An integral part of living alongside a large predator load with a farm full of easy prey. Livestock Guardian Dogs, or LGD's keep the farm safe by deterring them by barking and marking their territory. We have cougars, packs of coyotes, bears, lynx, and fox. No one tries to cross the fence, and at night when you hear the dogs really barking you'll know something bigger is passing through.

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Our breed of choice is the Sarplaninac crossed with a Maremma, they live full time with the goats. We also have a Tornjak X Czech Shepherd, who is our "glorified house dog", he sleeps inside and speaks dog, so if there's something amuck outside at night, we know. He also helps herd the goats, and most days we don't know what we'd do without him!

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The Sarplaninac (shar-plan-ee-nats) is one of the oldest guardian breeds to exist, and many breeds we know today can be traced back to ancient lineages of the Sarplaninac. Originating in the Sar Mountains located in the Republic of Macedonia, this was the dog Alexander the Great was said to have brought home, and was one of the most appreciated dog breeds in Greek & Roman times.

The Sarplaninac is incredibly loyal, loving towards its family, distrustful to strangers, smart, independent, stubborn and quick witted.

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The Pastore Maremmano Abruzzese, or maremma sheepdog, originated in Italy where it has been used for many centuries as a flock guardian for sheep and goats. They date back at least 2,000 years they've been specifically bred to be independent thinkers and do best with lots of space to be active. Thought to be hard to train, their natural instincts have created them to be incredibly loyal to their family and excellent with children. White in colour, they were meant to blend in with the sheep to protect against wolves, and also if the shepherd needed to step in they were able to easily differentiate amidst an altercation.

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