The End of His Shift

Bodie at lambing time.

I have had the good fortune of the years of owning some exceptional livestock guardian dogs. Buck and Reno stand out in my memory. Buck was a re-homed Pyrenees cross (which was remarkable in itself - re-homed dogs do not work out, in many cases). Reno was Anatolian mix I started as a puppy. Elko and Dillon were also solid dogs, as was Boise (once we found the right job for him - he needed bigger country and ended up going to a ranch in Rio Vista). But Bodie was one of the very best. And I had to put him down this morning.

Bodie was an Anatolian x Maremma I purchased from Crystal Emsoff near Vinton, California, in the spring of 2016. Emma and I drove up in my little Chevy commuter car to pick him up - he rode home in a dog crate in the back seat next to Emma. She was especially happy when he barfed!

As I recall, Bodie went through the normal growing pains of most LGDs. At some point, he wanted to play with the ewes we were bonding him with - so he had to hang out with the rams for a month or so. By the time he was a teenage dog (at around 9 months), however, he was trustworthy enough to go back with a group of older ewes on one of our leased pastures. The following spring, during lambing, I videotaped Reno chasing him away from the first lambing ewe he'd encountered (Reno knew there'd be tasty afterbirth once the ewe delivered her lambs). Bodie was a dependable lambing dog for the rest of his life.

By the time he was 3, he was one of our most solid dogs. In the spring of 2019, I watched him "train" our newest dog, Elko, to stay away from lambing ewes using the same technique Reno had used with him (and in anticipation of a snack). I also began to realize that whenever Bodie thought the sheep needed to move to fresh forage, he'd wait for me at the junction of two electro-net fences - he knew that's where I'd open the fence to move the flock. Interestingly, this only happened when Bodie thought the feed was too short - something must have changed in the behavior of the sheep. On the rare occasions when we had sheep in hard-wire fences, Bodie would always find the coyote holes. Rather than run off, he'd either find me or lay by the dog food tote so that I'd know I needed to fix the fence.

This photo of Bodie was on the cover of Sheep Industry News in 2019!

Bodie took our move to Mountain Ranch in stride, although I think he was a little bored with so few animals to protect. Last winter, when snow knocked the fence down, I found Bodie and the ewes bedded down under a cedar tree across the road at a neighbor's property. He was probably the best bonded LGD I've ever raised.

Bodie lived his entire life outdoors. I don't know that he'd ever been to a veterinarian - Sami provided all of his care while she was alive. He rarely road in the truck - he much preferred riding in the trailer with the livestock. While he'd been slowing down significantly over the last several weeks, but this morning, when he couldn't stand or even lift his head, I realized I would have to put him down.

Bodie was one of four remaining animals who knew Sami - now it's just Mae (my old border collie) and the mules. That realization in itself made me sad. But I was also sad knowing that Sami would have been able to perform the euthanasia. Over the course of my ranching career, I've had to put animals down (which is always hard), but never a dog (which I found to be much more difficult emotionally). Sami always cried when she had to put down one of our dogs. I cried this morning - both at losing Bodie and at the accumulation of loss I've experienced in the last four years.

Losing a pet - any pet - is difficult. But Bodie was not a pet. He was a working livestock guardian dog who preferred the company of sheep and goats to that of humans. LGDs need to be attentive to their surroundings, trustworthy around livestock and people, and submissive to livestock. Bodie was all of these, but with humans, he was mostly aloof. I hope the new pup I reserved yesterday will eventually fill his shoes. But this afternoon, I'm missing ol' Bodie.

Bodie's replacement. He
has big shoes to fill.