Market Farming

["Dori Green" <dorigreen00 AT hotmail.com>]

My Maremma/Pyrenees guardian dog was beautiful, big, intimidating but never 
dangerous.  No more rats, raccoons, possums, skunks, deer, bears, or other 
unwanted critters near the barn or house and he babysat chicks as well as 
goats.  He belonged to my old collie mix and her cats, not to me.  He 
patrolled and guarded an area of about 500 acres, encompassing almost a 
dozen farms, and he got along with everybody's dogs so all of my neighbors 
were cool with letting him wander.

The only problem I ever had with him was that some @()^&@( shot him dead 
last year.  Three years of rescue work to overcome his 
aloofness-on-the-side-of-autism from never having been properly socialized 
as a pup, hundreds of dollars for the basic vet care and neutering, three 
seconds of target practice.

I'll replace him some day, but not until the entire pasture is fenced in 
with woven wire to keep the dog in.  I know that's going to cut down on his 
or her effectiveness, but I have to go to work to pay the mortgage so can't 
spend the day at home watching over the guard dog with a 410 in hand.  Of 
course I would not shoot a trespasser.  Like the guard dog, it's really just 
a deterrent.  But we don't have to advertise that fact.

That dog never managed to bond with me but he made it clear that he loved me 
fiercely anyway.  I will mourn him forever.  LGDs really are a special kind 
of dog and my farm is incomplete while I'm without one.

Dori Green
Ash Grove Community Farm
http://www.ic.org/agrove

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