Maremma GUARDIAN DOGS
Maremma dogs are fundamental to allowing us to produce quality dorper sheep. Without our maremmas we would have no dorpers. Wild dogs and dingos are a persistent and recurring threat in our area. In 2005 following the tragic consequences of relying on alpacas as guardians we turned to maremmas as guardian animals. The result is that we have relied entirely on on our 8 to 10 maremmas to protect our dorper flock.
Over the last 15 years we have bought maremmas from a range of sources including expensive and high profile registered stud animals to dogs from working farms. We have found that an impressive show pedigree does not equate to sound confirmation or diligence in maremma dogs. Temperament and commitment to the task also vary. We only ever contemplate breeding from animals that have demonstrated themselves to be diligent, sound, even natured guardian dogs working 24 hours a day 365 days a year in the paddock with out sheep. Dogs at the house or wondering in the neighbours can not effectively prevent devastating attacks on the livestock you are relying on them to protect.
Based on this strategy we only occasionally breed a litter of pups to provide reliable guardians for our own use and only rarely have some available for sale.
Our maremmas are sold as working guardian dogs and are not recommended as pets.
We had a litter of pups, born 8 August 2023. See Rams video on Sales page for sire of pups. These have been vet checked, vaccinated and microchipped. We still have 3 female pups available. Two of these have been full time with sheep since they were 8 weeks old. The other one has been fulltime with our commercial laying hens in our pastured eggs enterprise.
Over the last 15 years we have bought maremmas from a range of sources including expensive and high profile registered stud animals to dogs from working farms. We have found that an impressive show pedigree does not equate to sound confirmation or diligence in maremma dogs. Temperament and commitment to the task also vary. We only ever contemplate breeding from animals that have demonstrated themselves to be diligent, sound, even natured guardian dogs working 24 hours a day 365 days a year in the paddock with out sheep. Dogs at the house or wondering in the neighbours can not effectively prevent devastating attacks on the livestock you are relying on them to protect.
Based on this strategy we only occasionally breed a litter of pups to provide reliable guardians for our own use and only rarely have some available for sale.
Our maremmas are sold as working guardian dogs and are not recommended as pets.
We had a litter of pups, born 8 August 2023. See Rams video on Sales page for sire of pups. These have been vet checked, vaccinated and microchipped. We still have 3 female pups available. Two of these have been full time with sheep since they were 8 weeks old. The other one has been fulltime with our commercial laying hens in our pastured eggs enterprise.