The Maremma Sheepdog is a livestock guardian, therefore his main duties is to protect animals or humain beings. It is also a dog with a very strong territoriality, the territory that he is protecting, is the area where the animals or the human beings are living. Simply said, this is the basis of his occupation, his way of working, but also his mindset.
There are different situations and conditions under which the Maremma Sheepdog performs its work.
There are different situations and conditions under which the Maremma Sheepdog performs its work.
There is the traditional way where the Maremma Sheepdog is employed with livestock animals following the flock in open wide territories, namely the pastures, where it can strictly come into direct contact with predators and wild animals in general, often the dogs are left alone taking care of the flocks for days. This is a very specialized way of working, where the breed and its instincts are put on a hard try and the best people to prepare the dog for this kind of work are for sure the professional shepherds.
Then there's another use of the Maremma Sheepdog, mainly in the countryside or in large territories, but with spaces and boundaries more defined with fences that are somehow a partial barrier to the external environment where threats can come from.
Finally there is the situation where nowadays the Maremma Sheepdog is used more and more than ever before, i.e. in homes with garden, with a familly to protect and maybe some other animal.
These are all situations where we can say that this breed does a great job, a job that satisfies their attitudes and motivations.
It is less suitable for the Maremma Sheepdog to guard a single territory without any animals or human beings to protect, like an olive grove or a yard or a warehouse of a commercial company. There are many examples of dogs employed in this way who abandon their territory to go to one near where there are sheep or other animals.
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