Our first Guardians were an older pair from a farm in Maine, Odin and Flower. Odin was a Pyrenees/Komondor mix and much loved. Flower was something of legend. No fence held her long, and one morning she showed up where one of the sisters was working, dropping a coyote head at her feet -- a trophy. Flower was originally a rescue before we got her, with an unknown history of abuse, and was not reliable around strangers. She mellowed the longer she lived with us and lived a productive life with the goats she loved until she died at fourteen years old -- a venerable age for a large breed dog.
When Odin died in 2008 we sought two companions for Flower. The first, Max, came as a 6-month-old puppy. The second, Duffy, came to us in 2009, and the pair learned the ropes under Flower's tutelage. Duffy's initial assignment was to guard our flock of Blue-faced Leicester sheep. When Max moved on because of health issues and we let go of our dual-species venture of raising both sheep and goats, Duffy joined Flower with the goats. At her passing he became sole Guardian and worked solo for many years.
In 2016 we bought a 3 month-old puppy, Dixie Belle from Scatter Joy Farm in Townsend, Massachusetts. We quickly learned that affable Duffy was not nearly as effective a mentor for Dixie that Flower had been for him. Because of Duffy's advancing age, we sought a second male dog and, after trying a couple of Pyr males who proved unsuitable, decided to breed Dixie Belle. There were eight puppies in Dixie's first litter: we have kept one of the males and named him Morgan. The others were placed for us by North Country Canine Services, who provided the sire.
Raising a puppy has had its challenges and we hope to have Morgan and Dixie fully operational as a working pair in 2020.