25/05/2026
Why We Chose Livestock Guardian Dogs
A journey from fences and fear… to working with nature
I grew up on a sheep property on the Western Downs, and some of my earliest memories are of checking fences and sheep.
Back then, sheep and predators were just part of the same story — whether you liked it or not.
We ran 6-foot mesh fencing with an outside off-rigger wire, which at the time was considered good protection. But if you’ve spent any time in sheep country, you know fences are only ever as strong as their weakest point.
Kangaroos would hit the fence and punch holes through it.
The off-rigger would earth out.
And all it took was one weakness… one opportunity… and something would find its way in.
Chasing dingoes wasn’t unusual — it was expected.
As a teenager, one of my jobs was to round up the sheep every afternoon and lock them into the bore yards for the night. It didn’t matter that we had fencing — night time was generally when things would happened.
A memory that never leaves you
One night, I remember bringing the mob in and noticing a ewe that had just lambed twins — within the hour.
She was only about 50 metres from the night paddock.
I made the call to leave her there.
She was close. She had her lambs. I thought she’d be safe.
The next morning, all three were dead.
Still in the same spot.
That memory has stayed with me my entire life.
At the time, I hated dingoes.
And if you’ve ever witnessed loss like that — repeatedly — it’s hard not to.
But I also blamed myself.
That’s something people don’t always understand — farmers carry those decisions. We care deeply about our animals. You don’t do this job if you don’t.
Fast forward 30 years
When Shane and I bought our own farm, I knew I wanted to run sheep again.
But we were stepping into a very different landscape.
Our property borders a national park — prime predator country.
When we first moved here, seeing dingoes during the day wasn’t unusual.
Sometimes in groups of 8… even up to 12.
Our fencing? Average at best.
(And like most farms, upgrading it all at once wasn’t realistic.)
So we had a choice to make:
Do we fight the same battle the same way…
or do we try something different?
Looking for a better way
We looked at all the usual options.
Donkeys were considered — but with the amount of rich feed we get here, even our horses can founder in certain seasons. It just wasn’t the right fit for our environment.
And then Shane said something that changed everything:
“Why don’t we fight fire with fire?”
Dogs.
Starting with Maremma's
We began with two Maremma pups from proven working lines — dogs that had been raised in paddocks.
And straight away, we saw something different.
These girls weren’t like typical dogs.
They didn’t chase stock.
They didn’t play with lambs.
They simply settled with them.
By 6 months, they were out working in the paddocks during the day, and we brought them into a secure area at night while they matured.
There were challenges — crawling through fences, testing boundaries — but with time, consistency, and patience, they found their place.
Discovering Anatolians
Then one day, scrolling through Facebook, I came across a breed I hadn’t really considered before:
Anatolian Shepherds.
Curiosity got the better of us.
So we headed down to New South Wales to have a look.
A few weeks later, we came home with two pups.
And looking back now…
It was one of the best decisions we’ve ever made.
A complete shift in thinking
Livestock Guardian Dogs didn’t just change how we protect our sheep.
They changed how we think about predators.
Instead of constantly reacting…
instead of chasing, trapping, or living in that cycle of loss…
we created a system where our livestock are protected 24/7.
The dogs live with the sheep.
They patrol.
They deter.
They create a presence that predators simply don’t want to challenge.
And the result?
Less stress on the sheep.
Less stress on us.
And far fewer losses.
From conflict to coexistence
Do predators still exist here?
Absolutely.
We still see them.
We still hear them.
But now, instead of being in constant conflict, we’ve created a buffer — a working system that allows both livestock and wildlife to exist in the same landscape.
Why it matters
For us, Livestock Guardian Dogs aren’t just a tool.
They are a long-term investment in:
Animal welfare
Farm sustainability
Mental wellbeing
And a more balanced way of farming in predator-prone country
They’ve allowed us to run sheep where, realistically, it would have been incredibly difficult otherwise.
And that memory?
I still think about that ewe and her lambs.
But today, I also know we’ve built something different.
Something better.
A system where fewer producers have to stand where I once stood —
wishing they’d made a different decision the night before.
If there’s one thing we’ve learnt, it’s this:
You don’t have to keep doing things the way they’ve always been done.
