Some breeds of dogs are hardwired for farm duties. What happens when they end up in a life of suburban leisure?
Growing up, like many other kids, I was all about dogs. My begging began at age 3, and didn’t cease until age 6, when my family adopted a ‘Chocolate Lab’ mix we’d seen listed online. Buddy was, in fact, not a Chocolate Lab — he was a 110-lb Great Pyrenees in dire need of a bath, despite the shelter employees’ best (misguided) guess. His “chocolate” color was simply accumulated dirt.
From then on, Buddy was our family’s protector. Developed as a livestock guardian dog in France, the Great Pyrenees is a strong-willed, powerful breed — and one our family hadn’t been prepared to adopt. My family’s run-down chain link fence had to be upgraded to a 6-foot solid wood blockade after our neighbors grew tired of Buddy running down the street to take a dip in the pond, wandering through yards and antagonizing other dogs along the way. My mom started taking him on 5am walks to sate his energy before work. “I knew I was safe as long as I had Buddy,” she said. “People would cross the street when they saw that dog coming!”
One word to describe Buddy? Stubborn. However, we adapted to our life together, and he suited our family well — eventually, his drive to work was sated by his job of protecting our household. Buddy’s temperament gave me a love for strong-willed, intelligent dogs, and I grew interested in working breeds ranging from German Shepherds to Border Collies. Today, I own Rory, an Australian Shepherd — one who was given to me during my teenage years. While I didn’t expect to have to handle so much dog, I’ve grown accustomed to her being a part of my lifestyle. However, owning a working breed — without any “work” to provide — is very different than owning other breeds. We spend hours every day exercising, even at 10 years old, combining typical exercise for a dog like long walks and swimming with activities like herding, agility, and nosework.
Any dog developed with a “job” in mind has a strong mental drive. Herding breed or not, high-energy dogs often struggle with living the life of a suburban pet; I know more than one Husky owner who lost their dog after it grew weary of spending too many days at home. In the past decade, I’ve worked and volunteered in many positions with dogs — boarding kennels, rescues, transporting dogs from shelters. Even in daily excursions with my own dog, I’ve noticed a trend: In suburbia, there’s more and more breeds present that I’d typically expect to be working sheep, not trotting to the end of the block on a leash.
Sometimes, they’re “designer” versions who seem equally confused about their place in the world — yapping Toy Aussies who aren’t commanding enough to control even the smallest flock, or “Borderdoodles” who won’t stop hauling their owners along at every step. Even as an owner of a herding dog myself, I’ve had to start wondering whether the number of traditional farm dogs we have available is outpacing the number of homes that can truly give them what they need.
“I know there is a small portion of owners who obtain these dogs that know what they are doing and do a good job, but it is certainly not the majority.”
Farmers have long valued the work that dogs can do to make life easier. Herding dog breeds were intentionally bred alongside humans’ first tinkering with sheep, cattle, and goats; once developed primarily to ward off natural predators of livestock species, herding dogs have been refined for different purposes for many generations. Breeds developed as livestock guardian dogs (LGDs), like Great Pyrenees and Anatolian Shepherds, have duties primarily aligned with protecting livestock from threats; they’re known for their use today in diffusing altercations between ranchers and reintroduced wildlife like wolves and mountain lions.
However, we didn’t stop there — we refined herding traits into a true “shepherding” drive found in breeds like the Australian Shepherd and Border Collie, who also play a role in the safety of the flock, but aren’t bred to physically defend from aggressors. These dogs exist not to protect the flock from threats, but to channel them into safe pens at the request of the farmer. Both herding and livestock guardian dogs share an intense drive to work, and can be challenging in different ways for both new and experienced owners.
It seems that many professionals in the field have seen similar surges in popularity for breeds traditionally used to work farms. Elliot Kaiser is a RVT (Registered Veterinary Technician) working at a high-volume clinic in southern Colorado; due to the location of his practice, he sees many pet dogs and cats along with true working dogs who are owned by farmers or ranchers. In his four years in the industry, he already feels like more herding dogs are popping up. “I know there is a small portion of owners who obtain these dogs that know what they are doing and do a good job, but it is certainly not the majority,” Elliot said. He noted that while herding breeds like Border Collies and Australian Shepherds have always been fairly popular, large livestock guardian breeds have notably increased.
“I’m not sure if this is a fad, or the increasing number of LGD breeders in the county, or a secret third thing I haven’t considered,” he said of the population explosion. “More concerning has been a very significant increase in the number of (livestock guardian) dogs that are brought into the shelter as strays, or surrendered to the shelter because the owners can’t or don’t want to care for them any longer.” That said, there are many people like myself who are trying to provide their dogs with good lives, even if they aren’t in a traditional home. “My personal belief is that these dogs are not appropriate pets for 99% of people, and they require a dedicated person,” Elliot said.
One of Elliot’s friends, a licensed therapist, had a Great Pyrenees given to her as a puppy by a frustrated neighbor. Despite some struggles, the dog has come to succeed greatly with a sense of purpose. “My friend did all her research on the breed, made sure to provide him with an appropriate environment and exercise, and gave him a job to do,” he said. “Just this year he completed training as a therapy dog, and he provides his services to her patients.”
“There has been a very significant increase in the number of (livestock guardian) dogs that are surrendered to the shelter because the owners can’t or don’t want to care for them any longer.”
Perhaps more concerning is the future direction that these breeds will take. Some fans of herding and livestock guardian breeds, particularly owners using them for working purposes, have felt that over-commercialization of these dogs as pets has led to lower-quality breeding. This can be seen as increasing numbers of health issues showing up even in costly working bloodlines, along with challenging behavioral issues unexplained by environmental factors. Over half the other participants in the dog training class I attended were herding dog owners, all struggling with some form of reactivity or aggression in their dogs.
While that’s a challenge for pet owners, behavioral issues like that can also make a herding dog functionally unusable on a farm. I spoke with Cara Riolo, who previously owned a business working as a certified dog trainer and canine nutritionist in and around Maryland. Cara’s own dog is a “Supermutt” whose DNA test came back with a combination of many challenging breeds, like German Shepherd and Heeler. “I adopted a dog who was behaviorally too advanced for me,” Cara admitted. “I had to make the choice to walk away or change my knowledge and my lifestyle in order to give him the best possible life.”
Cara committed to the task of changing her lifestyle to better suit her dog, just as I changed mine to better suit Rory’s needs. And, afterwards, she found she had a special affinity for dogs whose behaviors were challenging. “Working with many, many people that wanted these smart, pretty, athletic herding dogs but were not ready for how much they needed to actually engage with those dogs outside of just jogging around with them, I ended up working with many herders that had no business being in the home they were in,” she said.
Cara added that it’s not a one-size-fits-all answer — while some farm dogs can thrive in a fairly average household, others will struggle immensely. “I think there’s something to be said for how herding breeds’ drive can be redirected towards other activities like flyball, agility, tracking, and so on, while livestock guardian breeds’ instincts and drive don’t transfer well to other tasks outside of, well, livestock guardian work.”
“They are essentially workaholics to their own detriment because they have no off switch or ability to do anything but work at all times. I hear stories pretty frequently of these dogs injuring themselves because they have no ability to regulate their own energy or excitement, and because we have bred them to have such extreme tenacity that they ignore pain when they are in ‘the zone,’” so to speak.” Cara noted she’s seen this in her own dog, working himself to the point of exhaustion chasing a rabbit; I’ve had to intervene when my dog just wouldn’t stop playing outside, leaving her feet bloody when she wouldn’t stop racing across the driveway with a herding toy.
“Truthfully, we have too many different breeds of dog that don’t have much of a place in the world anymore.”
Part of me aches thinking about this life for so many dogs across America. There are many dogs whose owners haven’t made the effort; there are many dogs who now languish in shelters, and many working dogs whose poor breeding will lead them to retire early or suffer pain earlier in life than they should. “Truthfully, we have too many different breeds of dog that don’t have much of a place in the world anymore,” Cara said. “So you have dogs that were bred to do one or two things to a point of excellence, but they have no opportunity to do that anymore. Can you imagine what that must be like? To be born to do something and never get to do it?”
I know the hunger behind my own dog’s eyes innately; I see the years of frustration and buildup in moments of raw honesty — lunging at the window as we drive past dogs in motion playing together, or how hard she’ll fight for another five minutes of playtime. In my dog’s younger years, I often felt just as held back by her — her high drive and energy requirements have gotten in the way of my commitment to multiple internships and opportunities that would have furthered my career. However, we are locked in a partnership where both of us give our all, but it’s not enough — I will never be able to provide an ideal life for her, and she will never be able to adjust to my own ideal life.
It is only natural to see things change as we move forward — it’s not uncommon for a breed’s “purpose” to change over time, or for a breed to have many uses. However, these dog breeds were carefully developed to work alongside us as partners to assist us in agriculture. They deserve more than to go out quietly into the night: They are a part of our agricultural history and legacy as much as we are ourselves. With so many dogs accustomed to the daily grind of many folks’ 9-to-5 schedules, there are many options for any loving pet owner — perhaps we can allow more working dogs to get to work.
