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. 

LGD YOKES: Say NO to the Use of Cruel Contraptions on Livestock Guardian Dogs

It's time to publicly name and shame lazy shepherds, academics and researchers 
who are using and advocating the use of these and other cruel devices 
on Livestock Guardian Dogs.

© 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.