Livestock Guardians

  • Schnookers, my one and only Llama. She is a super alarmist! Once she speaks up all of the dogs go crazy trying to find the coyote or whatever got her attention. Schnookers lives with my females alpacas and sheep.
  • Mudd taking care of his sheep. Mudd came to us from a goat farm in Pagosa Springs, CO, at the age of two. He has been such a blessing. We don’t mind a bit that he barks all night. Last Spring he treed a bear in the yard at 1 am, when we called him off he let the bear crawl down and wander off. It is because of Mudd that we have decided to breed Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGD’s).
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Lucky, is a full-sized intact donkey who adopted us! He actually belonged to a neighbor a few miles away…he ran away from home and I am pretty sure he ended up at our farm because he heard all the braying and was lonely. His human asked us to keep him and we have just fallen in love. His human comes to visit when he can and brings treats. Thank you Karl, for such a wonderful addition to our farm!

I have a llama and many donkeys, as well as a Great Pyrenees as livestock guardians. We have an abundance of coyotes and a few mountain lions and an occasional bear that frequent our neighborhood. Of course, one of the reasons for the full-sized donkeys is because they are like giant protective puppies. They are just the sweetest of critters; and of all the livestock, I am pretty sure they are my husband’s favorite, especially the mini donkeys (keep in mind that mini donkeys are not livestock guardians).

January 2021

We have decided to start breeding and training LGD’s. After getting Mudd and really starting to learn about Great Pyrenees, we came to understand the real difference between having a group of dogs running free on the farm and LGD’s. They knew where home was, but didn’t really have any drive to stay home and protect the livestock. They often ran the neighborhood and occasionally became a nuisance. We knew we needed to become better dog parents with neighbors and livestock in mind. The research began. There are a number of amazing LGD breeds out there: Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepards, Maremma Sheep Dogs, Aidi, Akbash, Caucasion Mountain Dog, Kangal, Kuvasz, just to name a few. And then there is the Colorado Mountain Dog which is a breed in the making. The outcome of all of this research is to cross a Great Pyrenees with an Anatolian Shepard, looking to take advantage of the best of both breeds and to hopefully, avoid some of the genetic downfalls of each breed.

Maximus Decimus Meridius “Max” is our future sire.
Lucille “Lucy” is our Dam