start. Heck, I'll even lace my baits with Ecstasy to make the treatment palatable (it's the way to go!). There is simply no substitute for managing the wildlife. At least they make good fur coats.
I imagine in the regions of Turkey where the Anatolians are used the predator population has long ago been reduced through hunting and trapping. In such an environment a pack of Anatolians guarding the herd would work just fine.
The reintroduction of wolves into the NorthWest wasn’t done because Ma and Pa missed seeing the wolves. They were reintroduced to drive the number of ungulates (deer, elk, moose) down so low that the Democrats could start screaming about stopping hunting. Democrats - they don’t mind guns as long as they get to decide who the guns are pointed at.
The hillbillies did a right fine job of running off our “coyotes” once it was legalized.
[and before it was, too...SSS]
:)