Santo & Lucia

This coming Saturday will be a year since we acquired Santo and Lucia, our Maremma LGD's. I looked back on last years post and Santo and Lucia were about 70 and 50 lbs. respectively. One year later they have almost doubled in size as Santo is around 135 lbs. and Lucia is over 95.

These dogs never cease to amaze me. While we were on vacation, my son Jansen said they took turns eating. Because I was away and someone else was feeding them I believe they thought they could be poisoned. So they alternated feedings and one day Santo would eat and the other day Lucia would eat. It took 5 days before they would trust Jansen feeding them and finally they would both eat.

They are nocturnal animals and sleep most of the day but patrol all night. They instinctively know what their job is and they are so much fun to watch and observe. Wherever the alpacas are, you will find at least one of them (usually Santo) right in the middle. The other (Lucia) will be on high ground keeping a watchful eye for predators. She's very quick and agile and runs extremely fast for an animal her size.

Maremmas are an ancient breed that can be traced back over 2000 years. Although they were originally bred to be able to kill wolves they are loving and gentle towards people, pets and the animals they guard. We settled on Maremmas because we felt that they have not been bred very much here in the U.S. and that would keep their instincts intact.

Here they are with Tara one year later at almost 17 moths of age: