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Our farm dog Estes
LGD (Livestock Guard Dog)
We use a maremma to guard our alpaca. Maremma are an LGD breed that comes from the mountains that border Italy and France. They have been bred for centuries to guard sheep. Our dog (Estes; which rhymes with best-est) has been with us from the beginning. Because his name rhymes with best-est we like to say Estes the best'est guard dog. :-) Estes lives in the barn with the alpaca and is quite bonded to them. At this time he is still young (at 1 1/2 year) so he is in with the geldings. When he is mature he will be able to be with the females and the cria.
Bo-tie
Llama
Llama are a camelid that are native to South America where they have a long history of domestication. They have long been raised to be a pack animal and so they are about twice the size of an alpaca. Their fiber is also much courser than an alpacas. Our llama is a female named Bo-tie. We are training her to be a cart llama (meaning that she'll pull/drive a cart for us). This should be tons of fun for visitors. We want to participate in parades and other events.