Dogs used to protect domestic sheep from predators are expected to be attentive to the animals they guard. However, 40% of the sheep producers cooperating in our experimental program to assess the potential of Old World dogs to deter predation in the United States have expressed dissatisfaction with their dog's attentiveness. In contrast, European shepherds appear satisfied with their dogs. In order to find the causes of this apparent difference, a series of measured observations was made in Italy, and data on 4 different strains of imported guarding dogs working in the U.S. were analyzed. The results indicate that the 4 strains are significantly different in attentiveness, although overall it was remarkably similar to the actual attentiveness of Italian dogs. The attentiveness of livestock guarding dogs can be maximized for U.S. sheep producers by (1) selecting strains for superior attentive behavior and (2) adjusting management systems slightly to take advantage of the dogs' capabilities. This material was digitized as part of a cooperative project between the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. The Journal of Range Management archives are made available by the Society for Range Management and the University of Arizona Libraries. Contact lbry-journals@email.arizona.edu for further information. Migrated from OJS platform August 2020
Scholarly peer-reviewed articles published by the Society for Range Management. Access articles on a rolling-window basis from vol. 1, 1948 up to 5 years from the current year. Formerly Journal of Range Management (JRM). More recent content is available by subscription from SRM.