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Our Guardian Dogs
Although we enjoy our Border Collies and we are constantly amazed by their talents and skills, there may be no more amazing
a dog than a livestock guardian dog.
We have four LGDs protecting our sheep, "OK", three protecting the sheep and Oso protects the garage. Lucy, is
a Great Pyrenees x Irish Wolfhound according to the women we bought her from and is our A #1 guardian dog. Lucy has
never left the side of the flock of Texel ewes she was "assigned" to on her first day on the farm when she was 6 months old.
She is awesome.
Lucy was raised with her mother and goats until the age of 6 months when we bought her. We put her in a holding
pen with about 15 of the Texel ewes when we she first came home for about 2 weeks to help her bond to her sheep. We
then let her and the 15 ewes go out into the large field with the other 70 ewes - and she has never left them.
We feed Lucy in the field with her sheep. She will leave them long enough to eat and then goes back to her sheep
to patrol. You may often see her sleeping in the field during the day, but rest assured, she knows where her sheep are.
If a buzzard flies overhead, she will jump out of her "sleep" and chase off the buzzard. She is simply awesome.
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| Mandi helping Momma clean her lamb |
Mandi, a pure-bred unregistered Great Pyrenees came to us from Kenneth Kuykendall at the age of 6 months. She is
a wonderful guardian dog who is kind of the rover. We have sheep in 5 different fields and only have 2 mature guardian
dogs. Thus Mandi's role is to go where she is needed.
Oso, our oldest, was a rescue.from a farm with far too many dogs and one who was far to agressive towards the others.
Oso spends the day in the garage taking his naps and at night will go to where the action is if need be.
Our newest is Mechka, a Maremma x Karakachan (a rare breed Bulgarian LGD). He is nearing 4 months old
and seems to be learning his job well.
Mechka, Bulgarian for "Bear", came to us from Pat and Peter Houchin of Running River Ranch in Patrick Springs, VA.
Pat and Peter have traveled to Bulgaria and have brought home a breeding pair of Karakachans to assist in keeping this "rare"
breed of livestock guardian dog from becoming endangered. To learn more about Karakachans and Pat and Peter's efforts,
please check out their website at : http://www.runningriverranch.com.
Mechka began his training living with about 12 Texel lambs in our holding pen. A few weeks later,
after building some confidence that he will stay with the sheep and not wander to the house to be with us and the Border Collies,
or wander off the farm, we put him out into "his" field with "his" lambs.
Now at 8 months old, Mechka is helping out with his first lambing. He has demonstrated to be a compassionate overseer
of the lambs without the young puppy playfulness which often results in lamb ears torn or worse. We are very pleased
with what we see thus far - we shall see.
A friend of mine, also bought a littermate to Mechka, and is exceptionally pleased with his female. We both
are considering buying another puppy bred the same way from Peter and Pat Houchin with the same cross becomes available.
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