On Guard Dogs

It's been a difficult few weeks at sheep camp since Thanksgiving time. Our two Great Pyrenees guard dogs, Turk and Stinker, trained to guard livestock from coyotes and other predators, went missing the weekend before Thanksgiving. They were found shot dead, within a short distance of each other, on the southeast corner of the ranch. All evidence points to shooters just taking shots at sounds, or perhaps at anything they could hit.

We've had livestock guarding dogs since the early 1980's, to guard our flock in Idaho, Eastern Washington, Illinois and now Nebraska. In all that time, we've never lost any sheep to predators -- or, for that matter, we've never lost any guard dogs under these circumstances.

The dogs that were killed -- Turk, going on 7 years old, and Stinker, just about a year old -- were raised on our ranch from the time of weaning. That's the normal practice -- the pups come to think of their sheep as their littermates, live with them and protect them accordingly. These livestock guard dogs also mark a territory with their scent, which helps keep predators at a distance when the dogs are out of sight. As they work their territory and watch their flock, they shy away from human contact.

The bad news (aside from the senseless shooting of the two dogs): Finding mature, trained replacements for livestock guard dogs is almost impossible, since the norm is to keep these guard dogs and their flocks together.It's getting closer to the time when baby lambs are born and the flock is even more vulnerable to predators. The scent of blood and amniotic fluids, and the bleating of newborns, carries on the wind and attracts coyotes, the main predators in our area. And, since we live five miles away at the parsonage, we can't be on-site to listen or watch for night-visits by coyotes.

The good news: Through our network of friends in the sheep industry, we've actually found a replacement dog. Her name will be Alpha (Alph for short) because she was the alpha-pup in her litter of nine. She's nine months old and already working guarding well. I tried to talk Red into just buying Alpha's mom, an excellent guarding dog in her own right, and having her bred to raise some pups. That didn't work. Maybe that will be my retirement project in a few years. (Or maybe I'll be surprised on Christmas morning.)

Senseless things happen, and the shooting of two valued, four-legged partners gives new meaning to the term senseless. Just one dog shot that way could be written off as an accident, but two seems like more than an accident or even coincidence.

And, yes, it could have been worse ... After all, it could be a person out there making the sound at which the shooter shoots so blindly.

We just pray that whoever takes sport in doing such things will somehow have a change of heart and habit, learn to shoot responsibly, and not do this again.