The golden rules of using Maremmas as herd guardians

Maremma breeder Helen Darlington currently has 14 adult Maremmas and two pups on her Boer goat stud on Queensland's Darling Downs, where she also operates a stud and commercial Dorper sheep enterprise.

She has been breeding Maremmas since 2015 and said that proper management is vital for anyone who wants to use the breed.

"It's not just a walk in the park," she said.

"There's a lot of work involved.

"You hear some horrible stories where people have taken the wrong advice and then the Maremmas don't work out as they should.

"But when you have done it right they are so efficient and they're great from an animal welfare perspective because you're protecting your livestock from predation in an really environmentally friendly way."

Ms Darlington said Maremmas are not pets and should never be treated as such.

"One of the big golden rules is don't let them escape and get near the house, it can become a bad habit and then you've got a dog that thinks it's a pet," she said.

"From the time they open their eyes my Maremmas see goats and sheep.

"It's important for them to bond to the animals they will be guarding."

But for Ms Darlington the biggest rule of all is simple.

"You can't let them fail," she said.

"You need the right environment and the right conditions."

Ms Darlington said getting the balance right in terms of human contact was key in preserving their guardian instincts but also making sure they're not too ferocious.

"You want to socialise them sensibly but avoid too much handling so they don't become too humanised," she said.

"Make sure they meet all the members of the family when they're young to be familiar with their humans.

"If a visitor is with me around the Maremmas, there is no issue but the dogs would certainly let me know if someone was out there that shouldn't be."

It's also important for the Maremmas to be exposed from a young age to any other domestic dogs that are kept on a property so they don't see them as threats.

With a life span of about 12 years, Ms Darlington said even as younger pups Maremmas could be useful but needed supervision as they grew.

"At two months you can have them with small animals that they are not going to get knocked around by and in an area with secure fencing," Ms Darlington said.

"As they get older and mature they will need less supervision but from about six to 18 months they can be wicked little teenagers and can be quite playful.

"Some people make the mistake of expecting too much from them too soon."

Maremmas have been used for centuries in their native Italy to guard livestock and have been in Australia since 1982.

Thousands of years of breeding have made the Maremma a fierce guardian for sheep, goats and even poultry.

Ms Darlington said for producers who hadn't had Maremmas before and were getting pups, it was a good idea to get a pair.

Desexing Maremmas before putting them into use is also important for most producers, to make them calmer and to also prevent crossbreeding with other dogs.

"When they're crossbred their instincts are confused," Ms Darlington said.

"They don't know how they're meant to behave and you can get all kinds of problems."

Ms Darlington said she hadn't had any losses among her goats since she put two Maremmas to a group.

"The goats and the dogs have a better relationship than the sheep do," she said.

"If the dogs are in the same paddock as goats and sheep, they'll gravitate towards the goats and leave the sheep alone.

"So if you want them to be sticking with the sheep, they need to be in a separate paddock to your goats if you're running both breeds.

Proper nutrition is also important for keeping the guardian dogs healthy, with Ms Darlington feeding her dogs twice a day until nine months old and then once daily after that.

"I know one larger operation that used to have Maremmas used a feeding station in the paddock where the dogs were able to go to access biscuits, rather than people having to go out to feed them everyday," she said.

Their strong protective instincts also mean the dogs can form a bond with the group of animals they're guarding, meaning that any changes including selling stock require a little bit of logistics.

"Some can be swapped to a different group easily, others need to be managed more carefully," Ms Darlington said.

"If I'm going to going change grouping with some of my Maremmas, I'll introduce new goats to the group so there are still some of the ones they are familiar with and do the change in stages.

While generally she advised against crossbreeding, Ms Darlington said using genetics from other guardian dogs could be an exception when done by an experienced breeder.

She said she had used an Anatolian Shepherd Dog sire once in the past to get a sleeker coat that needed less maintenance.

"Out of 11 pups, three of them were sleek," she said.

"The true Maremma is traditionally quite furry.

"There generally haven't been many of these sleeker varieties around at all."

Ms Darlington said she believed the right message was beginning to get out there about the role of Maremmas.

"When I last went to FarmFest in 2019 people wanted to buy them as pets and the people who would use them for livestock didn't want to spend the money," she said.

"This year people knew more about them, appreciated them for what they are and wanted them for the right reasons."