Livestock Guardian Dogs.

Border Collies move the sheep. Guardian dogs keep them safe when we aren't looking. Between them, the flock has coverage twenty-four hours a day.

We have livestock guardian dogs that live out in the fields with the sheep. We prefer guardian dogs to llamas or other guard animals because they distinguish between herding dogs and predators, because they work together, and because they actively protect their charges rather than simply chasing predators off.

Our LGDs live with the sheep — not the people — and do a job that is older than almost any other kind of dog work. Their job is to make the farm a bad place for a coyote to bring its friends.

More detail coming soon — the breeds we use, how they're raised, and why an LGD isn't the same kind of dog as a Border Collie despite both being called “farm dogs.”