Protecting livestock is an around the clock job. The best way to sleep without worry is to put a professional guardian on the task. After a lot of research, we decided on the Maremmano-Abruzzese livestock guardian dog. True to their name these wonderful canines were bred for centuries to do one thing well, guard livestock. Maremma-Abbruzzo is an area in the Tuscany region of Italy where this breed has been carefully molded into the ideal guardian dog.

 

One reason we chose the Maremma is because of this ancient heritage and specialization. Unlike other herding and livestock dogs, the breed has never been repurposed as a family pet or show dog. These dogs work and they love it. Maremmas are not however aggressive by nature. They are trained to warn approaching threats by barking forcefully but will not attack an intruder unless provoked or attacked first. In such cases, they have been known to take on mountain lions if necessary. Yet, your neighbors are not in danger of a Maremma bite maybe just a stern warning bark. Maremmas are also rangers patrolling large areas and perimeters against potential threats to the flocks. One Maremma can keep 20 acres or more clear of predators.

 

It doesn’t hurt that Maremmas are also beautiful dogs with thick white fur and dark eyes. No worries about the white coat because these dogs are self-cleaning. One day they can be red or black with mud and the next day back to pearly white. We’re still not quite sure how they do it but we’ve been amazed to see it over and over. Finally, Maremmas are not overly particular about what they guard. They'll keep coyotes and fox from the sheep as well as skunks and raccoon from coming into the feed barns and chicken coop. We’ve even read but not yet observed Maremma chasing away hawks swooping down to take young lambs. We highly recommend Maremmas to protect your farm, but we don’t recommend them as household pets. Maremmas can be independent and need to work. Traits that make them good at what they do but hard to manage in a restricted lifestyle. Some farmers only work the Maremma and they do well alone in the fields, and although we have them live exclusively in the fields with the livestock, we also decided to interact frequently with them and maintain that human contact so that the dogs view our children as part of their flock deserving protection. We also wanted to keep them affectionate toward people rather than become loners. Either way, the Maremmas remain focused on doing their important job.