With 3 months until we move to NZ, I’m becoming concerned about moving to the country after spending so many years in cities. I’ve never lived in rural isolation before and have been fretting about safety. How would we protect our land and our house? I don’t think the cocker spaniel we plan to get would offer much protection. I’m not really a fan of aggressive guard dogs which have a strong prey drive either.

The solution? Livestock protection dogs.

Then I had a conversation with Katy on Twitter who mentioned she’d just got their livestock protection dogs.  Her great pyrenees dogs will protect their land and alpacas. Apparently the biggest danger to alpacas are packs of dogs. All it takes is for a few local dogs to get together and sure enough the pack mentality will surface. That includes hunting pray. Alpacas are an easy target – they lack the size and strength to adequately defend themselves against such a threat.

So the solution is to keep livestock protection dogs (also called livestock or flock guardians).  I’ve looked into this and I think we’re going to choose either great Pyrenees or maremmas. Both were originally bred in Europe to protect livestock from wolves and bears, so they’re BIG, strong dogs with similar traits – independent, strong willed and gentle with their flock whilst being fiercely protective of them.

Differences between livestock protection dogs and other working dogs

The primary difference between livestock protection dogs and other working dogs is that they don’t have such a strong predator drive. Put a maremma puppy with a flock of  chickens and it will bond with them and protect them, whereas a golden retriever is more likely to start catching them and bringing them to you.

Other working dogs are also likely to be tolerant of others as they work in groups, whereas livestock protection dogs are solitary, wary of strangers and extremely territorial. Those are excellent traits in an animal used to protect a vulnerable prey animal like the alpaca.

Here’s an example of a great pyrenees with goats:

And here’s a great pyr being used as a springboard by some more pygmy goats:

Finally, this is a great post specifically relating to livestock guardian dogs and alpacas: http://www.owning-alpaca.com/livestock-guardian-dog.html