"Livestock Guardians" Book Review

I recently came home with a new puppy. He will hopefully be a guardian to poultry, goats and sheep on our place in the country. I just started socializing him with our laying hens and it is quite an experience for me. I have trained bird dogs and other dogs in obedience but never trained a dog to guard livestock. Not knowing much about the breeds nor training I started searching for resources from which I could glean knowledge from other's experiences. I ran across the following book, ordered and read it over a period of several days and was amazed at all the information embedded in the book.

I have always done pretty well at keeping most predators under control by conventional means. The biggest problem we now have is that we have an explosion of coyote and coyote dog hybrids in parts of the country and they make life for sheep and goats very dangerous indeed. Just one pack can come though and wipe out a year's profit on a small place in one night. The other major problem is for those that free range poultry. Before the mid 1970s raptor populations were not high and in fact some were at dangerously low levels due to pesticides in the Eco-system. The government put a blanket protection in effect on raptors so poultry raisers could no longer take a problem hawk or owl out of the equation. With blanket protection and the outlawing of many poisons the raptor population has rebounded and then some. Quail in many parts of Texas are hammered constantly by Coopers and other hawks. You can no longer find rabbits in certain areas of the State. To run free ranging poultry in our part of the State would be setting up an all you can eat buffet for hawks and owls without some sort of protection. Thus the use of livestock guardian dogs to guard free ranging livestock and poultry in the Old World tradition. All over the State ranchers and farmers are having success in protecting sheep, goats, poultry and other livestock from predators using trained livestock guardian dogs. I recently visited a sustainable farm and livestock operation near us that has almost eliminated livestock and poultry losses with the use of livestock guardian dogs.

This book is a comprehensive how to guide on picking and training a livestock guardian to at best eliminate and for sure reduce predation losses on your livestock. It covers the many predators and methods of control. The breeds of livestock protection dogs are covered along with training. It also covers other options such as llamas and guard donkeys. All in all I was very impressed with the book and can highly recommend it. The best online price I found was at Amazon, you can click on the link below to read the reviews or purchase the book if you like.


Livestock Guardians by Janet Vorwald Dohner





I ended up with a Maremma/Pyrenees cross puppy. At six weeks we started socializing him with the layer hens. At first it was kind of a stand off but now they are feed pan buddies. He gets upset if I go into the chicken run and do not let him come to check on the girls. These Livestock Guardian Dogs are worth checking out,
Wild Ed

Fish Texas Small Waters Close To Home

I false cast a couple of times to let out just a little more fly line and softly laid the chartreuse popper in the shadows under the bridge. It drifted with the current into a sunlit pool where I gave it a couple of short twitches. There was a flash of orange and silver as a Longear sunfish slammed the popper and headed for deeper water. The little fish shook his head as he felt the resistance of my four weight rod. It swam in throbbing circles as I pulled him in for a quick release. The bright iridescence of these little sunfish from the pools of Brushy Creek are just as beautiful to me as some exotic in some hot far away place, besides it is plenty hot right here at home. I repeated this contest over twenty times in the span of an hour and yet I was only twenty minutes from my house. The traffic pounding over the bridge above my head on IH 35 just north of Austin had no idea of the fish I was catching just below them. Brushy Creek runs right through the middle of Round Rock and I was fishing within sight of the famous Rock itself marking the cattle crossing on the old Chisholm Trail.

I had taken several species of sunfish along with a couple of Guadalupe bass and a Rio Grande Perch. All were well under a pound and returned to the water to be caught another day. Even if I caught a giant on Brushy Creek I would return it to the water as along with the population growth, sewer plants and septic tanks have been placed up and down the creek and it is not the same little creek I fished thirty years ago. I can remember when the water was pure and clean. There was none of the icky moss that grows in the creek today. I use to take home sunfish, bass, fresh watercress and wild onions for the table but no more. The fish still survive and are abundant even though we are trying hard to destroy the habitat.

The point of this all is get out and enjoy one of the small waters close to home. You do not have to spend a fortune on gas and lodging but the thrill of the catch is still the same. Carry out some trash and do your part to try and clean up these creeks in Texas so the next generation will also be able to enjoy them.

Get out and try some of the local small waters near you. You might be surprised how great the fishing right under your nose really is, Wild Ed

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Brazos Boat Works Texas Boat Builder Roundup 2011

This past Saturday a group of small boat builders from all over Texas converged on Inks Lake State Park to be a part of the Brazos Boat Works annual boat builder roundup. Most were members of the Brazos Boats Works Forum/Texas Paddler http://texaspaddler.com/wordpress/

or the Texas Kayak Fisherman's Forum http://www.texaskayakfisherman.com/forum/index.php

Many wannabe small boat builders and other visitors were able to look at the hand crafted boats and ask the talented craftsman questions. Boats ranged from first build all the way to the pros and some of the boats were absolute works of art that could be paddled on the water. If you would like to learn more about building your own work of art stop by the forums and talk to some of the builders and you too can become a boat building addict. Good paddling, Wild Ed

Goshawk Flying Through Tiny Spaces

Being a Falconer I am always amazed at the aerial maneuvers of birds of prey. I have seen hawks and falcons catch prey in the thickest of brush and trees. I have seen Red Tailed hawks fly through grapevines and briars to grab a fox squirrel and not mess a feather. Harris hawks make me close my eyes when they fly through barbed wire fences at high speed. The following YouTube video does a great job of showing the ability of a Goshawk as it flies through a hole and a tunnel. I think you will enjoy it, Wild Ed

The Game Camera Addiction Continues

My brother just emailed me some pictures off one of the game cameras up at our place in Lampasas. It has become an addiction to see what has come in for feed or water and what critters we captured a picture of over the last few days. I included a picture my brother’s camera took of my truck as it drove past his feeder to remind you guys that these cameras make great security cameras during the off season or anytime you want to see who or what is coming on your place. I have started putting one in a shrub at the house to take pictures of what goes on when we are away from home. I have even set one to capture a frontal shot of every vehicle that comes in our gate. They make excellent surveillance cameras for the money. We are not seeing any predators except for the masked corn bandits and they will get a reprieve until deer season starts. If you have any game cam pictures you would like us to see be sure and email them to me as I know everyone else likes to see what other’s capture with their cameras. Remember to keep feed and water flowing during this drought as the critters are having a hard time making a living, Wild Ed

Our Place in the Texas Countryside

Photo by Jena Thomas

It has been a long time coming and I am sure it will be a while before we are actually there, but we started clearing the pad sites for our barn and home in the country near Lampasas Texas. I will have to get electricity to the site and drill a well in the near future. I took a few pictures for you to see what it is looks like right now. The pictures do not show the real beauty of those big oak trees nor the peaceful, quiet surroundings. I know that some day it will rain again and we will have green grass and trees to enjoy. We are in one of the worst droughts the region has known in a many years. You will have to imagine what the site will look like once it rains and we have planted native grasses and plants where we cleared the cedar, brush and prickly pear. We left all of the oaks and five red bud trees that will be in the front of the house. We only took out the cedar and mesquites with some brush and cactus. I hope to recreate the native landscape around our site but with native grasses and plants that will benefit the wildlife.



Photo by Mike Thomas


We hope to have many of our friends and family come in the future and make it a place that people love to come to watch the wildlife while finding peace and quiet. I sat under a tree there the other day and noticed it was not quiet at all, the wind was blowing and the leaves were rustling quite loudly. I could hear birds chirping, dove cooing and insects buzzing while cattle called in the pasture. I heard a red tailed hawk scream and a bob white' s whistle that is now all too scarce in our part of the world. Through all the wind and noise there was a restful, quiet peace that surrounded me. May each of you find your peaceful place in this world. I know a few who have found theirs,Wild Ed

I always try to pass information on to you guys when I find a product or service that does what it is supposed to do or someone in the service business that does what they say they will do. In this case I used Green Land Service Company owned by Harrell Clary. Take a look at their website http://www.greenlandservice.com/
I have a feeling they will be doing some more work for us in the future.