DlB—Lancaster Farming, Saturday, April 11, 1981
Livestock-guarding dogs
help keep sheep safe
DUBOIS, Idaho American
sheep ranching may be going to the
dogs.
Not just any dogs, but special
livestock-guarding breeds that
have been helping Old World
shepherds look after flocks for
centuries.
And by thwarting predators, the
dogs may help ranchers and
consumers save money.
“In some cases, the dogs work
very well. For many people they’re
often the difference between
having sheep and not having
them,” says Jeffrey Green, a
research wildlife biologist for the
U.S. Department of Agriculture
He cites a Montana rancher who
last summer lost 33 sheep to
predators in 37 days.
“Then we put one of the dogs, a
Great Pyrenees, with the sheep,”
says Green. “For the next 18 days
there were no losses ”
Green is in charge of predator
research at the USDA Sheep
Experiment Station in Dubois,
Idaho-a project that focuses on the
coyote. These tough, wily animals
eat anything rabbits, rodents, and
carrion form most of their diet.
The USDA says coyotes are
responsible for most of the million
or so sheep and lamb losses to
predators each year.
Based on last year’s U.S sheep
population of 12 5 million, that’s an
eight percent average loss.
Dan Murphy of the National
Wool Growers Association says
coyote predation is costing the
industry about SIUO million a year
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And, adds the USDA, consumers
also pay-with higher prices and
reduced supply
Ranchers used to fight coyotes
by leaving out bait laced with a
poison called Compound 1080,
sodium raonofluoroacetate Since
1972, however, the federal
government has restricted the use
of Compound 1080 after deciding it
endangered other animals. The
coyote populaton seems to be
rising, although shooting and
trapping continue.
Enter the livestock-guarding
dogs or Europe and Central Asia,
dogs like the Great Pyrenees from
France, the komondor and the
Kuvasz from Hungary, the
Maremma of Italy, the Anatolian
akbash from Turkey, and the Shar
Planmetz from Yugoslavia.
They’re big dogs; a male ak
bash, for instance, can weight 150
pounds. Some are white, like the
flocks they guard. And, says
Green, they seem to want to stay
with sheep, they don’t harm the
sheep, as many dogs might, but
they’re aggressive with potential
predators.
For one test, Green puts together
unguarded sheep and a coyote in a
160-acre, steeply fenced enclosure
Once the coyote has established a
killing pattern, a dog is placed with
the sheep.
Would the dogs kill the
“We’ve not had that happen,”
says Green, who has tested
komondor, Pyrenees, and akbash
dogs
"In fact, there usually weren’t
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any physical encounters between
the dog and the coyote. More often
the coyote would hear the dog or
smell it or see it and flee, because
one of these dogs is over four tunes
heavier and bigger than the
coyote. And the coyote is not
stupid ”
From the USDA’s research to
date, no one breed of livestock
guarding dog is thought to be best.
Green indicates. But the sheep
station does advise getting pups
from “working parentage” when
possible, and starting the dogs with
sheep by the tune they’re about
eight weeks old.
The breeds generally take two or
three years to mature
Sheep raisers aren’t limited to
the West, and neither are sheep
predators, says Raymond Cop
pmger of Hampshire College’s
New England Farm Center.
Since 1977 he and colleagues at
the Amherst, Mass., from center
have been breeding and training
Old World livestock-guarding dogs
m a cooperative research
program. They have placed nearly
200 dogs on farms in states from
Maine to California, guarding
against coyotes, bears, mountain
lions, and even domestic dogs
They have learned the guard
dogs work better in fenced
pastures or with breeds of sheep
that don’t scatter on open range
Another important con
sideration, says Coppinger, is the
owner’s involvement: “It’s not just
a matter of dumping the dog out a
(Turn to Page Dl9)
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This ig, shaggy komondor dog at the USDA Sheep Ex
periment Station in Dubois, Idaho, is on friendly terms with
Roger Woodruff, predator control project worker, but it can
get tough when guarding sheep against enemies such as
coyotes. Some Old World breeds have been looking after
flocks for centuries.
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