Featured Animal

Simon
Anatolian Shepherd (medium coat)

​

Although Ginger is only half Great Pyrenees, and is smaller than the average LGD, she is one of the best guardians we have ever had watching over our livestock. Ginger was purchased by a goat rancher when she was a 7-week old puppy; the man who bought her saw her mom on-site, and says the mom is a big gorgeous, solid white full-blood Great Pyrenees. When he bought Ginger, he thought she was just a badger-faced Pyr, but as she grew up, it became obvious that she's not a full Pyrenees. Our best guess is that her dad might have been a Red Heeler. But that's just a guess, and she doesn't show any real herding tendencies. Her first human dad didn't get her spayed, and when Ginger turned up pregnant, he didn't want to deal with puppies, so he surrendered Ginger to us one Saturday, and the following Monday, Ginger delivered a very big litter of puppies.

After the puppies were weaned, we had Ginger spayed and microchipped, so she is ready for adoption. BUT, we have been hesitant to list her on any of our adoption sites because she is a fence-climber. We invested a small fortune to fence our place, and we have fences that range from 4' (for interior cross-fencing) to 5' "no climb" horse fencing, to 6' chain link. We have seen Ginger climb over all of it. At least here at our place, when Ginger goes over the fence, she's still in a rural area, and we have tried to make sure that our closest neighbors (most of whom are at least 1/2 mile away) know that she's ours and that she's both friendly to humans and safe with livestock. So if Ginger leaves our property, she's still fairly safe.

In addition to being a great livestock guardian, Ginger is also a wonderful companion dog. She is house-trained and spends plenty of time napping on the sofa. She gets along well with other dogs, is a friend to our barn cats, and of course is completely safe with our goats and sheep. Ginger was here when our donkey foal Fiona was born, and they have a special bond. The only animals that we don't leave her alone with are our chickens. She won't go over the fence to bother them, but when we tested her with our chickens, she was fine with the hens, then attacked the rooster. She didn't harm him, and we THINK that she attacked him because he was mounting a hen rather vigorously. We think that Ginger thought the rooster was attacking the hen, and she was intervening for the hen's safety. Even though she can go over any fence, Ginger does NOT go over the fence and into the chicken yard, so we don't think she really has a prey drive toward them. But if you have free-ranging chickens, Ginger may not be the right match for you. Otherwise, she is a wonderful all-around farm dog.

We will be very cautious about choosing a home for Ginger, because we want to be sure that her fence-climbing won't put her at risk in a new home.  If you think your place is perfect for Ginger and she is perfect for your family, please submit your application on our website.