Maremma Livestock Guardian Dogs

Over the past years we have fallen in love with dogs.  At first, with Fox Terriers that helped us with keeping hares from our new piece of paradise. We had just planted 1000+ small olive and 2000 shelterbelt trees on the open and windswept Tauherenikau plains and the hares did not like it a bit, they prefer wide open spaces.  Then came Frits, our beloved Labrador who was a great playmate for our young children and who gave us a safe feeling living in the country. When he died, after a battle with cancer, we decided upon a new dog that would be dual purpose. With everything we do (life and work, work and life – it is very much interconnected) we look for more than one purpose.  Following permacultural principles you never do or buy something that only has one purpose. We came across Maremma Sheep Dogs, an old World Breed also known to be very good working dogs as they have been bred to guard large flock of sheep on the plains and mountains in Italy.  Check out the family movie OddBall (2016), a great Australian story about Maremma dogs protecting a threatened colony of penguins.

We have 3 purebred Maremma Dogs, Florence (16/5/16), Leonardo, or Louie for short (28/4/17), and our latest cutie, Australian import Allevare Olive (1/12/2000).  They are working dogs on our multi-faceted certified organic mixed farm, helping us in a natural and pesticide-free way to keep opportunistic predators away such as harrier hawks swooning in on our free-ranging chickens, possums and pukeko wanting to nibble on our young seedlings and fruit trees, and rats and mice on the lookout for stores of food kept on the farm.  Next to this, they help us feel safe living in the country and are great playmates for everyone who will take the time to get to know them.