© Brenda M. Negri 2017
Above: Mother Earth News blogger Jan Dohner regularly uses photos by Louise Liebenberg and promotes her "expertise" continuously.
Below: Cat Urbigkit promoting ridiculous yoke use in her "Shepherd" magazine.
Only lazy shepherds use yokes!
I refer to these three women as the "LGD Stepford Wives."
Urbigkit, Dohner and Liebenberg run together and regularly applaud and prop each other up.
I'm the rogue - I've never run with this crowd - and never will. No thank you...
Meanwhile, you tell me how a dog is supposed to eat, sleep and fend off predators using this?
I can't be alone in my cryptic observation: with the increased popularity of LGDs and their use has come a huge increase in lazy shepherds looking for the easy way out, and the use of yokes, such as the sickening contraption pictured above and below, is on the rise. Have you noticed it, too? People who expect Livestock Guardian Dogs to be a quick fix-all for their predator problems, with minimal or next to no input or work on their end. They don't "have the time" to try to understand these dogs, they just want a quick plug in solution to any problem or issue that arises using them.
Pandemic, it crosses all national boundaries. USA, Canada, Europe, and more. Is it a product of the times we live in? Do we blame it on the new generation of hobby farmers and trust funded baby pseudo ranchers with silver spoons sticking out of their mouths? Since when did it become popular to torture and abuse a dog? Since when did all these morally bereft, lazy people enter the agriculture, farming and ranching community?
And just as disturbing: since when did the rest of us, i.e., the general public lose it's "cajones" to call these kind of people out on the carpet and publicly shame them for what they are doing?
Where is the outrage on Facebook LGD groups and Internet forums? There is none, because many of these yoke-promoting people are part of the online, often Facebook-fueled, unprofessional, corny "Stepford Wives LGD Mafia" that lives online. They are mostly made up of women, endlessly pontificating about how much they think they know, and stroking and promoting their fellow female members in amateurish mini-films and You Tubes filled with ill mannered screaming toddlers, obnoxious music, incredibly bad training advice, inarticulate presentations and photo bombing chickens. A group of know it alls who are legends in their own minds and perpetually running online interference for each other against any criticisms or attacks. I'm proud to say I never belonged to their goofy and amateurish "cabal." I even catch some of their "Mafia" members trolling on my website. Guess who this one is? Cat Urbigkit:
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Do I want to run with people like these predator bashing and hating, LGD abuse promoting women?
No thank you!
I prefer to reach out to and teach the serious, sincere, compassionate LGD user, the thinking farmer and rancher, who is not basing their efforts on public accolades and a popularity rating, who want to really understand these dogs and develop a relationship with them - not just use them like a hammer or a saw.
The people advocating the use of "yokes" do not seem to realize that an LGD cannot defend itself, let alone it's flock or herd, against a pack of coyotes, feral dogs, wolves, a bear or a mountain lion, wearing one of these constraining, ridiculous contraptions. But maybe they simply do not care?
The advocacy of yokes amongst the lazy has become so bad that even the recent Texas A&M LGD research and study advocated the use of yokes in the manual they produced (which is about what I would expect from this poor caliber of a study that was an exercise in how not to use LGDs - not the hyped success they want you to believe it was). They go on to promote lazy shepherding by saying it's often "not possible" to have good fencing. Well maybe it's time the owner/operator rethought where he has put his fencing, and his stock!? And culling the dog is NOT the solution. This is just more band-aid mentality from an incompetent scholar-run experiment, promoting more bad management of LGDs.
Why do people do this? Because they want a quick fix. Why do you see people on forums complaining about an aggressive dog they have muzzled, shock collared and crated for years into a psychotic hot mess?
Because they are ignorant. Because they are lazy. Because they are detached from their dogs. Because they have no intention of trying to understand their dogs, and only want a gadget that will save them from any effort or work.
LGDs are not a quick fix to anything. And yokes, and this kind of result from putting a dog in those yokes, is unacceptable. Period. Shame on Texas A&M. Shame on Cat Urbigkit and Louise Liebenberg and Jan Dohner for promoting yokes.
Liebenberg yoke on one of her dogs.
Aftermath of a Liebenberg dog getting trapped in a fence.
Shame on you, Louise Liebenberg!
"About
Liebenberg, I can say one thing, she was last year in Europe doing some
"lgd seminars", a friend of mine was going to one of those seminars and
one moment she stated that she selected her puppies by chosing the most
food aggressive ones and rejecting the others because those food
aggressive ones behave later as the best flock guardians.....to me a
very simple and silly way of doing aside of that wooden stick martyr
collar and other stupidities." - European LGD owner
All above: NOT the solution, NOT the right way to train and use LGDs.
The compassionate, thinking shepherd's alternative: Good, strong fences. Hands-on, regular check ups on stock and attentive shepherding by owners who participate, not procrastinate. Daily - not every two weeks! - checks on sheep, goats, cattle and working LGDs. Training that is patient, long term, consistent and recognition that there are no fast remedies to anything. Proactive and vigorous use of other predator deterrents, such as fladry, range riders, noise makers, hot wire fencing, etc., in addition to LGDs. Proactive measures and compassionate approaches that spare LGDs misery, and promote non-lethal predator control and deterrents. These are the hallmarks of a responsible, good rancher, farmer, shepherd, and LGD owner/operator. Please endeavor to be one.
