K.C.'s story

Owner: Patrick Holland E-mail: Tripleharp@aol.com Date posted: December 28, 2000 K.C. is a huge (very tall and very rangy) Great Pyrennes Livestock Guardian Dog. At 3 1/2 years he has spent his life living with and protecting commercial flocks of sheep on ranches in Montana, Wyoming and, now, on my place east of Yreka, in northern California. He gets a face-load of Mt. Shasta every morning as the sun rises, and in the long summer evenings, the alpenglow slowly retreats up the 14 thousand foot high peak until in vanishes into the grey of early dark. I bought K.C. last summer, and when he was delivered I noticed that he was slightly lame. Stiffness in getting up, a little gimpy, but he worked it out in a a few steps and then seemed fine. But, things got worse. We've got a pretty heavy load of predators in my area, and a guard dog has his hands full turning coyotes in their tracks and dissuading them from misadventure amongst my sheep. K.C. is excellent at his work, and I quickly grew used to his baso-profundo echoing from one end of the place to the other as he worked his fencelines. At 3 1/2 years he has spent his life living with and protecting commercial flocks of sheep. One day I happened to look out the ranch house window and I saw K.C. circling something down the field away from the house and near the lamb pasture. I went out to discover that K.C. had an eagle fledgeling on the ground and was circling the bird keeping it from flying. I laughed and gave a yell, K.C. ran over to me and the young eagle took off in a low flight uphill and away from the lambs. There's an eyrie in the rocks on a ridge above my place and the young bird was struggling to get back home. K.C., using the good judgement I have learned to expect from him went charging after the low-flying fledgeling eagle. His lameness was obvious, and he was most probably in pain, but he had his job to do. Anyway, the bird could only fly about 100 yards at a time before it crashed unceremoniously to the ground. K.C., however, wouldn't harm the bird when he could easily have killed it. His job is to protect, not to maul and needlessly kill, so he just happily circled the bird until it took off again. In that way K.C. escorted the youngster until it left our ground and flopped over the fenceline and worked its way up the ridge. On another early morning, a week after I decided that K.C.'s lameness had to be addressed and I was resting him in a stall in the barn, I heard a tremendous amount of whining and barking and yowling from the kennel of border collies as well as from the stall that K.C. was in. I went out and looked down the pasture, and there, big as life, was a coyote stalking some of the girls in the flock. I don't keep a gun, and I didn't want to turn the collies loose (they'd tear after the coyote and would get torn up in a fight), so I opened the stall to let K.C. out. Never have I seen such immediate terror in a creature as I saw in that coyote as soon as K.C. made an appearance on the field. Never have I seen such immediate terror in a creature as I saw in that coyote as soon as K.C. made an appearance on the field. Low and slick to the ground, that coyote flew toward the fenceline. But my fence is almost dog-proof (just another of the ways I manage predators), and the coyote couldn't find the hole it had dug to get under the fence. It tried to climb the fence, but it kept falling back into the field. K.C. meanwhile, gimpy as he was, just kept a steady galumphing gallop toward the brush wolf with the intent of dispatch upon arrival. They went out of sight across a ravine, and I didn't catch up until K.C. had cleared the place of the coyote. He was happy, indeed. He always likes it when I come out to lend a hand if he has some critter at bay. I've helped him turn coyotes (I don't shoot 'em, K.C. and I just scare the wits out of them by charging ... me in my ATV, and K.C. with his huge presence) and he is thrilled by my participation. The long nights, though, are solely his. I trust him to protect his flock, and he does, through the long hours. He is very brave. I trust him to protect his flock, and he does, through the long hours. Well, to make this long story shorter, I took K.C. to the University of California Veterinary School at Davis, California six weeks ago. He underwent a successful TPLO operation, and I brought him home three days later. I stayed in a local motel and did some wool selling business while I was down there. The usual restrictions on activity were relayed to me, and I thought I would easily be able to keep this dog confined in the barn stall. Better yet, the vet surgeon thought I should keep him in a large crate due to his agressive nature and drive to work. Well, you try putting a 115 pound, guard-trained Pyrennes into a crate when he decides that he's going to put his face in yours and lift a lip! Nope. Sweet as K.C. is, there are points beyond which he won't be pushed. (I know of men who have had bones broken by Livestock Guardian Dogs that perceived they were being mistreated.) OK, we'll just keep him in the stall. Sure. That went on for two weeks, until the coyotes started singing one late evening, and K.C. leaned against and battered that door until he popped the hasp and tore out the screws and nails keeping the latch in place. Did I mention that this dog is huge, and very, very strong? Remember, he has never lived indoors in his life, until now. Well, the barn stall became the barn stall plus the corral outside the stall. I took him to be x-rayed after the breakout incident, and we lucked out. No damage. At this point, we're heading into our seventh week, and K.C. is getting hard to control. I have purchased a second Pyrennes guard dog to take up the slack, but K.C. is long since ready to be back at it.