EVERYBODY'S Working Except Val

On the way to town there's this field full of sheep. Sometimes they're shorn, sometimes they're fluffy, and sometimes they're gone. I don't know if the owner buys and sells them, or if he keeps them put up for a week or two for shearing. But mostly, they're out in the field. Lately, I've noticed an addition: a guard dog.

I am fascinated by working animals. How they are born and/or socialized to know their job, with some human training help for certain duties. I got a picture of this canine today on the way home.

Usually, he's inside the fence, but today he was out. He wasn't far from his flock, though.

They were just on the other side of that driveway. You may think this fella has it easy, watching after a couple of sheep. But there are more that those few along the fence!

At first I thought this was a Great Pyrenees, even though I know they're much fluffier and heavier. I also thought this dog would round up the sheep and herd them to different pastures. If what my estranged BFF Google told me is correct, he just guards them from predators. Not a member of the herding class, but the guardian class. Who knew? Learn something every day!

The best I can tell, this is an Akbash dog. I could be way off, but by looking at pictures and descriptions, that's the best I came up with. Heh, heh. He's probably just a stray mutt that I've romanticized into a working dog. If my hunch is correct, though, he cost a pretty penny. Here's a link to a farm that sells such beasts.

I found it interesting that a person can't train these dogs to guard livestock. They learn it from other dogs. AND the kind of livestock they'll guard depends on the kind they were raised with! In the description, it said some dogs will EAT the chickens, but other dogs will GUARD the chickens. That's what we need right there. A guard dog to keep the neighbor mutts from eating our chickens.

Not for $1400, though! You can buy a lot of replacement chickens for $1400.