There’s a full grown dog who lives with our pigs…

Long story short, we used to have sheep.

We were still so new to farming. We had no idea what we were doing and messed up step number one –

With livestock guardian dogs, you’re supposed to raise them with the animals you intend to have them protect… preferably vulnerable livestock like chickens or sheep.

Although Maverick’s first 10 weeks were spent with a beautiful flock of sheep, the moment he stepped onto our farm, we made the mistake of introducing him to pigs.

Naively, I thought it was important for Maverick to be familiar with all of our animals so he wouldn’t associate them with being predators.

Maybe it was the similarity in size… maybe it was the puppy-like playfulness piglets have to offer… or maybe our wild-looking coarse hair sheep were just too different than the cute fluffy ones he grew up with… but he fell in love with pigs.

From his first day at Kingdom Gardens, there was a constant struggle to keep Maverick away from the pigs. Even when we forced him to live on pasture with the sheep, far out of eyesight and earshot from the rest of the farm, he’d regularly figure out ways to escape and find his way back to the pigs.

The struggle finally became unbearable

…not because we weren’t willing to chase him down or continue fighting with him, but because we knew his natural Great Pyrenees instincts had already been programmed to protect the pigs, not our sheep. He was happier living with pigs and made his preferences blatantly clear.

n tropical storms, snow, hot summer heat, strong winds… there’s nothing you can do to keep Maverick from protecting his pigs.

And although many of them have weighed up to 4x his weight and could surely hold their own against any predators, he still takes his guardian dog job very seriously!

I think the Lord knew we wouldn’t last long with sheep and allowed all of this to happen so that we’d get to keep our sweet pup on the farm for a lifetime of wallowing in the mud.