LIVESTOCK GUARDING DOGS TODAY: POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PERCEIVED LIMITATIONS

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1 University of Nebraska - Lincoln DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln USDA National Wildlife Research Center - Staff Publications U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service 2017 LIVESTOCK GUARDING DOGS TODAY: POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PERCEIVED LIMITATIONS Silvia Ribeiro Grupo Lobo Jenny Dornig Herdenschutzhunde Schweiz Ana Guerra Grupo Lobo Jasna Jeremic Croatian Agency for the Environment and Nature Jean-Marc Landry IPRA See next page for additional authors Follow this and additional works at: Part of the Life Sciences Commons Ribeiro, Silvia; Dornig, Jenny; Guerra, Ana; Jeremic, Jasna; Landry, Jean-Marc; Mettler, Daniel; Palacios, Vicente; Pfister, Ueli; Ricci, Simone; Rigg, Robin; Salvatori, Valeria; Sedefchev, Sider; Tsingarska, Elena; van Bommel, Linda; Vielmi, Luisa; Young, Julie K.; and Zingaro, Margherita, "LIVESTOCK GUARDING DOGS TODAY: POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PERCEIVED LIMITATIONS" (2017). USDA National Wildlife Research Center - Staff Publications This Article is brought to you for free and open access by the U.S. Department of Agriculture: Animal and Plant Health Inspection Service at DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln. It has been accepted for inclusion in USDA National Wildlife Research Center - Staff Publications by an authorized administrator of DigitalCommons@University of Nebraska - Lincoln.

2 Authors Silvia Ribeiro, Jenny Dornig, Ana Guerra, Jasna Jeremic, Jean-Marc Landry, Daniel Mettler, Vicente Palacios, Ueli Pfister, Simone Ricci, Robin Rigg, Valeria Salvatori, Sider Sedefchev, Elena Tsingarska, Linda van Bommel, Luisa Vielmi, Julie K. Young, and Margherita Zingaro This article is available at of Nebraska - Lincoln:

3 Citation: Ribeiro, S., J. Dornig, A. Guerra, J. Jeremic, J. Landry, D. Mettler, V. Palacios, U. Pfister, S. Ricci, R. Rigg, V. Salvatori, S. Sedefchev, E. Tsingarska, L. van Bommel, L. Vielmi, J. Young, and M. Zingaro Livestock guarding dogs today: Possible solutions to perceived limitations. Carnivore Damage Prevention News Summer(15) This document is a U.S. government work and is not subject to copyright in the United States. Special Feature LIVESTOCI{ GUARDING DOGS TODAY: POSSIBLE SOLUTIONS TO PERCEIVED LIMITATIONS Silvia Ribeiro" Jenny Dornig2, Ana Guerra" Jasna Jeremic3, Jean-Marc LandrY', Daniel Mettler5, Vicente Palacios" Ueli Pfister2, Simone Ricci6, Robin Rigg7, Valeria Salvatori6, Sider SedefchevB, Elena Tsingarska9, Linda van Bommepo, Luisa VielmP" Julie Young12, Margherita Zingaro13 1 Grupo Lobo (Portugal), 2 Herdenschutzhunde Schweiz (Switzerland), 3 Croatian Agency for the Environment and Nature (Croatia), " IPRA (Switzerland/France), 5 AGRIDEA (Switzerland), 6 Istituto di EcologiaApplicata (Italy), 7 Slovak Wildlife Society (Slovakia), 8 BBPS-SEMPERVWA (Bulgaria), 9 BALKANI Wildlife Society (Bulgaria), 10 University of Tasmania and Australian National University (Australia), 11 DifesAttiva (Italy), 12 USDA/National Wildlife Research Center (United Sates ofamerica), 13 University of Rome Sapienza (Italy) Exchanging experience and finding solutions to problems facing the use of livestock guarding dogs (LGDs) in modern societies were among the goals of a meeting organized in Portugal from 20th to 21st October 2015 within the scope of the LIFE MedWolf Project ( meeting was attended by 16 specialists from around Europe (portugal, Spain, France, Switzerland, Italy, Croatia, Slovakia and Bulgaria), as well as from Australia and the USA. In this article we outline constraints on the use of LGDs identified during the meeting and summarize the main solutions proposed. We have grouped the issues into 10 main topics ranging from a lack of quality dogs to personal, social, cultural, economic, time, management, technical, legal and political constraints. Guidelines on the proper raising and caring oflgds n 36 are not the focus of this article, since a great deal of information is already available, including on specific solutions to common problems. 1. Personal constraints 1.1. Lack of affinity with LGDs, motivation or willingness to accept responsibility for livestock protection One major concern about the implementation of LGDs is farmers ' resistance to accept responsibility to protect livestock, and their lack of motivation to use LGDs, sometimes based on a low affmity with dogs (Fig. 1). Hired shepherds who do not own the livestock under their care may be particularly reluctant to take on additional tasks required to raise LGDs.

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