Risks relevant to anatolian shepherd dogs used for animal protection can be catagorised as follows:

• Climate: Cold and heat fronts, extreme temperature fluctuations, sun stroke, etc.
• Disease: losses to disease due to late identification and inability to locate the source such as rabies.
• Effectiveness: loss of dog effectiveness and vigilance due to heat stress, weight loss due to travel distances, handling practices, food quality, etc.
• Temperament: the loss of temperament caused by lightning, large noises, intimidation practices, abuse and fierceness of adverasries.
• Theft: theft of free roaming dogs.
• Natural predation: leopard, cheetah, wild dogs, lion, bears, wolves, etc. killing dogs.
• Terrain: mud, holes, crevices, cliffs, gullies, rivers, mudslides, etc.
• Straying: jumping fences, following other animals, -people or -feed wagons, wandering on neighboring farms, etc.
• Trapping: wire snares, loose barbed fence wires, deep mud, crevices, holes, debris, etc.
• Environment: snakes, scorpions, exposure, etc.
• Indigestion: eating debris, poisonous plants, hair balls, wire, cloth, etc.

For each type of risk and combinations thereof HOTGROUP developed practical and affordable loss risk management solutions. Total elimination of loss risk is NOT implied as this is impossible to achieve. Risks can be managed whereby losses can ultimately be limited and lowered to affordable/acceptable levels, but there are no guarantees that your risk management program will be flawless. The flexibility of the HOTSURE offerings enable you to adjust your risk management plan to suit your dynamic risk profile. Only once a HOTSURE risk management system has been implemented will you truly begin to appreciate the true level of risk to your dogs. Before then risk profiling can only be done on perceived statistics and gut instincts. When the data starts streaming in we all stand more often than not amazed at the true extend of the risk. How is this possible you may wonder as "you know your dogs" and your losses for that matter? The truth is that very few owners have seen what their dogs are exposed to at night, every night, especially during weather. Some owners never now how active and extensive their guarding behaviour is during the cool of the night. Night time razing of guarded animals is the financial gain lost to the owner who kraal at night. With HOTSTOCK collars it is rarely necessary to kraal at night and is mostly limited to areas where large predators such as lion, leopard, cheetah and wild dogs are resident.

Dogs in general often stray from the animals they are meant to protect. Straying is generally triggered by the availability of stimilus for the dog, whether it has been castrated, whether the neighbor's sheep have small lambs perceived in need of protection, climate, breed, level of habituation to humans, handling practice, caring and food availability, general health, etc.. Dogs also differ in temperament. We classed them into two main groups namely placid and hyper dogs.

Placid dog is where the animal exibit a high level of habituation towards most humans, food is ample and water is readily accessible. These animals are usually well kept with playmates of the same age group and constantly monitored by the owner and staff. This type of dog poses the lowest form of risk to itself, its charge, local foana and neighbouring livestock.

Hyper dog is where the animal exhibits high levels of irritability, stress, hyper activeness, aggressiveness and restlessness. These animals are usually moderately well kept and seldom seen by the owner and staff. This type of dog poses the highest form of risk to itself, its charge, local fauna and neighboring livestock.

Note: Other factors that also have a significant impact on the dogs risk profile include proximity to neighboring livestock, type of natural occurring fauna, proximity of towns, roads and quality/type of fencing..

How it works: A dogs and usually its charge are monitored by collars. Information is relayed from the collar via the HOTNET GSM and or VHF gateway networks to the HOTEYE system. The data is then decrypted, decoded and interpreted by the HOTEYE system. The data is then processed according to the user profile settings and displayed. Alarm events are displayed by HOTEYE on-screen and also sent via SMS, MMS, e-mail and automated voice call to the nominated receivers. This complete sequence of events take mere seconds to complete and is therefore qualified as near real-time monitoring.

The collars can be reprogrammed and reconfigured over the air via mobile phone or logging on to HOTEYE. We currently offer 6 options of monitoring your pro-active risk management system responses.

1) By logging on to www.hoteye.co.za for PC, laptop and advance mobile phone device for live on-screen alarm notification, display and dismissal.
2) By logging on to www.hoteye-lite.co.za for mobile phone and PDA use.
3) Via SMS and MMS notifications to your mobile phone.
4) Via E-mail to your Blackberry, mobile phone, laptop, PDA or PC.
5) Via land line auto voice calls.
6) Via a 3rd party such as a security service provider.

You will note that the system does not necessitate the need for any form of control room nor any dedicated staff. The owner can monitor his dogs from any where in the world 24/7. Most of us carry a mobile phone and therefore in the event of an alarm the MMS provides a detailed descrpition of the alarm with a supporting map extract where the animals ares at that very moment plus some prior movement history. There are therefore no time consuming login's to remote systems nor the need to carry bulky laptops around.