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Hi All,
Decided to forward this message
to the Pyr/LGD lists as well. Any help/suggestions would be great.
Thanks!
Chrissy
Hi,
A lady in our area
contacted me about giving a talk on Pyrs as livestock guardians. I know
the benefits and what the guys do here but (thankfully) we've not yet had a
problem. There are bobcats and coyotes all over the hollow but so far
they've not come around us, probably because of the Pyrs. However, I'm not
sure what all I should say and how I should say it. Jennifer is supposed
to help me put it together but I'm the one who has to get up in front of
everyone. I know I don't want it to drag out but I want to make
specific points on successfully using LGDs as well as keeping them safe with
certain methods and using more than one dog. Many of these people have
many hundreds of acres (sometimes thousands) and those that live up in the
mountains have to face not only bobcats, coyotes, coy-dogs and strays but
cougars, red wolves and bear as well. I know that Pyrs handled wolves and
bear (not sure about cougars) all the time in the Pyrenees Mts. and
believe mine could if they had to, but am always hearing how (in this
country) people put only one or two Pyrs or other LGD breeds in with a
huge flock of sheep and on an enormous acreage and the dog(s) get killed
because there's too much for one or two to keep an eye on. The dogs
usually seem to come from people who just have puppies and are owned by someone
who does nothing but put them out and leave them, which we know Pyrs were bred
to be left alone for days and nights at a time but often had several other Pyrs,
spiked collars and different times a person or two. The conditions
they're often put in here in the US along with it being drilled in peoples'
heads to buy from "working only" stock and put no real effort into molding their
natural abilities seems to be working against the dogs.
I know that so far we haven't
had any problems (knock on wood) but I've seen Rajah and the others work and can
say I have complete confidence they could take something on and would back each
other up.
If you can think of anything I
could include, please let me know.....I've also been a bit worried what they'll
all think of me showing as well....some people tend to think if a dog shows it
can't work and if it works it can't show. Thanks.
Talk later!
Chrissy
P.S.
Here is a clip of the message.
> I'm president of the Appalachian Goat
> Association and each month we hold our meetings in Spencer, WV. We like to > have a program each meeting that will be of benefit to goat owners. A topic > that would interest me and I think some of our other breeders would be the > benefit of owning an LGD. I'm not familiar with all the breeds but one that > has caught my attention is the Great Pyrenees. I'm wondering if you would > be interested at any time in perhaps coming to our meeting and giving a talk > on this breed and the benefits of owning an LGD in general? I like the looks of the Great Pyrenees and would > like to learn more about their temperament and success as LGD's. |