Are their any flock guardian breeds working in the uk? Discussions

Do any farms in the UK use flock guardian breeds with their livestock??

Apparently so, I've heard of working CAO in the UK, though personally I don't see the point. We don't have a great deal of bears, wolves and sheep rustlers over here. I do know of a few in the US however, Estrelas, Kangals, CO, CAO and other LGDs are used a lot on ranches in rural areas.

I keep promising my Estrelas I will buy them some goats to guard one day. Keiko the Mal would want to eat them though!

Would be interesting to see..

I couldnt work out were to post this either mods ..lol

Section seems appropriate Murf

What do all the abbreviations stand for Gill?

I believe i read something about some people using them with their Alpacas and Llamas?

I may be wrong.

Cannot remember the breed either

This post is not much use is it?

Alpaca can certainly stand up for themselves! (I talk from experience LOL)

I would love a flock guarding breed to look after my horses and stuff in my fields

I've had numerous things stolen from my horse fields, and we would love a couple of Alpacas and some pigs but no doubt they wouldn't be there for long

My other worry is that someone would take the dogs

CAO=Central Asian Ovtcharka
CO=Caucasian Ovcharka ???

LGD=Livestock guardian dogs...

Maremma's with the alpacas

This is on the increase, and rising at an alarming rate - there have been a couple of reports in the last year on local TV here in the West. On one occasion police randomly stopped a motorist near Bristol and found several stolen sheep in the boot of the hatchback! On another, police saw straw sticking out of the boot of a car and thought it odd, so pulled over the driver and yep - stolen sheep.

There was also a report of it on Countryfile last week, where sheep farmers in Northern Ireland are having biometric details of each sheep recorded.

I wonder if they would succeed if there was a Maremma or Ovcharka to reckon with??!!

No way!!!! Well I wouldn't want to mess with a guardian protecting it's flock, maybe that's the way to go.

With regards to Alpacas - Isochick once told me people use these as guards instead of dogs!!!! Eek!

Wot Murf said

A place near me uses Llamas to protect the trees at xmas as people kept getting in and stealing them.

llama or ovcharka ... lol
choices choices

The guardian of choice here seems to be Pyranese, but we also the the odd Maremma or Caucasian Ovcharvka. Pyrs seem to be preferable due to a softer nature with people. But they are fierce enough protectors. We've sewn up a fair few after getting into it with Coyotes and the like.

Lots of people use pryanean mountain dogs in with their flocks of sheep to protect from foxes, loose dogs, etc. There's a farm not far from here who has a beautiful huuuuge girl working on the farm, you read about it quite often on a lot of the small holding forums etc.

I'd like to see someone steal a sheep from a maremma protecting their flock, plenty of working maremma's here, and they can be fearsome I give areas where there's sheep a wide birth.

Do you have many predators in Italy ?

Yup, Llamas and Alapacas are traditionally guardians themselves in South America.

They are excellent sheep and poultry guardians, and will, for example, see off a maurauding fox. We are thinking about getting a couple of gelded males for our poultry... not sure what the dogs will think!