As a breeder and trainer of Maremma Sheepdogs and farm owner with a variety of animals there's a lot to do and keep up with. I usually go out multiple times a day to take care of the animals as well as for quick checks on everyone. A little while ago I went out for one of those “quick checks” and it turned into a couple hour project that left me sweaty and muddy and not in the same mood I was in when I left the house.

First I decided to move the two litters of 12 week old puppies to a different pasture so they could get exposure to some different livestock as well as different sights and sounds in a new location. Unbeknownst to me there was a water trough that had been leaking a badly all day and had made a big mud hole. When I went to fix it I sank up past my ankles in mud, being lucky to get out without falling. Of course the puppies found the mud to be very exciting to play in and were soon covered in it. So much for my plan to photograph them for the website. 🤦🏻‍♀️😆

Next I decided to make a loop around the perimeter fence on my new Cricket Mini Golf Cart. I just got it this week and am finding it very useful for zipping from place to place, hauling feed and supplies and making quick checks on everyone. It's also great for doling out treats to all the dogs as they greet me at the fence.

So while I was making my rounds a fight broke out between two young female dogs. One is in heat and it’s just a normal thing for girls in heat to be cranky. I probably should not have put them together but they normally get along so I thought they would be ok. It was, until it wasn't. I beeped on the horn to try to distract them with no luck, so I drove to the other side of the perimeter fence. By that point the fight was over and they were in separate corners, licking their minor wounds. So I separated them, to ensure we wouldn't have a repeat performance. No real damage done. Just hormonal teenaged girls acting out.

While I was moving them I found one of my call ducks dead in the pasture behind the barn. Not in the same pasture these girls were in but in with three different young dogs. One is a 22 month old female and the others were 7 and 9 month old pups. Call ducks can fly so it probably wandered in where it didn't belong. I don’t know if the pups killed the duck or if it just died from some other cause and I found it there. It could’ve been either but it's very likely the pups decided to play with it and things got out of hand. Very sad for the duck. I do love these little ducks.

But this is what I’m not going to do. I’m not going to write a post or make a video about how "bad" or what "disappointments" these two female dogs are for fighting. I won't call these three juvenile dogs "failures" or "badly bred" for possibly killing a duck. They are all just puppies and young dogs. They are behaving normally for their ages and developmental stages. So I’m not going to label them as failures because they are not failures. Nor will I compare these young dogs to my older, mature LGD's who rarely fight and wouldn't dream of killing a duck. That's not fair at all. That's like parents who compare one child to another. Reprehensible.

Am I happy that I have a dead duck? No. Am I happy that my dogs got into a fight? No. But it would be very irresponsible of me if I did blame the dogs for their normal dog behavior, especially since I'm really the one to blame. I should have known not to put those two females together while one is in heat. I could maybe have done more to prevent the duck from wandering in with the pups. It's my responsibility as their owner to set my dogs up for success and to protect the dogs from each other and the livestock from rambunctious young dogs. Mistakes will happen so rather than beating myself up I'll learn to do better next time. But if I blamed the dogs for acting like dogs I would be guilty of betraying dogs that I love. And I will never do that, no matter how frustrated I get with them, and trust me, I do get frustrated sometimes. I'm only human.

But even more importantly, because I am a breeder, trainer, farmer and a person people do look to for advice on LGD's it would be very, very irresponsible of me to blame my dogs for normal dog behavior, as well as for my own mistakes. And that's what Abby's owner either doesn't understand or doesn't care about. When people see you as an "expert" on a particular topic you have a great responsibility to be very careful what you do and say. It really can't be all about getting "clicks" and "likes". It can't be only about entertainment, making money, gaining followers, selling videos and T-shirts.

Whether you have earned it or not, people are looking to you to help them make important decisions about their own animals, such as whether their perfectly normal puppy who may have killed a chicken, chased their goats too often or fought with another dog is worth keeping or not. Your words literally could mean the difference between life and death for innocent dogs. Are you going to sell those dogs out just to gain more money and fame? Or are you going to be responsible, encouraging and uplifting with your words?

I know you will never hear me calling one of my dogs a "failure", a "disappointment" or a "bad dog". I implore Abby's owner to not only stop calling her those horrible names, but to remove those horrible videos where HE failed Abby from his channel. I know it will mess up his SEO and cost him money but so what? What's more important to him? Getting "clicks" and money and gaining followers? Or doing right by poor, sweet Abby and other innocent dogs like her? We shall find out.

And remember, if you are bothered by this unfair treatment of Abby and other dogs like her, you have power, too. You can advocate for her. You can speak up. You can share my blog posts about her. You can demand he take down those abhorrent videos and not make any more. You can implore him to treat Abby better and to either seek professional help in training her or send her home. And you can unsubscribe, unlike and unfollow him. You have power to help Abby and dogs like her. You really do.

NOTE: I am no longer taking comments on this post or defending my position. Since the “Spilling the Tea” video Abby’s owner put out I have been inundated with hundreds of comments to my blog and social media as well as by phone and email. Many were kind and supportive but many most definitely were not. I have been called every name in the book and even been told to kill myself. I have been threatened and harassed relentlessly. I have also had countless people try to argue with me and convince me that I am wrong or must not have watched the videos. In fact I did watch them several times, and I know a lot of background information that the viewers don’t know and I can’t share for legal reasons or because I’m protecting the privacy of certain people.

I also know perfectly well how to use quotation marks but was trying to put emphasis on certain important points. More like “air quotes”. But since that bothered a lot of you I fixed that. The ones I left are actual quotes.

Another thing the fans keep insisting is that I started all this. That is 100% false. This was started by Abby’s owner with the “Our Puppy Had Surgery” and it progressed from there. Go read the comments in that video if you don’t believe me. The fans had some really choice things to say about me and their leader let them do it. That was the point of the video and with each video after that he continued to push his narrative that I had somehow cheated him and that Abby was badly bred. (An insult to any breeder.) I truly tried to ignore it and wait for things to settle down but there came a point when I could no longer do that. That point was the video in which Abby’s owner called me a puppy mill and placed “Failure” next to her photo. I know it was clickbait, but it was not ok with me for him to do that, and I spoke up.

The fans keep insisting that Abby’s owner has a right to his opinion and a right to share his opinion, while simultaneously saying I do not have the same right. That double standard is ridiculous. I have the same right to free speech that Abby’s owner does. Just because some people don’t like what I have to say that doesn’t mean I should not say what I feel needs to be said.

I have spent a lot of time defending myself to his fans, trying to explain my position to the people who disagree with me and want to defend their star. Obviously I’m not going to change anyone’s mind and I am done trying to do so. People just keep asking me questions I’ve already answered and arguing the same arguments over and over. It’s not helping anyone: not me, not Abby, not her owner and not her fans. It’s pointless and we all have better things to do with our time. At least I do. So as of now we will just have to agree to disagree. If you have kind or constructive things to say you’re welcome to contact me privately. I’ll be happy to discuss the matter with polite people. But if you just want to argue or be nasty I will delete your comments and block you. I’m done letting hateful people ruin things for everyone else.

Once upon a time a lovely Maremma Sheepdog named Marcella had 8 lovely puppies, 4 girls and 4 boys. Marcella's owner also raises dairy goats and she had experienced a lot of problems with Navel Ill in her baby goats the year before. Navel Ill is a really horrible disease in which a baby animal contracts bacteria through its umbilical cord. This infection can travel through the baby animal's body, settling in its joints, causing crippling pain, high fever and even death. The only cure for navel ill is very strong antibiotics, pain medicines and anti-inflammatories, but even these medicines themselves can cause lasting damage to the baby. 

Now the way to prevent Navel Ill is by spraying the umbilical cord with a strong solution made for this purpose, as well as to ensure the babies get adequate colostrum. Of course Marcella's owner always took these steps but after still having multiple kids get sick she found she needed to be even more diligent, being sure each baby goat was sprayed multiple times over the first couple of days, until the cords dried up. She did this and was successful, and had no more cases of Navel Ill the following year.

The time came for Marcella to have her puppies and her owner, being worried about the puppies contracting Navel Ill, decided she would be extra diligent with them, too. Since Marcella is a Maremma all her puppies are white and as each new puppy was born it was often hard to tell which was the new puppy and which were born earlier. So each time that Marcella's owner checked on the puppies and found there were more than there had been earlier she simply sprayed all the puppies with navel dip.

Navel dip, if you don't know, is the stuff that prevents Navel Ill. It comes in a spray bottle and is bright orange and oily and very messy. When you spray it on a white, wet puppy it gets everywhere: all over the puppies, all over the mom, all over the bedding and all over Marcella's owner. It stains skin and fur and clothing, but that's ok, so long as the babies don't get sick. 

So as each puppy was born Marcella's owner sprayed all the puppies again, and sometimes she sprayed them in between, just for good measure. It was really silly now that she thinks about it, but at the time she was really worried about those puppies and it seemed like a really good idea. The puppies that were born first did really get a lot of orange staining because they were sprayed so many times, so much that it took several weeks to wear off, but it seemed like a good tradeoff. One little girl puppy, who would later be named Abby (But started out as Purple Girl, because she had purple paint on her fur to mark her. That's how Marcella's owner knows it was Abby.) was so covered in the stuff she looked like a white and orange puppy, instead of a white puppy.

What Marcella's owner didn't know was that every time she sprayed the puppies with the navel dip, Marcella, being the good mommy that she is, wanted to get that icky, smelly stuff off of her puppies. So she kept licking the puppies and her owner kept spraying them, over and over until all the puppies were born, at which point it looked like a pumpkin juice truck had exploded in the whelping box. But at least the puppies wouldn't get Navel Ill.

Unfortunately, what did happen was this. Some of the puppies, who were born earlier and had been sprayed and licked over and over, ended up with hernias, which are teeny little holes in their abdomens, where the umbilical cords were. What Marcella's owner didn't realize was that all that licking by Marcella caused damage to that delicate navel area, resulting in hernias in some of the puppies.

Luckily hernias are almost never dangerous to dogs. A dog is hundreds of times more likely to die of cancer, bloat or any number of things than a hernia. Most close up on their own and if they don't they can be surgically repaired either during a spay or neuter or during a PennHip procedure if it's a breeding dog, or they often don't need to be repaired at all. Like humans, dogs can live healthy, happy lives with hernias and even have babies. Most serious and knowledgeable breeders and veterinarians don't think they are anything to be concerned about, even in breeding dogs. In fact, you can even show dogs with hernias. There are a few people who still believe that hernias are "very dangerous" but there are people who believe "aliens are real", too. It takes all kinds these days.

Knowing this, and respecting this, Marcella's owner told everyone that was supposed to buy one of Marcella's puppies to DO THEIR OWN RESEARCH on hernias, and gave everyone a choice between a puppy with a hernia, or a puppy without one. If there weren't enough puppies without hernias in the gender they wanted she let them choose a puppy from the next litter. Some chose to wait for the next litter, some chose a puppy without a hernia from Marcella's litter, and some chose a puppy WITH a hernia from Marcella's litter.

One lucky man was given FIVE puppies to choose from, a puppy from Marcella's litter that didn't have a hernia, a puppy from Marcella's litter who did have a hernia but who was a beautiful, sweet puppy, just like Cinderella, and FOUR puppies from the younger litter. The puppy with the hernia was the breeder's favorite puppy and the "fairest of all". She wanted to keep that puppy for herself but wanted the man to have all the choices so she included her favorite puppy in the lot of puppies. He chose the breeder's favorite, the puppy with the hernia, and named her Abby. 

All the puppies went to their new homes and everyone was happy with their puppies EXCEPT Abby's owner. The man who had been given the most puppies to choose from soon decided he had been sold a "defective" puppy. It's not clear what new "research" he came across that he hadn't come across when he did his research the first time, when Marcella's owner told him "do your own research", but he must have found a lot of really compelling, scientific studies. Or maybe a witch or a bunch of wicked fairies whispered nasty things in his ear or put him under a spell. It's hard to say. 

But, unfortunately, he decided that "he had been robbed". He decided that his "hopes of breeding his own puppies were dashed" because of Abby's hernia. Never mind the fact that Marcella's owner hadn't given him permission to breed Abby. Now this could possibly have been worked out somehow, if only he had come to Marcella's owner and discussed matters with her. If only he had talked to her she would have reminded him about what she had told him about how the puppies got the hernias in the first place, and that it was not a "big deal" anyway. But sadly, he did not. Instead he decided to start a war against Abby's breeder, and even when she tried to remind him of the previous discussion about the hernias he wouldn't listen. All he did was demand money, because he felt "he had been robbed". Again, I think maybe witches or evil fairies had him under their spell, but I can't be sure. 

So Abby's owner continued to make "mean videos" about Abby's breeder and eventually he became so upset that he did a really sad thing. He spayed Abby, so she could never have puppies. The beautiful dog that Abby's breeder had originally planned to keep for herself will never have puppies. Which is too bad, because if Abby's owner had come to her breeder they probably could have worked something out. Maybe he could have even found a new prince for Abby to marry and have puppies. But Abby, whose hernia wasn't even "genetic" or a "big deal" to begin with, and in fact, who doesn't even have a hernia anymore, since it was repaired 2 months ago, will never have puppies. And Abby's owner's dreams of breeding dogs truly have been dashed, by his own hand. 

And, as if that weren't bad enough, all the people in the kingdom realized that the Emperor has no clothes. The End.

NOTE: I am no longer taking comments on this post or defending my position. Since the “Spilling the Tea” video Abby’s owner put out I have been inundated with hundreds of comments to my blog and social media as well as by phone and email. Many were kind and supportive but many most definitely were not. I have been called every name in the book and even been told to kill myself. I have been threatened and harassed relentlessly. I have also had countless people try to argue with me and convince me that I am wrong or must not have watched the videos. In fact I did watch them several times, and I know a lot of background information that the viewers don’t know and I can’t share for legal reasons or because I’m protecting the privacy of certain people.

I also know perfectly well how to use quotation marks but was trying to put emphasis on certain important points. More like “air quotes”. But since that bothered a lot of you I fixed that. The ones I left are actual quotes.

Another thing the fans keep insisting is that I started all this. That is 100% false. This was started by Abby’s owner with the “Our Puppy Had Surgery” and it progressed from there. Go read the comments in that video if you don’t believe me. The fans had some really choice things to say about me and their leader let them do it. That was the point of the video and with each video after that he continued to push his narrative that I had somehow cheated him and that Abby was badly bred. (An insult to any breeder.) I truly tried to ignore it and wait for things to settle down but there came a point when I could no longer do that. That point was the video in which Abby’s owner called me a puppy mill and placed “Failure” next to her photo. I know it was clickbait, but it was not ok with me for him to do that, and I spoke up.

The fans keep insisting that Abby’s owner has a right to his opinion and a right to share his opinion, while simultaneously saying I do not have the same right. That double standard is ridiculous. I have the same right to free speech that Abby’s owner does. Just because some people don’t like what I have to say that doesn’t mean I should not say what I feel needs to be said.

I have spent a lot of time defending myself to his fans, trying to explain my position to the people who disagree with me and want to defend their star. Obviously I’m not going to change anyone’s mind and I am done trying to do so. People just keep asking me questions I’ve already answered and arguing the same arguments over and over. It’s not helping anyone: not me, not Abby, not her owner and not her fans. It’s pointless and we all have better things to do with our time. At least I do. So as of now we will just have to agree to disagree. If you have kind or constructive things to say you’re welcome to contact me privately. I’ll be happy to discuss the matter with polite people. But if you just want to argue or be nasty I will delete your comments and block you. I’m done letting hateful people ruin things for everyone else.

In late September of 2021 I was contacted by a man who was looking for a female Maremma puppy. He told me he had a male Maremma and that he made videos about his dog on YouTube, TikTok and Instagram that I should check out. I had never heard of him or his farm or show. He also sent me a pedigree on his dog, which I immediately knew looked off. My Maremmas are MSCA registered and this was not a MSCA pedigree, and some of the entries looked incomplete. I said as much to him and he said he would send me a better copy. He did, though it was still not an official MSCA pedigree and still looked off. I had a suspicion that his male dog was not registered, but was willing to give him the benefit of the doubt and explore further.

I did eventually watch some of his videos and was immediately impressed. They were fairly entertaining, while also having a slight educational element to them. There was a lot he was getting wrong, especially in relation to Maremmas, such as calling his Maremma his "guard dog", when Maremmas are, in fact, Livestock Guardian Dogs. Big difference, but at the time I thought his mistakes were harmless, if a bit eccentric. I do not think that any more, not at all.

I was more impressed by his lovely male Maremma than anything, and who wouldn't be? He is a beautiful dog and obviously a great LGD, there's no denying that. I did feel very sorry that he had spent the first three years of his life with no LGD companion and thought he looked lonely and sad. I strongly believe that all LGD's should have a partner and I decided that I would like to help both the man and his dog, by sending one of my California puppies to Vermont. I'll confess that I also thought I could get some good publicity from working with this man, though I certainly felt that would work both ways. He does have a huge fan base of over a half a million subscribers but a lot of his fans seem to be city folk living vicariously through him. I have more professional connections with real farmers, dog breeders and trainers and much more experience and expertise with the breed, so I was happy to promote him to my clients and connections. It seemed like a match made in heaven! What could go wrong? A lot, apparently.

Right off the bat I had many, many people telling me to be wary of this man and advising me not to sell him a puppy. My husband told be "it could go very badly". A friend of mine on the BOD of the MSCA said almost the exact same thing. He said that "the man has a bully pulpit if he wanted to use it and that was dangerous". Another very good friend of mine, a highly respected professional dog trainer and knowledgeable expert in the breed, "couldn't stand his videos for their misinformation" as well as the style that didn't appeal to her. A former high ranking BOD member of the MSCA told me that "the MSCA, not ________, should be the experts on the breed".

And most telling of all, the head of a very large, national Maremma rescue organization told me this "This dude is an unknown with an unregistered dog and half a million followers.... This is a time bomb to me after all of these years of educating folks on the rescue page. I had 70 people ask to join the rescue today. (After his first video of Abby came out.) Also remember - this is his first Maremma." and then she added, "And the information he disseminates can really help us or mislead people - you know how vital experience and knowledge is. These dogs are not for everyone."

Oh how I wish I had listened to her. Oh how I wish I had listened to all of them. Sadly, I did not.

I did, in fact, agree to sell him a puppy. The puppies were born in early October and he started making videos about the puppies and me at that time, calling me a very ethical breeder and pointing out all the things that proved what he said was true. Practices that I am still implementing in my program today. Nothing at all has changed about me except this man's opinion and story. So either he was wrong then or he is wrong now. I invite you to do some poking around on my website and social media accounts, ask me any questions you wish and you be the judge.

But back then things continued to go well overall. The puppies grew, he continued to make glowing videos about me and my farm and his puppy and to make plans to come get her. Communication with him was often difficult, as he always took a long time to respond to my emails and usually didn't answer half of my questions. I excused it as him being "famous and busy" but really, it should have been a sign and I should not have been willing to overlook something in a famous customer that I wouldn't overlook in any other customer. And that lack of attention to detail (demonstrated again below) and communication deficit is probably partially to blame for the issues that arose later.

The puppies were ready to leave in late January but he wanted to wait until the weather was better so I agreed to hold his puppy longer, at no additional charge. He called in late February to discuss picking up the puppy. He told me his plan was to fly out, stay in a hotel, drive to my farm and get her and fly back home. When he began describing how he had a carry on soft sided dog carrier for her I knew there was some confusion. I told him that the puppy weighed at least 50 lbs and could not be taken as carry on. Oops! I was shocked that someone who has raised one Maremma already wouldn't realize that a 4+ month old Maremma would not fit under the airplane seat, but he didn't. Change of plans. He sent a courier to pick the puppy up, paying three times what it would have cost to send her any other way, and off they went.

The puppy, whom was soon named Abby, arrived at his farm in Vermont and he began making videos of her, still glowing and wonderful. We communicated back and forth a couple of times but again, he didn't spend much time replying or communicating. But I he's a busy guy and I don't like to crowd my customers so I left him to enjoy his new puppy. I did get a phone call and text from another Maremma breeder and former high ranking BOD member with the MSCA the day the first video of Abby arriving in Vermont came out, asking me to "reach out to him on the club's behalf". Then she went ahead and reached out to him herself. And that was the beginning of all the troubles. But that's a whole 'nother soap opera for another day.

Fast forward just a couple of weeks after that conversation with that other breeder and only a couple days after another, much more heated conversation that happened later and which will remain a secret due to legal reasons, and my formerly happy celebrity client began making derogatory videos about me and my puppy. Now I have a farm to run and I don't sit around watching videos all day, so I didn't see these videos until the first one had been out a few weeks. As soon as I watched the first two videos I immediately contacted Abby's owner to see what was going on. To say I received a hostile (though civil) reply would be an understatement. To say I smelled a rat in the form of the aforementioned competitor would be 100% accurate and I told him as much. At the time I was under the impression that he was just a poor, innocent guy being duped by this other person who wanted his "half a million fans" (her words) for herself and I held that belief for quite a while. But at this point I no longer believe that.

So now it’s no secret that Abby’s owner is very unhappy with me. He has been making derogatory videos of me for a few months now, and they are getting worse every time. Whereas his first videos of me were glowing with praise and calling me an ethical breeder, his latest videos have devolved into calling me a puppy mill. This man truly needs to spend some time studying what a puppy mill really is. The amount of puppies a breeder produces does not make them a puppy mill; it’s the quality of those dogs and the quality of life they live that does. Puppy mill dogs are of low quality and live in filthy, dank cages, not in big open areas with other dogs and livestock, receiving daily love, attention and training. Puppy mills don’t buy their dogs from the best breeders in the country and Europe, ensuring their breeding stock is well bred, with correct conformation, sound bodies and proper temperaments. They don’t spend thousands of dollars on health testing their breeding dogs to ensure they aren’t passing health problems to their puppies. They don’t take professional courses in dog training, health and breeding so that they can be better equipped to give their puppies what they need. They don’t train their puppies with positive reinforcement training methods. They don’t invest thousands of dollars a year in the best food, supplements, equipment and veterinary care money can buy in order to have healthy, happy dogs. They don't have a licensed veterinarian willing to write a glowing Letter of Recommendation for them.
​
But I digress….

​The fact is that Abby's owner is telling a tale about me and Abby, the beautiful puppy I bred, that’s not entirely true, by leaving out some key facts. I will add in more posts, with supporting documents, later, to flesh the story out, but for now, here are the key facts readers need to know:

I told him that sending Abby back didn't mean he didn't love her, quite the contrary. I added that he could use this as a teaching moment for his followers, explaining that not every dog is suited for every farm situation. And then he could use the money he was getting back to buy a puppy that was more suited to his needs and would be easier for him to train. It was a win-win for everyone, in my mind, even though it was going to cost me around $10,000. But it was worth it to me for everyone to be happy.

He replied, telling me he wanted to keep Abby and for me to pay him $4000.

Of course I said no, because, he had gotten exactly what he paid for, the same as every other customer who bought a puppy from that litter. A wonderful Livestock Guardian Dog puppy. And because how was me paying him $4000 going to help Abby, or even him?! And what was I getting for my $4000? His silence?

He told me my reply was "so disappointing" and that's the last I have heard from him, other than these lovely videos where he says I “look like a puppy mill" to him and where he calls my beautiful, wonderful puppy a failure, a disapointment and a bad dog. (His viewers really get stuck on this. Yes, I have watched the videos several times and yes, I know he says she’s really not these things in the videos, but by putting these words next to her photo IN MY OPINION he’s calling her these things. I know his viewers have excused that as clickbait just being a part of YouTube. But I’m sorry, in my opinion using Abby in that way is wrong. I have a right to my opinion and I will stand by it. Obviously others have a right to their opinions, too.)

Which begs the question. Why would anyone want to keep a puppy they deem a failure, a disapointment and a bad dog? I'd like to believe it's because he loves her so much but since I can't fathom making videos of any of my dogs that paint them in such a negative light I have my own theories on why he’s keeping her.

Slandering me is one thing, but making a puppy I lovingly bred and raised the brunt of these ongoing failure videos just to get clicks and money is not ok. Abby is NOT a failure. She is a normal, healthy, 9 month old LGD puppy who, IN MY OPINION is being treated like a PRISONER. She spent nearly the first 5 months of her life living 24/7 with other Maremmas, goats, horses, chickens, ducks and geese. She was never alone, not for 5 minutes, and she was never locked alone in a kennel of any size. Since going to Vermont she has been kept locked up by herself in a small kennel a lot of the time. How much I can’t say but even one hour of solitary confinement a day is too much for a LGD, IN MY OPINION, as a breeder and trainer.

Of course she's going to be hyperactive when she gets out. That's like locking a 3 year old in a 4x4 cell all day. It's cruel. Dogs are pack animals, social creatures. They're not meant to live in solitary confinement. What’s more Abby specifically was not raised to live that way. She would have been very confused and traumatized to go from being with all the dogs, goats and other animals to a kennel by herself. Of course dogs are very forgiving creatures and will make the best of any situation, but that doesn’t mean it’s not causing them harm just because they are wagging their tail at the gate when you go to let them out. Usually the ill effects are more subtle and not obviously noticeable at first. Often the effects of stress won’t be seen in a dog until it’s too late. I hope that’s not the case with Abby but it is my legitimate concern.

I advised Abby's owner to put her in with his cows before she ever left my farm. (I didn’t say to put her in the moment she arrived in an unsafe manner, but instead I meant for her to be introduced to them properly and safely.) He told me "that won't work for me" and said he had his own plan. I never in a million years thought that plan would include over 4 months of solitary confinement. If I had I never, ever would have let her go. I would have refunded his deposit on the spot. Unfortunately my contract with Abby's owner addressed chaining or tethering dogs as not allowed but didn't mention kenneling them indefinitely. I never thought I would have to ban such a thing because I never imagined anyone would keep a dog in such conditions. But you can bet it's in my contract now. I call it the Abby Clause. It won't help poor Abby but never will another puppy of mine be locked up like a prisoner again without me being able to take legal action against the owner.

So here we are, at the end of the story. There's a media campaign to ruin my reputation and there's also one to ruin poor, sweet Abby's reputation. I know I am a moral and ethical breeder and business person and my reputation stands for itself in the puppies and goats I produce. But Abby has no one to defend her but me, and those who are willing to stand with me, for her. I truly fear for her future. I fear that this mismanagement of her will truly ruin her as a LGD and she will meet a sad end. Luckily it's in the contract the owner signed that he can't sell or give her away without my permission so I hope that will prevent her from being surrendered to a rescue if her situation doesn't improve. But I do fear that things will still go badly for her. That she will develop longterm problems because of the isolation and the way she's being managed. I will state that I don't think her owner is intentionally being cruel to her, he just doesn't understand the impact this kind of life is having on her. But not understanding won't prevent damage from occurring.

​And finally, another very important thing Abby's owner doesn't understand, and a topic I plan to explore further in a future post, is the impact his videos about Abby will have - are already having - on other puppies like Abby. Because words matter. And when a man who is held up as a "Maremma expert” by over a half a million people tells the world that his NINE MONTH OLD PUPPY is a "disappointment", a "bad dog", and a "failure", despite the fact that everyone knows LGD's aren't fully mature until age 2 or more, that is a tragedy. There are over a half a million people who watch this man's videos and a large percentage of them think he is a god. And when their god says that his 9 month old puppy is a failure they are going to look at their perfectly normal, rambunctious, teenaged LGD's and decide that their dogs are failures, too. And not everyone can afford to keep a failed LGD as a pet. These dogs will be dumped off at the dog pound, abandoned in the street, sold to the lowest bidder on Craigslist. Left to a miserable fate. If these Abby the Failure videos don't stop then I promise you innocent dogs, innocent puppies will die, directly because of these videos of poor, sweet, normal puppy Abby. All for clicks and money.

• And that is not ok with me. Is it ok with you? If not then join me in standing up for Abby, and for all the puppies like her, who are not failures. Make your voices heard. Abby deserves better. All the puppies like her do. They deserve experts who will advocate for them, honor them and respect them for the amazing, wonderful creatures they are and who will be patient with them as they navigate the difficult transition from rambunctious, rowdy teenagers into trustworthy, mature LGD's.

NOTE: I am no longer taking comments on this post or defending my position. Since the “Spilling the Tea” video Abby’s owner put out I have been inundated with hundreds of comments to my blog and social media as well as by phone and email. Many were kind and supportive but many most definitely were not. I have been called every name in the book and even been told to kill myself. I have been threatened and harassed relentlessly. I have also had countless people try to argue with me and convince me that I am wrong or must not have watched the videos. In fact I did watch them several times, and I know a lot of background information that the viewers don’t know and I can’t share for legal reasons or because I’m protecting the privacy of certain people.

I also know perfectly well how to use quotation marks but was trying to put emphasis on certain important points. More like “air quotes”. But since that bothered a lot of you I fixed that. The ones I left are actual quotes.

Another thing the fans keep insisting is that I started all this. That is 100% false. This was started by Abby’s owner with the “Our Puppy Had Surgery” and it progressed from there. Go read the comments in that video if you don’t believe me. The fans had some really choice things to say about me and their leader let them do it. That was the point of the video and with each video after that he continued to push his narrative that I had somehow cheated him and that Abby was badly bred. (An insult to any breeder.) I truly tried to ignore it and wait for things to settle down but there came a point when I could no longer do that. That point was the video in which Abby’s owner called me a puppy mill and placed “Failure” next to her photo. I know it was clickbait, but it was not ok with me for him to do that, and I spoke up.

The fans keep insisting that Abby’s owner has a right to his opinion and a right to share his opinion, while simultaneously saying I do not have the same right. That double standard is ridiculous. I have the same right to free speech that Abby’s owner does. Just because some people don’t like what I have to say that doesn’t mean I should not say what I feel needs to be said.

I have spent a lot of time defending myself to his fans, trying to explain my position to the people who disagree with me and want to defend their star. Obviously I’m not going to change anyone’s mind and I am done trying to do so. People just keep asking me questions I’ve already answered and arguing the same arguments over and over. It’s not helping anyone: not me, not Abby, not her owner and not her fans. It’s pointless and we all have better things to do with our time. At least I do. So as of now we will just have to agree to disagree. If you have kind or constructive things to say you’re welcome to contact me privately. I’ll be happy to discuss the matter with polite people. But if you just want to argue or be nasty I will delete your comments and block you. I’m done letting hateful people ruin things for everyone else.

*****Update: 8/30/22 Abby’s owner continues to make videos about me and I continue to get viciously attacked and bullied by his fans. Why a man with a couple of million followers feels “threatened” by a breeder with very few followers makes no sense, other than the fact that bashing breeders is “cool” and it gains him clicks and money. But is profiting off of bullying someone ethical? I don’t think so, but to each their own.

But even though his attacks on me have continued what he’s NOT doing is using Abby as clickbait in “failure” videos. And THAT was my real goal in writing this blog post, so I feel I fulfilled my responsibility as a breeder. I advocated for the puppy I bred, and in doing so I affected a change that helped her and other puppies like her. And that was worth the hundreds of attacks I have endured because of the videos of Abby’s owner.

I believe that social media should be used to help people and animals, never to harm them or to profit at others’ expense. If Abby’s owner wants to continue to profit off of attacking me and calling Abby “badly bred” (better than calling her a failure but still untrue) then I can’t stop him. Instead I’ll continue to try to make the world a better place for people and animals by breeding great dogs (and goats) that do important work for people and bring so much joy to their families. And I will also continue to educate people about the breed, support owners of Maremmas even if they didn’t get their dogs from me, and always, always advocate for the dogs.*****

Notice the orange navel dip all over the puppies and Marcella. It stayed on their fur for weeks.

“Bad Dog” “My guard dog killed a chicken” “badly bred” “disappointment” “enemy’ “my guard dog hates my white chicken” “failure”

Those are all words that have been used to describe a young female Maremma sheepdog puppy in the last two months or so. The puppy is now NINE MONTHS old. The person calling this PUPPY those horrible names is her owner, a prominent social media figure, with over half a million followers. I am the breeder of that puppy and I can assure you she is none of those things. Her parents are Livestock Guardian dogs on my farm, successfully guarding all of my livestock, including baby goats and poultry. She has siblings on farms all over the USA, also successfully guarding livestock. The puppy was born on my farm and properly socialized with goats, horses, chickens, ducks, geese, barn cats and other dogs from the day she was born. She lived with these animals, her siblings and with my other Maremmas 24/7, since she was born. She was mentored by several adult Maremmas, in addition to her parents, and by my dairy goats and other livestock, who are more experienced at training puppies than her new owner is. She was trained only with positive reinforcement training methods, including Puppy Culture and KPA Clicker Training. She was not yelled at or “corrected” for her normal puppy antics. Instead she was encouraged to make the right choices and rewarded when she did. She is a normal, healthy LGD puppy, who is behaving in a perfectly normal way for her age, and for how she is being managed and “trained”. (My definition of training is apparently different than Abby's owner's.)

​Now before I say more about the puppy and her owner I will address the elephant in the room. I’ll try to be brief because that’s not the focus of this post. It’s no secret that the puppy’s owner is very unhappy with me. He has been making derogatory videos of me for a few months now. Whereas his first videos of me were glowing with praise and calling me an ethical breeder, his latest videos have devolved into calling me a puppy mill. I'll just say there are a lot of facts he's leaving out of his videos and you can read about those in this post:

The True Story of Abby

​This post is not about how Abby came to be on a farm in Vermont or about hernias and breeding rights and such things. This is about how "entertainment" can have impacts that the producer may not have even thought about, and why that matters.

​Obviously Abby's owner is frustrated with her. He spends a lot of time comparing her to his first dog, who was "so easy" to train. I've been there myself. My first several Maremmas were very easy to train and it wasn't until I had been in the breed several years and both bred and trained several of my own puppies and bought dogs from several different breeders that I encountered dogs that frustrated me the way Abby seems to frustrate her owner. A lot of the problems I had with these dogs had to do with how they were socialized (or not) and trained by their owners as puppies. Some of those dogs were so difficult that I will never again buy a puppy unless I'm absolutely sure the breeder raises their puppies the way I do mine, nor will I stud out my dogs to someone who doesn't share my training style. But I discovered that even dogs from breeders who do everything "right" can be a challenge occasionally. They're not bad dogs. Just a bit too full of energy for their own good sometimes. A little too much tendency for the zoomies. But I know that these kinds of dogs often mature into the best LGD's, so it's worth being patient with them. Every dog has its strengths, if you're willing to look for them. Abby's groomer saw it when she remarked at how much more affectionate Abby is than her predecessor. (Of course her upbringing here had a lot to do with that, as did her breeding, which apparently isn't so bad, after all.)

​I have really learned a lot from working with all these different dogs from different breeders and backgrounds. I have a strong commitment to always keep my dogs and puppies with livestock and with a working dog partner, every minute of the day, but some of these dogs were very challenging. This one chases horses, that one harasses goats, the other one eats chickens (eats them!) and a couple of them fought with almost every dog I had. One would pick fights with adult dogs twice her size! There were a couple of dogs in particular from the same breeder that were so difficult I almost placed them in pet homes, but yet I couldn't just give up on them. I couldn't sell them as they were because that would just cause more problems for them and their owners, so I just had to weather the storm. So I just persisted, trying them with this dog or that, this stock or the other, bit by bit moving to more challenging (flightier) stock. And over time these dogs have made progress, mellowed and matured. They aren't ready to guard baby goats and they may never be, but they are getting better every day.

What I didn't do and would never do, is go out and make a video labelling these dogs as "failures", "disappointments", "bad dogs" or even "chicken killers", even though some of them did kill a lot of chickens. They aren't bad dogs. They aren't failures. Some are dogs who didn't get the kind of start I consider "proper" from their breeders. Some are dogs that got a great start but, like some children, just have more energy and a wicked sense of humor. (One dog used to love chasing my ducks until they flew around the pasture, but yet she matured into a dog that would literally nurse a baby goat.) It would be highly unfair of me to compare one of them to my easy "perfect" Polar. Polar is a dog I bred and trained and she has literally never so much as chased a chicken, even as a puppy. She is my most trusted LGD, even above her parents, who are great LGD's. Of course I wish the other dogs were more like her, but they aren't her. They have their own strengths and I try to find and appreciate those.

Abby's owner has not learned to do this, or doesn't see why it matters. More and more in his videos, as his frustration with Abby grows, he compares her to his "perfect" first dog, who was "so easy to train". He's gone from saying Abby is "full of energy" to "she has a bad temperament". But she does NOT have a bad temperament! In fact, she was the most mellow, most biddable puppy in her litter and even the owners of the more rambunctious or headstrong puppies in the litter have never complained about them. (There were 8 pups in the litter.) Of course, here on my farm Abby spent her time running free with other dogs and puppies, as well as goats and horses and (under supervision) poultry. At her new home she's locked up by herself in a small kennel most of the time. At my farm she was trained only with positive training methods. Her new owner seems to prefer electric fences and lots of yelling, from what I've seen, though there may be other things going on off camera that I don't see. The truth is that Abby's owner simply doesn't have the skills or experience to handle an "average" LGD puppy, like Abby. He needed a really easy puppy, like Polar, or one of her puppies. But I didn't realize that and trusted that he would either know how to train any dog, or would seek help and advice from me, since I give lifetime support to my puppy owners. He did not. Not once.

​What I see in the videos (when I can bring myself to watch them, but I feel I owe it to Abby to keep tabs on her) is an owner that's becoming more and more frustrated and seems to be taking it out on Abby, and on me. His videos get meaner and more negative each time. He says he's going to keep Abby, even though she's a "failure". I'm not sure why someone would keep a dog they deem a failure other than for two reasons. They really, really love the dog, or they are making a lot of money off of her, selling "bad dog" videos. And since I can't fathom making such a video about any of my dogs well....

When Abby's owner posted the first negative video about her I immediately contacted him and offered to buy her back, plus reimburse him for all expenses and pay all expenses to ship her back to me. It was easily a $10,000 offer. He told me he was going to keep her but I could pay him $4000. I'm not sure why he thought I owed him $4000 or how he thought me paying him would help him or Abby, but I declined. Now in two months he's gone from calling her a "disappointment" to a "failure". What will he call her next, and when will he finally say enough? I would like to state, for the record, that my offer to buy Abby back still stands, and will stand for the rest of her life. Maybe if he gets frustrated enough he will send her home and he can buy a new, easier dog. Hopefully it will be before it's too late for Abby. But if he truly loves her and wants to keep her for that reason then I can respect that. I just wish he would do two things. Hire a PROFESSIONAL LGD trainer like Cindy Benson, KPA CTP, to help train Abby. Cindy offers Zoom training so she could work with Abby and her owner remotely. It would make a huge difference for both of them, I'm sure, and would make everyone happy.

​And I wish he would stop painting Abby, this wonderful 9 month old puppy, as a failure. Not just because Abby deserves an owner who loves and cherishes her enough that he would only speak respectfully and lovingly of her, but because of the impact these videos will have - are having - on other puppies and dogs just like Abby. Perfectly normal, high energy, rambunctious puppies, teenaged LGD's. Ones who sometimes chase goats and maybe occasionally kill a chicken or two (it really doesn't doom a dog), and who frustrate their owners with their antics. What Abby's owner doesn't realize is that a lot of people consider him a "expert" in LGD's, even though he's only trained one very pliable and easygoing LGD before getting Abby. Some of his fans even seem to consider him a god. And when their god says his perfectly normal 9 month old LGD puppy is a "failure" a lot of them are going to look at their own perfectly normal puppies and dogs and decide the same thing. Only maybe they can't afford to keep a "failed" LGD as a pet. So instead they will cut their losses and get rid of their dog so they can start over with a "better" one. They'll dump their puppy at the pound, on the street or sell it to the highest bidder on Craigslist. And we all know where fates like those lead. You mark my words, if Abby's owner continues to paint her as a failure rescues will overflow and innocent dogs and puppies will die.

Before I ever sold Abby to her owner I was warned by the head of the largest Maremma rescue in America that her owner could adversely affect the breed. Here is what she told me: "This dude is an unknown with an unregistered dog and half a million followers.... This is a time bomb to me after all of these years of educating folks on the rescue page. I had 70 people ask to join the rescue today. (After his first video of Abby came out.) Also remember - this is his first Maremma." and then she added, "And the information he disseminates can really help us or mislead people - you know how vital experience and knowledge is. These dogs are not for everyone."

At the time I thought she was wrong and was harshly judging Abby's owner. Now I wish I had paid more attention to her words. She knew what I didn't understand. That a man with a following like his truly could hold lives in his hands. That is a responsibility that even he may not realize. Maybe it really hasn't occurred to him how his videos about Abby could affect dogs like her. My hope is that he will come to realize it and will change his message. Will use his talents to truly educate people and advocate for Abby and dogs like her. That he will realize that Social Media Figures, no matter how big or small, have a great responsibility to those they serve. And they do serve others, after all. These people are giving their time to their favorite YouTubers, TikTokers or whatever. Those social media figures need to be held accountable.

And that's the other side of the coin. If your "god" says or does something you don't feel is right, such as calling a puppy a "failure" then hold them accountable! Challenge them, question them, tell them how you feel. Tell them the impact their words and videos are having and if you're not ok with it let them know. If they are deserving of your time and attention they will listen and do what's right. And if they are not, there's a simple solution. Unsubscribe, unfollow, unlike. You do not owe your celebrity anything. They owe you everything. You made them and you can unmake them, and don't ever let them forget it.

NOTE: I am no longer taking comments on this post or defending my position. Since the “Spilling the Tea” video Abby’s owner put out I have been inundated with hundreds of comments to my blog and social media as well as by phone and email. Many were kind and supportive but many most definitely were not. I have been called every name in the book and even been told to kill myself. I have been threatened and harassed relentlessly. I have also had countless people try to argue with me and convince me that I am wrong or must not have watched the videos. In fact I did watch them several times, and I know a lot of background information that the viewers don’t know and I can’t share for legal reasons or because I’m protecting the privacy of certain people.

I also know perfectly well how to use quotation marks but was trying to put emphasis on certain important points. More like “air quotes”. But since that bothered a lot of you I fixed that. The ones I left are actual quotes.

Another thing the fans keep insisting is that I started all this. That is 100% false. This was started by Abby’s owner with the “Our Puppy Had Surgery” and it progressed from there. Go read the comments in that video if you don’t believe me. The fans had some really choice things to say about me and their leader let them do it. That was the point of the video and with each video after that he continued to push his narrative that I had somehow cheated him and that Abby was badly bred. (An insult to any breeder.) I truly tried to ignore it and wait for things to settle down but there came a point when I could no longer do that. That point was the video in which Abby’s owner called me a puppy mill and placed “Failure” next to her photo. I know it was clickbait, but it was not ok with me for him to do that, and I spoke up.

The fans keep insisting that Abby’s owner has a right to his opinion and a right to share his opinion, while simultaneously saying I do not have the same right. That double standard is ridiculous. I have the same right to free speech that Abby’s owner does. Just because some people don’t like what I have to say that doesn’t mean I should not say what I feel needs to be said.

I have spent a lot of time defending myself to his fans, trying to explain my position to the people who disagree with me and want to defend their star. Obviously I’m not going to change anyone’s mind and I am done trying to do so. People just keep asking me questions I’ve already answered and arguing the same arguments over and over. It’s not helping anyone: not me, not Abby, not her owner and not her fans. It’s pointless and we all have better things to do with our time. At least I do. So as of now we will just have to agree to disagree. If you have kind or constructive things to say you’re welcome to contact me privately. I’ll be happy to discuss the matter with polite people. But if you just want to argue or be nasty I will delete your comments and block you. I’m done letting hateful people ruin things for everyone else.

I (Kim) am feeling under the weather - possibly Covid - so I’m keeping my barn chores to a minimum and allowing my number one farmhand, my 18 year old son, Noah, to carry the load. But I have to go outside and at least check on everyone. Marisa and her puppies and Polar’s came to say hello, along with a few of their goat buddies. Who can feel bad for long with this welcoming party waiting to greet you?!

Spend any time patrolling the internet and you will find people complaining about the "problems" they have with their LGD's. Some are committed to making things work and are just reaching out for advice and help. Others not so much. There are people who are dumping their dogs in rescue because it doesn't live up to their expectations. They see LGD's as cheap, expendable "products" and are happy to throw their dog away and start over if things don't go according to plan.

Others are calling their dogs "a failure", "bad dog" and "a disappointment". They seem to revel in criticizing their dogs to get attention, which is disgusting and sad. What makes this even sadder is that these are often PUPPIES that are being called failures. Everyone knows that LGD's can take 2 years or sometimes more to reach maturity and to be totally safe with stock. So why is it ok to call a 9 month old puppy a "failure" for being a puppy?

The first step in setting the puppies up for success lies with the breeder. Puppies have critical learning periods in the first weeks and months. If breeders don't take advantage of these periods the dog will never live up to its full potential. It might be an "ok" LGD, but not likely a "great" one. Puppies should have intensive socialization with stock from as early as possible. At our farm every dog and puppy we own lives with other dogs and livestock 24/7. Dogs are social creatures and they need to have their needs for socialization met in order to thrive.

Puppies should also be trained with positive socialization methods and only allowed to be around other dogs and stock that are kind to the puppies. Using harsh training methods or harsh treatment by other dogs and stock on puppies teaches puppies to be either fearful or to bully other animals, or both. Neither is what you want to nurture in a LGD.

But no matter how careful and conscientious the breeder is in their socialization of their puppies the job doesn't end there. The new puppy owner has the responsibility to continue this nurturing training and treatment of the puppy once it gets home. Other than the first few days the puppy should be with livestock full time asap. Of course with poultry, accommodations will have to be made to keep the birds safe, but the puppy should have another dog as a companion and some type of mammal to guard if at all possible. The puppy should not ever be locked up by itself for extended periods of time. This is counterproductive to what you're trying to accomplish with your puppy. You will only frustrate the puppy, which will lead to "bad" behavior.

If you are experiencing problems with your puppy the first place to turn is your breeder. A reputable breeder will provide lifetime support to their customers. They can tell you how your puppy was trained before it left their farm and can give advice on how to integrate the puppy with your new stock. Good breeders love their puppies and their customers and want everyone to be happy so don't be afraid to reach out to them.

If you need more help I suggest you seek professional help. And by professional help I don't mean some self-described "expert" with no real background or training. I mean a professional trainer with certifications in dog training and behavior and who specializes in LGD's and positive reinforcement training. Hands down the expert in this area is Cindy Benson, of Benson Maremmas. She is a Karen Pryor Academy Certified Training Partner, former Maremma breeder and author of books on training LGD's. She can do zoom training sessions with you and your dog and get you back on track asap.

I would like to challenge everyone who owns one of these wonderful dogs to never, ever think of your dog as a "failure" or a "disappointment" and to challenge others to do the same. Advocate for these dogs. When you hear people blaming the dog for human failure, laziness and ignorance speak up and set them straight! Dogs come to us as clean slates. It's our responsibility to help them live up to their potential. It starts with breeders and continues with owners. And if there is any "failure" along the way it is not our dogs who have failed. It is us who have failed our dogs.

These are six of Marcella's puppies, at 4 months old, enjoying a fun game of tag with their puppy mentor, Marisa. LGD puppies need to have at least one LGD companion in order to be happy and healthy and so that they can channel that boundless energy in an appropriate manner.

When you breed a breed of dog that only comes in one color (white) and one basic coat length (fluffy) telling the puppies apart can be a real challenge. However, being able to do so is important for several reasons. First of all, you need to be able to track the health and weights of the puppies as they grow. Secondly, tracking the temperaments and behavior of the pups is extremely important in making placements, especially in LGD puppies. The puppy that constantly chases chickens might not be the best fit for a farm with poultry. Two puppies that constantly fight should not be placed together and a very timid puppy will need a home that won't overwhelm or stress her out. Being able to tell the puppies apart from an early age, at a glance and from far away is really useful, but how do you do it?

Over the years I have tried a variety of methods with varying degrees of success. First I tried several different types of whelping collars, made of velcro, nylon webbing or paracord. The collars either came off too easily and got lost, or didn't come off easily and presented a strangulation hazard. They got tangled in the long fur too easily and most of them were quickly outgrown. And since they couldn't easily be seen under all the fur they were pretty useless for identifying puppies from even a few feet away. 

Next I tried human spray-in hair dye, sold at Halloween time. This worked pretty well but was hard to find most of the year. I tried human hair chalk, sharpies, pet dye and a variety of other things - none really showed up or lasted on the thick Maremma fur, or they were too messy or too expensive. Then somewhere I found some sheep marking dye, available in sticks (like big crayons) or spray. The sticks were useless but the spray worked ok. The only problem was the ones we initially found either didn't last more than a couple of days or didn't come in more than a couple of colors. Foiled again!

Then one day while perusing one of my favorite livestock supply websites I saw a product called Sprayline sheep marking spray. It comes in 6 colors in big cans and wasn't too expensive. I ordered a couple of cans and tried it. It worked great! It was bright, crisp and clear and it lasted at least a week. This was it! I found that by combining colors or marking different locations (head, shoulders, tail) I could mark even Gianna's litter of 13 and easily tell the puppies apart. I simply reapply the paint as it starts to fade and it works great. I even occasionally use it to mark older dogs so we can tell who they are from far away, or to mark our dairy goat kids. 

In February 2021 we had two litters born about 2 weeks apart, so I carefully kept them separate so as to not mix up the puppies. But this year (2022) I ended up with two litters that are two DAYS apart, and each litter has exactly 5 males and three females. One litter belongs to Marisa (sired by Simba) and one to Polar (sired by Sevro) and while the puppies do look very different (Marisa's puppies have Simba's fluffier coats while Polar's have slightly "plusher" coats) I didn't want to risk mixing the puppies up. And since female dogs sometimes fight or may hurt another dog's pups I kept them apart for safety, anyway, for the first 9 weeks.

But the puppies were getting bigger and I knew that eventually combining the litters would make training and management a lot easier. And having 16 fluffy white puppies all sharing one space would be a lot of fun! As Polar and Marisa were getting closer to being ready to wean their pups I knew it was about time to turn them over to Genevieve, my amazing puppy mentor, who's raised 4 litters of her own (including the litter Polar came from) as well as helped train many other dogs' puppies. But how would I tell the puppies apart? Well, I had a plan!

And what I did is this. Each litter got the same 8 colors or color combinations (Blue, green, orange, pink, purple, blue/green, blue/orange, pink/purple) of Sprayline but Marisa's puppies (the older litter) got marked on their shoulders while Polar's litter got marked on their tail ends! And to be extra sure I don't mix up the puppies I microchipped them all with the Datamars/Petlink microchips we always use, but did so before putting the pups together, noting the color and litter for each chip number in my Breeder Cloud Pro software. Then Polar and Marisa went back to work (they can come visit the puppies if they want) and Genevieve took over. And oh boy, was it ever an exciting event! The brightly painted puppies had a grand time running around, meeting the pups that until now they had only interacted with through the fence, barking at Genevieve, playing in the mud, and in general having a blast. Genny looked at as if I had truly lost my mind giving her this many puppies to care for, but she took it all with her usual placid attitude and good nature. The puppies played themselves out and crashed all together in the Puppy Parlor yard, while Genny watches over them like the great puppy mentor she is. This is going to be a fun adventure, for me and Genny!

As a Maremma Sheepdog breeder and trainer and Admin or contributor on multiple Maremma Facebook groups, information pages or websites, as well and other dog groups, I often hear people asking how they can teach their puppies not to bite. The first thing people need to know is that biting is a normal developmental stage in puppies. They aren't being "bad", they are just being puppies!

The second thing to understand is that puppies need to learn Bite Inhibition. They first learn this from their mom, siblings and other dogs they are raised with (mentor dogs), and this lesson is NOT best learned through aggression. (Never let an adult dog act aggressively towards a puppy. That's NOT how puppies learn to be gentle and stable LGD's or pets!) Instead, if a puppy gets too rough in their play the other puppies or dogs usually just walk away, thus ending the game. Eventually the puppy learns that if they want to continue playing they need to be gentle. This is one reason why your shouldn't get a puppy that's too young. They need time to learn this and other valuable lessons from their parents, siblings and mentor dogs. Below are two examples of this in action:

In this first video notice how the puppy with the pink tail is happily playing with the green tail pup. But after a bit Pink Tail decides that her brother's biting is getting too rough, so she leaves. Game over. Little Green Tail will remember that and may not play so rough next time, though it will probably take several experiences like this before the lesson fully sinks in!

In the next video I only caught the tail end of the interaction between Gianna and her puppies on video. Before I started filming I watched her patiently and sweetly interact with several of the pups for quite a while, as evidenced by the photos below. Gianna was enjoying a relaxing spring day while I watched as first one puppy and then more and more of them came to see what she was doing. Eventually it was several puppies, all of whom thought mommy made a fine jungle gym and chew toy. Finally Gianna decided she had had enough of these baby sharks and she left! Game over. Gianna felt no need to "reprimand" her puppies, she just left.

What I love about both of these interactions is that none of the dogs got aggressive in order to stop the biting. They simply left, putting an end to the fun but annoying game. That’s not to say some adult dogs don't get aggressive with puppies or that puppies never fight. They do, but that's not  what I want to see in a mama dog or my mentor dogs. A mama dog should always have a way to get away from her puppies so she doesn't resort to aggressive behavior with them. If I have a mom who's getting impatient and snappy with her puppies I let her go back to work and bring in one of my patient, gentle mentor dogs. These dogs rarely "correct" puppies. Instead they teach by example and by rewarding the puppies' polite behavior with their attention and affection. That's what I try to model myself in teaching puppies. Aversive training methods are not helpful for training puppies or adult dogs! They just teach them to be either fearful or aggressive or both. That’s not what I want in a LGD who will be interacting with my livestock and my grandchildren!

One of the first things to teach a puppy with Clicker Training is Manding. The puppies catch on very quickly to this fun new game and soon discover that they can “train” you by offering this polite behavior. And a puppy that’s sitting politely (Manding) waiting for a reward is less likely to be jumping all over you or biting you. (Manding isn't sitting on command so read below for more details.)

Below are photos and videos of puppies manding and more information on what Manding is, why it's such a valuable tool, and how to teach it.

Cindy Benson, KPA CTP, of Benson Maremmas Training, works with my 9 week old litter of Maremma puppies, which were born in February 2022 to Celeste and Sevro. This was the first time these pups ever met Cindy but they quickly found her to be fascinating. Notice how well behaved and polite these 8 wiggly puppies are. Notice they are not biting or jumping up on Cindy and they have her rapt attention despite all the barking dogs, goats walking by and other farm activity going on.

And here my friend’s 12 and 4 year daughters also work with the same litter, a few days later. Again, no jumping or biting; just attentive, engaged puppies.

Now that's not to say that if you teach a puppy to mand he will never try to use you as a chew toy, or that Clicker Training alone is the cure. But both are powerful tools to help you communicate withy your puppy so that he learns what you DO want him to do, instead of what you DON'T want him to do! Below are some great resources to help you learn more about how to survive the Velociraptor stage! 

For more information on Training Maremmas go to our Training Maremmas Page or our How We Raise and Train our Puppies page. Thank you!