Coonridge Dogs

Our Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs

We have been using guardian dogs to protect our herd of dairy goats at Coonridge Organic Goat Cheese since 1984. We have used Australian Shepherd and Australian Shepherd Crosses, Great Pyrenees and Pyrenees Crosses and now Maremmas. We got the Maremmas in 1998 when wolves were reintroduced 200 miles from us in Eastern Arizona. Two years later they were sighted 60 miles away. A family who at the time was living within an hour of us lost their two family goats and 7 dogs plus chickens. They went to town soon after, afraid to live with their small children on a land where predators could be so fierce. Another family lost 150 chickens to a predator the state trapper could not find.

Maremmas are from the Italian Alps and are bred for wolf control. They are perhaps the oldest unaltered breed as the Caesars had Maremmas two thousand years ago!! Their genetics have some different components than all other dog breeds.

Maremmas are large white dogs, averaging from 80 pounds for the females to 100 pounds for the males with many larger. I can no longer lift our Maremmas onto my bathroom scale so can only guess they are more than the average weight! Their coat gives them protection from the elements but is not totally dense, except in winter.

In the winter months these cheerful dogs are just ecstatic in the cold! They greet us in the worst snow and sleet, bounding for joy in weather that keeps their thin-skinned goat companions in the barns!

The dogs travel long distances with our free ranging goats, guarding them in the field and the barn area. They have instinctively taken on the task of alerting us that goats are missing and leading us to them! This adds a wonderful dimension to the care our dogs give the goats.

All our dogs are friendly with humans. Even so, they always sound an alert when anyone drives into the yard and will not stop mistrusting them unless instructed to do so. I ask guests to not approach the dogs until they are recognized and never when the dogs are with their animals.

The dogs take up different positions if they feel the goats are threatened on the range. Most will advance in full force to the enemy. Kokopeli has also come home to find us. Sometimes one of the dogs will cause the goats to bunch behind them if they feel a threat is too close. The dogs have naturally made this division of labor.

Usually large guardian dogs are not considered ready to be on their own until they are a year old. The Maremmas have become dedicated to our goats at six months although we hope they do not actively encounter a predator until they are large enough and at least a year old.

We are now taking orders for puppies. We feel strongly that these animals with their boundless energy and incredible genetics should only be placed where their talents will be used as livestock guardians.

Our puppies sell for $750 at the dairy with all shots up to date. Buyers pay for the vet check, and shipping if by air. Delta Dash takes live animals. Sometimes I travel to California, or states surrounding New Mexico and can deliver.

2009

Tiki's first litter has all been placed in homes with livestock.

Last month she was due again and she decided to have her 9 pups in the wild!! We found her in a cave on the rims overlooking the Alamosita Drainage and brought them all home to the barn to be raised with the goats. There are 7 male and 2 female pups.