Meghan was first taken into rescue at 6 months old, when she was found wandering the streets of Spain on her own. She was adopted in the UK and was raised as a pet for the next year. However, due to the intensity of her character and her propensity to guard, she ended up back in foster - this time, on a farm that has working livestock guardian Mastins. It was quickly evident that those same instincts that made her a handful as an adolescent pet could be molded into the traits that make up an amazing livestock guardian dog.
Now, 8 months and a lot of training later, Meghan is a tried-and-tested working livestock guardian dog with an impressive set of skills. She has been trained with poultry - chickens, turkeys, ducks, and geese. She naturally protects against both land predators (foxes, badgers, otters, and more) and aerial predators (in our case, magpies, crows, and buzzards) - basically, anything that shouldn’t be in, near, or above her boundaries will be chased away. This includes mice/rats - a very useful skill for a poultry guardian dog to have!
Through a fence, after being properly introduced, Meghan is friendly with male dogs. She will happily interact with male dogs when on a lead too but shouldn’t be off-lead with them. She’s prone to resource guarding random things from them, which can lead to a fight. Like many female LGDs, Meghan doesn’t like female dogs. She will mostly ignore them from a distance but makes a lot of noise if they approach her fence line.
Meghan isn’t 100% trustworthy around cats. It’s best that she doesn’t have direct access to them, but can coexist with them on the same smallholding. The 2 cats she currently lives with choose to stay away from her.
With people, Meghan is extremely friendly and sociable. She is gentle and sweet with children too. She loves being the centre of attention but also always has one eye on her surroundings - she will quickly abandon a cuddle if she spots something that needs to be investigated further!
Meghan is a very independent and intelligent dog. She needs an adopter who understands how sensitive yet stubborn livestock guardian breeds can be. The two of you will need to be a team, so the focus at the beginning needs to be on bonding. She isn’t a machine that’s going to immediately start working for you on day one, but once she has a solid connection with you, she would give her life for you/your animals. She is an amazing protector of her boundaries.
Meghan is currently in foster in Aberdeenshire, Scotland. We’re hoping to find her a local-ish home, so that we can do a gradual transition. However, if you live further afield but have the perfect home for her, we would consider that too.
If you’re looking for a livestock guardian dog but don’t have the right environment for Meghan, please do still get in touch as we have other dogs who could be a good fit!
Here are some FB posts with more pics/videos of Meghan's training journey:
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mastinmatters/permalink/4000170623547333/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mastinmatters/permalink/4026059600958435/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mastinmatters/permalink/4095613727336355/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mastinmatters/permalink/4109149019316159/
https://www.facebook.com/groups/mastinmatters/permalink/4145825588981835/