Livestock Guardian Dogs
At Chaffin Family Orchards we work with nature by being predator friendly. Our answer to keeping our sheep and goats safe and not giving predators a taste for livestock is guardian dogs. Our guardian dogs are large dogs that have been bred for centuries to protect livestock. We bond the puppies to either sheep or goats by raising them with the animals. The puppy then becomes part of the flock or herd and will protect it from intruders. The dogs spend most of the day sleeping. At dusk they go to work. The dogs patrol the edge of the herd or flock marking and barking, and warning predators to stay away. Predators choose to do their hunting in areas not inhabited by the livestock. When the flock moves to a new location the predators have their area back. Since our sheep and goats are constantly moving to new locations the predators only have to share their areas with the dogs for a few days at a time. We have found in the 15 years we have had guardian dogs that a symbiotic relationship develops between the predators and guardian dogs where they respect each other’s territories.
Our guardian dogs become members of our ranch family and work for many years. Our original guardian, Nassau, worked until 13 years of age. We currently have 7 guardian dogs at the farm. Piper (Pyrenees) is the old guy and head honcho. He moves between all of the herds and the farm headquarters, keeping everything under his watch. Frank (Akbash x Marema) is our puppy raiser. He is an excellent guardian and tolerates no funny business from the pups. He is a reliable mentor dog that has raised some really good workers. Beeker (Akbash x Marema) is our baby raiser. He loves the baby goat kids and sleeps with them while their mother feeds. He brings Maggie, the shepherdess, any kids that need extra attention and quickly tells on any Moms who are not doing their best job. Tyler (Akbash x Marema) is our teenager at heart. Since he has never really grown up, he watches over our teenager goats. Every year he gets a new crop of weaned doelings to raise. His huge size makes him able to cover lots of ground with these young active goats. Terra (Anatolian x Pyrenees) is a young female that is currently in training. She will be working with Frank and the Doe herd soon. Belle (Abash x Anatolian) and Augie (Anatolian x Pyrenees) are our sheep guardians. They work together with Piper to protect our sheep flock. Belle, being older, is always the first to alert and to let Augie know when he is out of line. She is good friends with Cashew one of our older Sheep and they can often be seen sleeping together. All of our guardian dogs are spayed or neutered to reduce distractions while guarding. Sorry we do not offer dogs or puppies for sale.
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