Fabiana: a little dog with a chance to start afresh

Fabiana was born on the 8th January 2008 to Amos, a purebred Anatolian, and Mammie, a beautiful “mongretolian” (half mongrel, half Anatolian). Three-quarter Anatolians like Fabiana were bred to help farmers that could not afford to keep a purebred Anatolian, but were still committed to caring for a guarding dog. Unfortunately, Fabiana’s owner lives and works in Windhoek and rarely came to the farm to see the dog. The workers at the farm were not concerned about Fabiana’s health and did not report that the dog was getting too thin; they simply said that she no longer wanted to work. The owner then assumed that she was “too old” to work – though she was only 3 years old!

When the CCF dog team arrived at the farm as part of regular follow ups, we found Fabiana in very poor condition and saw that she was not fed properly. That day, the 17th of December 2010, we took her away from the farm and explained to the owner that she was not too old to work, she just needed to be cared for properly. Once back at CCF, Fabiana was showered with good food and love and kept with some goats and sheep for company. Despite her previous experiences with people, she is an incredibly friendly, calm and good-natured little dog that was clearly well bonded with livestock. Knowing that she would still be an excellent guarding dog, we started looking for a new home where she would be appreciated.

Fabiana at her new home with Rasta – farm worker; Isak Ouseb – Manager of the co-operative; and Sam – the herder that will be working with her. .

This home came in the form of Mr. Isak Ouseb, the manager of a farmers’ co-operative that assists local farmers to turn their subsistence farming practices into commercial operations. The co-operative had received another of our ¾ Anatolians and had taken care of the young dog exceptionally well. Although Mr. Ouseb does not own the livestock at the co-operative (it is collectively owned by several farmers), he takes the care of his guarding dog personally and treated our first dog like his own.

In keeping with good livestock practices, the co-operative keeps its male sheep and goats separate from the female herd until it is time for mating selected quality males with the females. Thus, they required one guarding dog for their male herd and one for their female herd. Having seen the excellent care that they had provided the first dog, we had no doubts about giving them another dog – Fabiana. When we placed her on the 29th of January 2011 she was welcomed by Mr. Ouseb and the herder with open arms. When placed with the herd, she joined them without hesitation and stayed with them when we left. We are confident that this friendly little dog will love her new home and adapt quickly to living with her new family.

The farmers’ co-operative is an excellent example of Namibian people helping each other to become better farmers. Mr. Ouseb is an energetic manager and is always looking to uplift the community that relies on the co-operative. Since he started helping them, the co-operative was awarded the “Best Improved Co-operative in Namibia” out of 64 other operations. Mr. Ouseb values education highly and he asked if CCF could come and give a training course to the farmers in the area; they would hold the sessions in the co-operative’s training centre. As part of our Future Farmers’ of Namibia training programme, CCF will happily fulfil his request and we look forward to training these farmers in the near future.

Gale