Mary Robbins’ Review of The Way of The Pack: Understanding and Living With Livestock Guardian Dogs

Mary Robbins’ Review

of

 The Way of The Pack:

Understanding and Living With

Livestock Guardian Dogs

Written in September 2018 by Brenda M. Negri

Mary Robbins of California and a long-time LGD and sheep rancher, has an excellent review on my book. Enjoy:

  This book by Brenda M. Negri is written in a short snappy way that reads like an instruction manual on the proper handling of livestock guardian dogs (LGDs). Brenda Negri explains the reasons for everything in an easy to understand way.  She brings 40 years of experience with livestock, predators, and study of LGDs both here and abroad and shares it with the reader.

This book is a must have for anyone wanting to purchase their first livestock guardian dog.  Brenda Negri begins by discussing the ancestral uses of guardian dogs to protect flocks and herds since earliest times, setting forth descriptions of how the dogs are used on open range situations as they accompany their masters’ herds through the mountains and valleys of their native lands.  She debunks the original theory that these dogs should not be socialized by human contact.  Instead she gives evidence not only that these dogs respond to socialization with their human owners and families, but they requireit for a healthy mind and psychological development. In fact, she shows the reader that these dogs historically were never alone with herds but have always been equal partners with the shepherd in protecting the flocks.  

I have owned livestock guardian dogs for 30 years.  Our first dog was purchased from a rancher in Idaho who sternly warned me against giving any attention to the puppy since it would “ruin” him as a livestock guardian.  Luckily my 4 children and husband ignored that prohibition, and Maverick became not only a great guardian, but a terrific member of our ranch family.  

She discusses training of the dog – training isnecessary for both LGDs andtheir owners if they are to reach their true potential. Being able to handle the dog calmly and safely is essential.  She gives great advice on nutrition, shelter, health, first aid, and protection of the guardian dog where the predator load is heavy.  She warns the first-time buyer that the first thing they need to invest in should be qualityfencing before ever bringing a dog home.  She talks about other ways to protect the flock or herd, both without a guardian dog and in conjunction with a guardian dog.  

She goes on to point out that these independent thinking guardian breeds are different than normal dog breeds, and a successful relationship between these dogs and the owner must be much closer than just putting the dog in a pasture with livestock.  The owner must be receptive to the dog and understand the behaviors they are seeing. She discusses body language between the dog and the owner.  The dog and owner must learn to trust and rely on each other for the partnership to be successful.  Then she emphasizes that there are differences in the way different breeds protect, and the importance of finding breeders that will mentor the new owner through any questions or problems when they have purchased their dog.   

            Experienced owners of LGDs will find a great deal of information in this book too.  Owners who have problems will find answers in here.  Owners doing the right thing will find support.  The reference section contains excellent additional reading sources. 

In particular, Negri seeks to show that many owners underestimate the number of dogs they should be using to protect their livestock. She points out that the number of LGDs should not be based on number of sheep or acres but should be based on number and type of predators and terrain. In the foothills of Los Angeles where I live, the coyote population is so high that I need at least 3 dogs for my 5 steep, brushy acres.  No lethal animal control measures are allowed within the city limits, so my dogs work hard to defend our sheep.   Even with a 3 LDG pack, we need to lock our flock up at night in order to give our hardworking dogs a rest.  My son, on the other hand, might only need one dog on his flat, open 5 acres outside Santa Maria.  I have lost several sheep to coyotes, necessitating the addition of the 3^rddog.  My son has not even lost one of his free-range chickens.  

            The Way of The Pack might be to some readers a misleading name.   “Pack” connotates danger.  A wolf pack, a feral dog pack, is threatening, but when documentaries on wolves refer to the pack as a family unit it is seen as nurturing and supportive. A pack has structure.  The pack is stronger by its very nature than only one or two individuals.  This is the idea that Brenda Negri is trying to get across in her book.  The livestock guardian dog “pack” is better equipped to protect because of its structure.  Every individual has its place in the pack and the pack works together to protect and defend.  There is safety in numbers when LGDs must defend against larger or more numerous predators.

            Nor does the livestock owner have to have a huge pack of 20 dogs.  The pack can be any number from 2 dogs to 4 to whatever number is needed for the predator load.  The owner must determine the number of LGDs necessary and ensure that the makeup of the individuals work together for the health of the pack, and its solidarity. Anyone with more than 2 LGDs has a “pack”.  It is the responsibility of the owner to determine necessary pack structure. 

            Guardian dogs will assign different roles to themselves. In the instance of danger, I have seen my own dogs split up, one dog running back to move the flock to safety and stand between its charges and danger, while the other goes out to face the perceived threat.  The pack cooperates and works together.

This then is The Way of The Pack, the correct number of the right dogs working together with their owner to protect their charges. The Way of the Pack, The Way of the Family.  As Negri puts it the owner is not an alpha ruling the pack, but a parent leading the family, caring for the family, and nurturing the family.

If you have, or are considering getting, an LGD, this book needs to be on your shelf.

This is an unsolicited review.  I did not receive any compensation for this review. I purchased this book myself. – Mary Robbins

The Way of The Pack: Understanding and Living With Livestock Guardian Dogs can be bought on Amazon.com - $35.00. 

"Show Me: Sand the Floor"

“Show Me: Sand the Floor”

From The Way of The Pack: Understanding and Living With Livestock Guardian Dogs by Brenda M. Negri, September 17, 2018. Get with your head, Grasshopper. My copy can be bought at Amazon.com for $35.00. It is worth priceless words, thought and thinking for all of you. Empty your cup.

"Lesson not just karate only.

Lesson for whole life.

Whole life have a balance.

Everything be better." — Mr. Miyagi

Disciplining an LGD should be consistent, and this includes what noise or words you choose to use. The owner needs to choose a sound that will be used consistently to let a pup - and later when he is grown, an adult - know when he has done something wrong. 

Dogs recognize guttural growls much quicker than spoken words because they sound more like their own language.

The late actor Pat Morita portrayed Mr. Miyagi in the popular The Karate Kid films. His humble martial arts instructor stole the film with cryptic and oft-times comical tidbits of profound wisdom and insight for his karate protege, “Daniel-son.”

During the scene in the link below, Mr. Miyagi corrects Daniel with guttural grunts and “tut-tut-tut” noises.

Because the sounds are very similar to the growling noise a dog makes when it reprimands a puppy, I began to mimic his grunts and have used it for years as my discipline “noise with my litters and adult dogs.” It works, and then some.

The best way to show you is to have you watch this short film clip in this You Tube, where Mr. Miyagi makes the sound several times. With a little practice, you can do it, too. Or, if you have the films on DVD, watch them and listen. “Wax on, wax off.”

Watch this clip closely and listen to Mr. Miyagi’s voice:

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=Bg21M2zwG9Q&frags=pl%2Cwn

Calling Out "Littermate Syndrome": A Lie Promoted by Inept LGD Owners

My first five LGDs: Sibling Maremma/Anatolian brothers Pak and Pala

Three Great Pyrenees siblings brother and sisters Petra, Peso and Pinta

I've honestly lost count of how many siblings I have raised and kept here over the years 

but it's way up in the double digits, and I know looking at a video that I was going to put up on my fledgling You Tube Channel the other day, I counted five sibling pairs on my ranch in just that one video. 

I do it successfully. So can you.

/////

Munchausen syndrome, is a factitious disorder wherein those affected feign disease, illness, or psychological trauma to draw attention, sympathy, or reassurance to themselves. 

Apparently there are increasing numbers of inept, inexperienced, and what appears to be very lazy LGD owners lurking in many Facebook LGD forums these days afflicted with Munchausen syndrome, in that they all seem to think something called "Littermate Syndrome" really exists. 

It does not. 

"Littermate Syndrome" is a myth, concocted by a dog trainer who refused to take the time to try to understand sibling pups and couldn't train dogs. So he/she concocted up a "syndrome" label to use, to get themselves off the hook and put all the blame on a sibling pair of pups. 

The Internet by the way, is loaded with bloggers bemoaning "Littermate Syndrome." In fact there are so many blogs with "Littermate Syndrome" posts on them as to make you gag. 

The anti-sibling "Littermate Syndrome" rants are usually posted by "dog trainers" with many letters after their names (read my lips: usually a huge red flag.) In a few of them that I've read and replied and posted to, arguing against the anti-littermate BS, I have been flooded with Emails from people who read my side of the story and said "Hey wait just a minute now, this lady sounds like she's done it, and done it a lot, and done it really well, and she actually makes sense..." 

Uh huh. 

Well, after rearing up - let's see, is it 12? 13? 14? or more? sibling pairs of LGDs here - I kind of could almost say I wrote the book on running LGD siblings.

These anti-sibling people, instead of holding up a mirror to themselves and asking themselves why it is they can't raise and train and successfully run sibling LGDs, LGD owners instead point the finger at the dogs and use the excuse of "Littermate Syndrome" as to why they can't work.

Running siblings has been and always will be my specialty. I've done it successfully going on a decade, because it's the only way to go. And many, many of my customers have followed suit. And the ones that turned around and bred my dogs that they bought from me (for good or bad) in turn promoted using siblings to their customers. Well I'll be darned. So I guess I can say, I convinced, corrupted and/or ruined a lot of people for life. Funny thing is, they, and their own customers, don't have sibling pair issues with LGDs. 

So if they can do it, so can you. 

Stop listening to the wrong people. And you'll find those wrong people packed in most Facebook LGD groups. 

Just in the past 30 days, three separate consulting customers of mine with - you guessed it - sibling pairs of LGDs - contacted me for advice and support after they heard or read on these Facebook groups that they "screwed up" buying siblings (they didn't.) 

One informs me that worse yet, there are actually people in these Facebook groups encouraging people with sibling pairs to rehome one of the siblings so they don't "fight, play, or chase stock." If that don't beat all. Gads. Thank God they came to me before taking such bad advice from yahoos.

Meanwhile, all three consulting customer's sibling LGDs are going great. Beyond great. They are amazing their owners with their calm ability and guarding instinct, their keen interest in livestock, and as the millennial types like to say, are "rocking the guardian dog thing."

Folks, running LGDs in the right numbers is key to success. One of the quickest ways to effect strength in a dog pack is to purchase sibling pairs or trios of pups. This in turn, supports the family pack dynamic and - you know I'm going to say this because I'm working on my book and getting it done - it's The Way of The Pack.

/////

From five years ago, a short article I wrote for Goat Rancher Magazine on Siblings:

Running Sibling Pairs of LGDs: 

Twice the Protection in Half the Time

Brenda M. Negri ©Copyright 2013

The author and GOAT RANCHER MAGAZINE, 

published December, 2013

All Rights Reserved

Discussing running sibling pairs of Livestock Guardian Dogs often elicits moans and groans of trepidation and uncertainty from many, but I have had nothing but success running sibling pairs of both genders in my pack, and regularly recommend buying litter mates to my customers whether its from me or someone else.

Dogs are by nature, pack animals.  They thrive in the company of other dogs, and their complex pack hierarchy is passed on from parent to pup. Puppies in a litter naturally grow up together bonding to one another, and what they learn from their parents and litter mates in the first several weeks of life molds them for what they will be in the future.  

When you remove a pup from a litter anywhere from 8-12 weeks of age, he will naturally be frightened, confused, and insecure for the first several hours or days, depending on how he was raised.  When you take two siblings at the same time, however, there is less stress when separated from the litter and parents.  They still have each other to lean on, and this bond only becomes stronger.  They also continue the education of the pack and their other siblings, with each other.  There is a continuity in ongoing education that would not happen if the pup leaves by itself.

Not only have I had success running sibling pairs of LGD’s, my customers have too.  Laura Spindler who owns three pups of mine, was pulling up to her five acre ranch home in Battle Mountain, Nevada, when she saw the feral dog pack in her back field.  Somehow, a gate chain had been left unfastened, and there was a gap big enough to allow a roaming feral pack of pit bull cross dogs into her property.  To Laura’s horror, the pack of dogs were making a bee-line for her little Scotty dog.  And just past him, was her goat herd.

It so happened that morning Laura had taken Violet and Sele, her two half sibling LGD youngsters, with her in the car when she took her husband to work for some ‘car time training’.  Both 8 months old, half Spanish Mastiff, and Maremma and Anatolian, the two girls got wind of the wild dogs immediately.

“It was almost surreal”, Laura recalls. “They never made a sound.  They both bolted out of the car as soon as I opened the door, and headed straight for the dog pack.”

The lead dog was about to jump the Scottie when the two LGD pups “hit him like a freight train”, Spindler says.  The pack froze, then scattered, heading back for the open gate, including the large lead dog.

“But the girls had other plans for the leader,” she continued, “Sele grabbing a rear leg, and Violet his throat” and literally “drug him back through the fence into our field.”  The siblings proceeded to take the lead dog down, eventually snapping a rear leg, and sent him packing on three legs.  

“The dogs never came back after that.  And I swear, had I only one LGD, the story would have ended, I’m convinced, quite differently” Spindler says.  “I have seen how powerful a pair can be together, even at only 8 months of age, and I truly had twice the amount of protection in half the time compared to starting with just one pup.”

Many people claim that two pups raised up together will bond only to one another, and not to livestock.  This is simply not true, and I’ve never had that happen in all the sibling pairs that I’m running.  Good guardian dog pups from good, proven working stock will guard by instinct with plenty of guidance and correction and encouragement from their owners, with or without their siblings. 

Furthermore, as they progress and age, siblings present a much stronger deterrent to predators at a much earlier stage because there is indeed, strength in numbers.  Where as one pup could be viewed as an easy meal for a hungry coyote pack, two pups will present much more of a formidable challenge and threat.  As Laura Spindler found out, a team of pups can tackle much bigger problems than just one alone; what her young 8 month old pups accomplished fending off a feral dog pack is something that is usually done by much older, seasoned dogs.  Running siblings can be done successfully, and is something to consider especially for those experiencing heavy predator loads where one LGD simply is not enough.

Advantages:

§  Pups are already bonded to one another thus there is no time needed for introductions

§  Two LGD’s present a much more formidable obstacle to threats, predators and trespassers than one thus getting protection for your stock, sooner

§  Two siblings will back each other up: one will work while one rests; less stress on the dog means a healthier dog that lives and works longer for you

§  You get all the puppyhood training and ‘ups and downs’ over with in one fell swoop instead of stretching it out longer for two separately purchased pups

§  You can run two males, two females, or one of each sex together as sibling pairs