Maremma Sheepdog or Great Pyrenees?

[BermudaBahia]

Hi all! Newbie coming through!

I have had my 4 acre family-owned farm for about 5 years now. We started with a few pet rabbits, to breeding show rabbits, to now having three show/pleasure horses, two pigs, a goat, thirty chickens, seven guinea pigs, and twenty rabbits. I breed Havanas for meat and show now, occasionally making crosses for pets. The cavies were for show, and the pigs and goat are the destruction crew for overgrowth and scraps.

Though we're looking to downsize on the small animals, the herd is going to grow in size again... I want to get more goats and sheep to help keep the plants and vines from overtaking the place. But we have teenage vandals nearby (cowards, not quite a bad type), and predators such as coyotes, bobcats, loose dogs, and raccoons. We had a big loss early this year when a loose dog killed about 10 show chickens in the span of two days, also breaking through mesh and fence. The dog was a German shorthaired pointer, fabulous, but had a very high prey drive and the owner could not keep him contained.

So I want to get a livestock guardian, mostly as a deterrent, as we don't really have determined predators here. My neighbor has a donkey, and while I like donkeys, I would rather have a dog... I already have three horses, I don't want another hooved animal beside a goat or sheep. I live in central Florida; hot, humid, stormy Florida. I've been looking into Anatolians, Maremmas, and Great Pyrenees dogs; the only LGDs we have being bred round here. I could only find show ring bred Anatolians, so scratched them off my list, and found that the GP dogs here are both AKC registered and have working lines, while the available Maremma sheepdogs are all working dogs living outside with herds but rarely have a pedigree. I don't really care for a pedigree, I only want a dog fit for the LG job with decent health.

What's your take on Maremmas and the Pyrenees? How are they different? Which do you think would be better for my set up?

 

[goatgurl]

Over the past 17 years i have had several LGDs. The Anatolians were my first love, strong, brave and intelligent. They made it a point to guard both the goats and us and with one exception all stayed home. I have had one GP and though I have talked to many people who have owned them and love them the one I had had a problem staying home. I guess she thought the world was her place to guard but to me if they aren't with my herd they can't guard my herd and she had to find another place to live. I got tired of having to go haul her home from down the road or across the hill. I couldn't find an Anatolian at the time and now have a Maremma and love her to death. I didn't know there were different types of guardians, those who guard the entire territory and flock dogs who stay with their flock. The maremma is a flock dog and I love it. This spring I couldn't figure out why the goats weren't going out to pasture of a morning like normal and then realized they were use to the Anatolian taking them out and were waiting for the maremma to do the same but she was happy to just stay in the barnyard with them so I had to teach them all to go out together. Made me laugh at the young dog, the old goats and me.
I have known folks who used donkeys or lamas as guardians most worked out ok but a couple of farms reported that the donkeys or lamas got to the point that they didn't want humans in the pasture either. they would have to lock them up before they could work with the goats. Not something I would want to do. We have kids, grandkids, friends and neighbors around a lot so we socialize all our dogs and they seem to know the difference between friend and foe. And in my humble opinion a pedigree doesn't make any better guardian. we always spay or neuter our dogs anyway. Good luck with your search.