You cannot feed raw meat to LGD...

  

Some  people think that by feeding LGD (livestock guardian dogs) raw meat and bones,
they will not be reliable guardian dogs anymore.
My dogs disagree,
and so do I.
We don't feed whole dead animals to the dogs, we cut and portion
and with sheep meat we freeze the meat in for at least two weeks before feeding.

Sometimes, the bones are almost bigger than  puppy Lucy...


I am not a dog food fanatic, am not very opinionated about feeding my dogs. They mostly get dried dog food and when someone donates a  cow, or we have a dead sheep, or when hunting season rolls around and we can get deer and moose scraps, even the odd fish on occasion, my dogs get it.
I suppose I would call myself  an opportunistic feeder.
If I don't have meat, the dogs get kibble. If I run out of kibble, I will raid the dog freezer for meat and bones, if all else fails, they may just end op with an egg for lunch.

The persuaders and enforcers

We use the Sarplaninac breed for our livestock guardian dogs.
This breed originates from the mountains of former Yugoslavia.
This is a land race developed by the villagers and shepherds to protect their livestock from predators.
Our dogs live 24/7 with our 600 ewes, rams and cattle.
In the summer our ewes graze in fairly dense bush. To help ensure their safety we always send anywhere between 3 and 5 dogs out with the flock.
Our ranch is surrounded by bush and forest, and is home to many large predators.
We utilise (amongst other things) guardian dogs to persuade predators to go elsewhere.
This is our team:
Beli, the stable leader

 

Tosoxs

A persuader, Fena

Her son, Stormy.

Vuk, he will be an enforcer when he grows up.

Katcha

Lucy

Snowy

Alaska, she is definitely an enforcer..

 And then we  have Molly and Buddy:

 One day will also be big and strong...

Welcome

Welcome to my English version of my original Dutch blog.
This blog is an extention of our farm website.
http://www.grazerie.com/

I am passionate about our ranch and particularly trying to co-exist with our wild neighbors.
I firmly believe you can ranch and be successful with this,
while sharing your spot on this planet with wolves, bears, coyotes, cougers and whatever wants to eat your livestock.

As all things in life, this takes time,
has a big learning curve and

management.

We are assisted in our goal by our Sarplaninac Livestock guardian dogs, border collies and commen sence.
I would like to share with you a look into our lives on the ranch,
  the animals that inhabit our farm and area,
and the ups and downs of our ranching lifestyle.