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When
we first got our Icelandic Sheep, we kept them
close to the house in a field directly adjacent
to our back yard. Actually, they camped
every night in our back yard!!
We put hog panels around our rose garden, and
that kept our flowers safe. So we didn't
have to worry too much about predators. And it
worked out just fine--the sheep were happy, and
we could wake up in the morning and look out the
back window to see them lounging around just
feet from us. We were all happy.
Then
last winter, we began to hear with increasing
frequency the singing of coyotes. When
we first came to
our farm, we used to enjoy their songs, but then
they seemed to become less and less frequent and
we missed them. Until the sheep came.
Then, we were glad our coyotes had become less
vocal and we hoped, less numerous.
All
of a sudden this past winter, we were faced with
the very real possibility of predator problems. More
singing meant more pups come spring, and more
pups meant feeding those babies. Our
larger flock size meant we'd need better
protection.The
sheep will need more space this year because of
our increased population, and so we won't be
able to keep them for the whole summer and fall
in the confines of the small field behind the
house. They will be further from the house
and closer to the woods, and we didn't want to
wait until we lost one or more sheep before
trying to protect them
There
are three types of livestock guardians that we
investigated: llamas, dogs, and donkeys.
Llamas were definitely interesting, dogs came in
a distant second in our minds, and donkeys, well
donkeys were an animal I wanted nothing to do
with. With a reputation for being loud,
with their penetratingly obnoxious braying, and
for being stubborn and unmanageable. They just
weren't an option.
I've
always loved llamas and wanted two or three.
What a great way to have what I wanted and
protect the sheep, too! Thus began
research into llamas as protectors. The
internet was an invaluable source of
information. I called people who had used
llamas. I spoke to llama breeders.
What we found was that llamas discourage
predators because they will approach an
unfamiliar being head on. This is enough
to cause many predators to go elsewhere, because
the llama is a large animal and can be pretty
intimidating. So far, so good. I was
envisioning a llama grazing peacefully with the
flock, a lovely sight and, I thought, a safe
sight. Then a sheep breeder we know
personally had a llama that seemed to be doing a
great job till last year, when the coyotes took
a tremendous toll. After that, I read a
gruesome and grisly true story of some llamas
being torn up and killed by wild dogs.
Subsequently I read that some llama breeders
have protection dogs for their llamas.
This was looking definitely less interesting.
Llamas have no real "fighting
apparatus". Their hooves are rather
soft, and their jaw strength is not legendary.
This meant that their two means of
"attack", their feet and their mouth,
were less effective than I had thought. I
knew I wasn't willing to deal with a dead or
maimed llama who was only trying to protect
"her" flock.
We've
been breeders of dogs for over 35 years, and we
knew that many dogs will also give up their
lives for someone or something that they love.
Back to the internet and the telephone.
There is even a book written about livestock
guardian dogs, by Raymond Coppinger. Well,
livestock guardian dogs have an excellent
reputation, that is the ones that are successful
do. They bond strongly with their flock and
patrol their territory untiringly, challenging
intruders in a most unpleasant way.
Several people we know swear by the
effectiveness of their dogs.
However,
there were a couple of problems, as far as we
were concerned. One, we've been involved
with dogs for many years in a distinctly
different way, promoting the awesome
relationship that can exist between dogs and
their humans. Now,
we've read and been told that the livestock
guardian dog is happiest when with her flock of
sheep, and that she truly doesn't
"miss" the relationship with humans
that most dogs have developed a need for.
While that may be so, we personally had a
difficult time with that concept. But,
research them we did, since the llama seemed out
of the picture for us, and the donkey was never
in the picture.
We
found that there are a number of breeds (Maremma,
Great Pyrenees, Akbash, Anatolian, Polish Tatra)
developed for this work, and there are a number
of very successful breeders who are using these
breeds or crossing them to obtain the best
qualities of each. We were surprised to
find, though, that the success rate of the
number of pups in a given litter was not very
high. We read that maybe 50% of all dogs
used for livestock guarding don't work out, that
is, either they don't guard or they wind up
preying on the stock they were supposed to be
guarding. Yet the advice was to start with
a pup whose potential is unknown. The
theory was that the pup would grow and bond with
our particular flock and that was the best of
all worlds. Didn't sound that appealing to
us, as novices in this kind of training arena.
Hmmm.
Another
thought we had at this time was that having a
dog or dogs with the sheep meant providing
separate food for the dogs that had to be kept
out of range of the sheep who love to eat,
largely whatever they can fit into their mouths.
Dog food would qualify, and it had things we
didn't want our sheep eating, since dog food is
grain based, and our sheep are grassfed only.
Another
potential problem we saw was what could happen
if a strange human got into our sheep field.
Guarding is what the livestock guardian dog
does, and we had read about cases reported where
humans were attacked by guardian dogs. We
live in a lightly populated area, but there have
been occasions where strangers have crossed our
land. This wasn't something we wanted to
chance. Given all this, we decided that
although some people had had great success with
Guardian dogs, that wasn't probably the route we
wanted to take.
That
left donkeys. I've never liked donkeys.
In fact, I had a distinct antipathy for them.
I didn't want to even consider them. But,
they seemed like our last option. So, I
set out to prove they wouldn't work. There
isn't a lot written about guardian donkeys, I
found. There are some resources on the
internet, and there were a few people I found to
talk to about them. First and foremost, we
were told NOT to try miniature donkeys, and that
only standard sized donkeys were effective
deterrents and dispatchers of predators.
Interesting.
All the people I talked to had standard
donkeys and had very good success  with
their donkeys. They got their
donkeys and their problems with
predators ceased. I heard stories
of large losses that had stopped after
getting a donkey or donkeys. This
was definitely not what I wanted to
hear. I
did...not...like...donkeys! Even
stranger, the people I talked to loved
their donkeys. I mean really loved
them, said they didn't need to be
isolated from human contact, even that
they (the donkeys) particularly enjoyed
their "donkey hugs". (And the
people did, too)
But
I wanted to get down to the nitty gritty of this
business. How did they protect their
flocks? What made them such good
protectors? Well, through reading and
interviewing, I found that the donkey also
strongly bonds with their sheep. Even if
they didn't, I found, they are strongly (I mean
strongly) territorial. They don't like
intruders in their territory. Aha, I
thought, I've found the Achilles heel.
What about humans? Well, it seems that the
"intruder label" doesn't particularly
apply to humans, just animals, as in dogs,
coyotes, and other four footed things. A
donkey won't "take up" with strange
humans, and they might keep their sheep safely
away, but they won't attack.
OK.
So how do they protect their sheep?
Donkeys have extremely hard, small hooves; and
they are amazingly accurate in where they place
them, whether that be on the ground or in the
air. Those hooves are very effective
projectile missiles. They have incredibly
strong necks, jaws and teeth, capable of
lifting, crunching and flinging objects of 50 to
100 lbs. They also move away from
predators, presenting their rears in a way that
leads the predator to believe they are
retreating and encouraging attack from behind.
What they are really doing is positioning
themselves to deliver those projectile missiles
in the most effective way. They can use
their front feet in a similar way, stamping an
adversary and breaking its bones, but they seem
to prefer the back handed (footed) method.
I
looked like I was losing the battle. Darn!
I asked everyone, "What about their
braying? Isn't it loud and abrasive? How
do you deal with that?" Without an
exception, I was told, well, they can be
noisy--but they aren't unless there's a reason.
And it isn't that bad. You get used to it.
Not that bad? I had heard our friend's
donkeys braying--they could raise the roof off
the barn!
At
this point, I knew I had to see for myself these
"wonderful" donkeys. Hmph, prove
it to me, I thought. I called a breeder I
had talked to by phone, MaryLou Williams of The Rosefield. I talked to her at GREAT length trying
to find a crack in her story. None found.
We talked about a "potential" donkey
for our sheep. She told me how the donkeys
worked with the sheep, how they checked out the
field, how the sheep seemed to know when there
was danger that safety lay close to the donkey(s).
I was also warned that if stray dogs got into
the field, they probably wouldn't come out
again. I needed to see these donkeys with
the sheep for myself, so we made an appointment,
and off I went. Arriving, I saw one donkey
with one group of ewes and babies, and two
others with another group of moms and babes.
The sheep were fed some grain, and the donkeys
very gently tried to get a mouthful.
Mostly they were pushed out of the way by the
ewes--they never shoved back, just left and
tried another spot. The babies were tiny, but
the donkeys seemed to know just where they were.
MaryLou said in ten years, she had never had a
donkey step on a lamb. Hmmm, that was
pretty impressive. Well, I thought,
maybe....
Next
we went out to the field where most of the rest
of the donkeys were. I expected lots of
jostling and shying when I went into the field.
Nothing. They first gave me my space and
then, by ones and twos, came up to check me out,
all eighteen of them. They were, well,
serene! Peaceful, they watched us, and two
of them came up to me and one at a time put
their heads in my arms for a hug. I tried
in vain to maintain my objectivity. Maybe
we should try a donkey after all, I thought, IF
I could get more evidence of their guarding
abilities. After all, this was going to be
a WORKING animal, and if it couldn't do the job,
then it wasn't for us. MaryLou hadn't lost
a sheep since she had the donkeys--but of course
she has lots of them. But others I talked
to didn't and swore to their effectiveness, too
The
long and the short of it is that we now have
Darla, who really does love her hugs!
She's the one I went to look at. And she
watches over the sheep. Will she be all we
hope for? Time will tell us that, but in
the meantime, she has chased the cat out of the
field and keeps a watchful eye on our dogs from
over the fence. She moves with well, yes,
serenity and sweetness. She's now had a
baby, a little jenny who is the cutest thing
we've ever seen! Darla was never
aggressive with the sheep when her baby was born
(we were told to watch for that), and Disa (the
little jenny) plays with the lambs. How
lovely to watch her nuzzle them softly. And come
up to us for her hugs! We've been told
donkeys actually work together in pairs, so we
have one of the ones who put her head in my arms
coming to join us later in the summer.
And
guess what? We really love our donkeys!
And they don't bray very much. And you do
get used to it.
“Sadly,
our journey with guard donkeys came to
an end when Darla, who had gotten along
so well with the sheep, started to chase
the lambs and separate them from their
mothers. She made the journey back home
to her breeder, and she’s now guarding a
herd of cows. Her daughter left us
first, when her play became too rough
for the sheep. There are plenty of
wonderful donkeys out there working with
sheep, and a good one is worth her
weight in gold to the shepherd, so don’t
let our experience color your decision.”
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