[Jacob-list] llamas as guardians

[Heather Hettick]

Llamas work fine for me.  Our main problem is neighbor dogs and our low key
llama scares them off when he goes to investigate them well enough.

We used to have a really determined llama guard who obsessively chased
anything that didn't belong out of the pasture - geese, deer and he really
tried to get rid of the ground hog.

They don't all make good guards though.  Our current boy, Checkers is more
of a pet, but we love him.  I think our horse would protect the sheep better
than him, but he's in his stall about half the time.  Checkers does his own
thing and likes everyone and usually hangs out with the rams/horse (the
guys).  Our pet dogs are safe around him too, but they are afraid of some of
our sheep so they avoid the pasture.  

If we develop coyote problems, since they are around according to our
neighbors, we'll either have to get a better llama or fix our fences so we
can keep guardian dogs, but dogs are expensive to feed and llamas are
relatively easy to care for.

Heather Hettick
Moonstruck Farm
Creston, OH
www.moonstruckfarm.wordpress.com