My wife’s aunt, north of Ft. Worth, has alpacas. Expensive ones.
Coyotes kept eating the babies, so she got guard dogs: Great Pyrenees, who are big enough to kill a coyote and instinctively imprint on the guarded animals (sheep, goats, alpacas, whatever) so that they consider themselves just part of the family (in this case alpacas).
The dogs just hang out in the field all day with the alpacas, scanning the horizon for threats. They don’t mess with the alpacas, and the alpacas don’t mess with them. They just hang out.
I got one of the Pyrenees’ offspring. He lays on his butt all day in my back yard, scanning the (tiny) horizon, and protecting my cats, who he thinks are part of his family, but who really hate him.
Anyway, if a person gets alpacas, the babies are going to get eaten, and I recommend a guard dog.
My wife’s aunt, north of Ft. Worth, has alpacas. Expensive ones.
Coyotes kept eating the babies, so she got guard dogs: Great Pyrenees, who are big enough to kill a coyote and instinctively imprint on the guarded animals (sheep, goats, alpacas, whatever) so that they consider them selves just part of the family (in this case alpacas).
The dogs just hang out in the field all day with the alpacas, scanning the horizon for threats. They don’t mess with the alpacas, and the alpacas don’t mess with them. They just hang out.
I got one of the Pyrenees’ offspring. He lays on his butt all day in my back yard, scanning the (tiny) horizon, and protecting my cats, who he thinks are part of his family, but who really hate him.
Anyway, if a person gets alpacas, the babies are going to get eaten, and I recommend a guard dog.
wow, a double post all in one post!
I apologize.
It’s just that alpacas get me really excited.
We get some coyotes that travel through the pastures.
Our little herd will trumpet an alarm and they all gather in one group. Last summer, one foolish coyote decided to approach the herd and as one group they all ran towards the coyote.
He turned tail and ran away as fast as he could.
For our barnyard area, where they spend the night, we have 2 x 4 inch anti-predator fencing 5 feet high and haven’t had any issues with intruders at night.