[Jacob-list] Re: Dogs, Sheep & Guardians

[Heather Hettick]

We use a gelded llama as a guard too.  I took a chance and bought him at 6 months old.  He was trained to lead and very attached to people and we had him gelded around 18 months when he started to act funny around the sheep.  He is gentle now with ewes and lambs (sniffing all the newborns carefully to meet them) and puts up with rams who treat him with respect but he does spit at the rams occasionally. He's obsessive about foreign animals in "his" pasture.  The only things he can't control are the groundhogs.  Small birds, including our chickens, and rabbits don't bother him so much anymore but deer, geese and raccoons and of course dogs get harassed by our Taco.  Our own dog got in with the sheep last year and Taco stayed between her and his flock until we came to the rescue and luckily no one, including the dog, was hurt. 
   
  I have heard there are coyotes in our area but we have not had trouble with them.  We had a dog attack the first lambing season right after shearing with one ewe injured and others roughed up but luckily my husband was home to catch the dog and call animal control but soon after that I came accross Taco at a fiber show and took him home in my van.  He is indispensible!
   
  Heather Hettick
  Moonstruck Farm

		
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