Homesteading Series – Livestock Guardian Dogs 101

You’ve fallen in love with homesteading! But you never anticipated that coyote stealing your lambs, or that fox that snatched your broilers for his own chicken dinner…  

For thousands of years, dogs have been strategically bred, trained and used to protect livestock on the farm and serve as a threat to predators.  In this webinar of the Homesteading Series, Janet McNally of Tamarack Lamb & Wool (Hinckley, MN) will teach us all about Livestock Guardian Dogs.

Topics to be covered include:

• The value they bring to a homestead
• Breed Choices and Why
• How to train the dogs from pup to adult to befriend the animals and protect them
• The importance of these types of dogs to have a job (and not necessarily simply serve as a pet)

This event is part of SFA’s 2025 Homesteading Series. Check out the Minnesota River Chapter’s webpage for more upcoming homesteading events.

Registration: This webinar is free. Advance registration is required. The Zoom link will be sent to you when you register.

Presenter Bio: Janet has been raising sheep near Hinckley, Minn. since the 1980’s, including using livestock guard dogs. Wolves arrived in the 90’s, causing her to restructure her grazing and livestock guard dog management. She currently has eight livestock guard dogs which are a blend of Central Asian, Spanish Mastiff, and Maremma.

Info: Mary Fischer, mary@sfa-mn.org