Newport, Tennessee
About AM Working Dogs
A working homestead in the Smoky Mountain foothills — and the guardian dogs that keep it running.
Our Story
My name is Michael Parsons. My wife Ali and I run a homestead outside Newport, Tennessee, where we raise rabbits, chickens, ducks, quail, and a garden that keeps getting bigger than we planned.
The dogs came the way most things here come — out of need. When you keep poultry and small stock in these foothills, you share the ground with coyotes, bear, bobcat, and every loose dog in the county. We lost birds. We tried the usual fixes. What finally worked was putting a guardian out there to live with them.
We settled on a Kangal crossed with Great Pyrenees — three-quarters Kangal for the size and the nerve, a quarter Pyrenees for the patience. Those dogs changed how this place runs. The losses stopped, and the birds settled down in a way you can see.
So we started raising them for other farms too. Every pup is whelped in our barn and grows up in the middle of the stock it's meant to protect. That's the whole method, and there isn't a shortcut for it.
How We Raise Them
The difference between a guardian and a large dog is almost entirely in the first year.
Puppies are born in the barn, not a whelping room in the house. From the time their eyes open they hear chickens, smell ducks, and get stepped over by animals going about their day. Livestock never becomes a novelty to them, because it was never new.
At the same time, they get handled every single day — feet, ears, mouth, lifted, leashed. A guardian you can't catch is a guardian you can't treat, worm, or load in a truck, and that's a problem you don't want to discover at 140 pounds.
By eight weeks they're weaned, eating well, health checked, and used to being around both livestock and people. That's when they're ready to start the same process on your place — and the sooner they get to your animals, the better the bond takes.
What You Get From Us
Buying a guardian dog is the start of a relationship, not the end of a transaction.
Bred With a Job in Mind
We breed dogs that have to work on our own place first. If a dog isn't sound with the stock and steady with people, it doesn't go into the program.
Raised on a Real Farm
No kennel runs. Pups are whelped in the barn and grow up underfoot among chickens, ducks, rabbits, and everything else that lives here.
We Pick Up the Phone
The first year decides how a guardian turns out. Michael is available before the sale and long after — call at eight weeks or at eighteen months.
The rest of the homestead
We also raise rabbits, chickens, ducks, quail, and hatching eggs. That side of the farm lives at AMRabbits — same family, same place, same phone number.
Visit AMRabbitsCome Meet the Dogs
Farm visits are by appointment — call and we'll set a time.