Once a year I have to give our livestock guardian dog, Neffie, a haircut. This is not a fun event for either of us. Neffie, for her part, is not a “people dog”. Maremmas and other LGD breeds have been bred for centuries to be independent. They are often aloof, and bonded tightly to their charges. People are not needed for them to do their job.
Neffie carries this to the max. She does not like to be handled by humans. In fact, I would say the only real reason she can probably think of to have a human around is to put food in her bowl every night.
Nonetheless, she will tolerate me (and only me!) catching her and handling her. She really doesn’t want to be petted, so for the most part I let her keep her distance.
When I need to catch her though, sometimes that presents a problem. If she doesn’t want to be caught, it’s just about impossible to corner her. Fortunately, once she figures out I really want to get hold of her, she usually just sits tight and lets me come on.
As you can see, she could have taken off in the 3-acre field behind her, and there is no way I could have kept up with her.
Once I get a leash on her, I tie the lead to something with a good sturdy knot so she can’t bolt.
Of course, you can’t do anything without our nosy goat, Cinnamon, poking around to see what she can get into.
Neffie’s coat doesn’t shed out well, and the chore of cutting it got put off much later than usual, so it was a matted mess.
I tried using the clippers, but they wouldn’t cut through the tangle, and no way was I going to try the shearers on her! As it was, what happened first thing? I was trying to get a mat and pulled it up to slip the scissors under it, but her skin pulled up too, so I cut her.
Talk about feeling lower than the proverbial snake’s belly!
Here’s this dog that trusts only me, and what do I do when she lets me catch her? Right off, I cut her. Oh man…. and she never flinched, growled, or nipped at me. The only reason I even knew it is because even the tiniest amount of blood shows up real quick against all that white. You can bet after that I was VERY careful to be sure my fingers were between her and the scissors. I’d rather cut me than her.
Fortunately, she didn’t seem to be upset, and we kept to the job at hand. Not that she liked the procedure, mind you, as you can see from this picture.
I’ll admit I’m not too fond of the procedure myself, as it involves a lot of squatting, kneeling, and bending over.
The Cave Geek (a.k.a. Youngest Son) was official photographer for the event. Of course, rather to my dismay, he also has the unfortunate tendency to like videos. I was hoping he wouldn’t figure out how to take them with my new camera, but no such luck.
I had trouble getting the mats under Neffie’s ears. There wasn’t a lot of space between the mat and her skin, and her ear kept flopping down in the way.
It took over an hour, but I finally got the mats and old coat trimmed off, then gave her a bath with flea and tick shampoo. She has a flea collar on, but I figured the bath would help tease out any mats left over.
She was quite happy when I was finally down clipping, shampooing and combing and let her go.
You can see by the aftermath we took a lot of hair off her.
My aftermath was being laid up for a couple of days. Paybacks are. . . not fun. But at least positively all the shearing and critter haircuts are done for the year!
. . . Oh, and in case you’re wondering, Neffie is short for “Queen Nephele”. If you’re not up on your Greek mythology, she was shepherdess for the ram with the Golden Fleece. It just seemed to fit.
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{ 4 comments… read them below or add one }
Neffie is beautiful. How interesting about her breed – I can’t imagine having a dog that isn’t bonded to people, but it makes sense if they are there for one specific purpose. Dogs can be so serious about doing their “work”!
I’m laid up with Advil when I give my two dogs a bath. I think unless you have a raised workspace, a back, hip and knee ache is imminent.
Glad the cut didn’t make her like you even less. Good job getting it done for her.
Wow! looks like that was hard work! lol. We have a maremma as a pet, his name is snoop, he’s a guardian to us, our family, all my many other animals, his yard, and his rottweiller companion. Snoop likes to feel like he’s working, and doing something important, but he’s also a loving pet (although only bonded to those he knows well). I’ve never had to cut his hair…. I find if i give him a good bath when the weather warms up, and really rub into his thick undercoat, within a few days he has shed all his long hair, right back to a short sleek fresh coat for summer. maybe that would work for your girl..? Love the stories, and the pictures, it reminds me alot of our place! lol. keep up the good work, i’d love to see more.
Dani, some LGD’s will also bond to people, but Neffie was with goats as a pup, and in fact, prefers them still to sheep. I used to lock her up with the sheep at night when we had a bigger flock, and she did her job. . . she just prefers hanging out with goats.
Ceecee, I wish I had a raised workplace to work on sheep and goats and what not. It sure would make it all a lot easier!!!
Ozzy Girl, nice to hear from you! Your dogs sound great. I’ll try again with the spring bath next year and see if it helps.