Bravo for Casper ~ what a brave young Great Pyrenees ~ Jingles & AO he recovers quickly ~
Gasper is the goodest boy ever!
There are so many problems with this “story”… I don’t believe any of it, to be honest. Other than they didn’t find him or get him vet care until well after the fact. That I believe.
I have seen this all over FB and it has me well and truly steamed. That man uses these dogs in his business yet completely set that pup up to fail and then didn’t even bother to keep looking for him until he found him, THEN didn’t get him treatment until someone else got the funding for it. It’s despicable. If you can’t afford a fund to treat your employee dogs when you let them needlessly get torn to shreds you need to get out of the live animal business. I’m so hot over this, gah.
LGD’s aren’t supposed to be fighting with predators in the first place - you’re supposed to have enough of them that the barking and posturing scares them off before it comes to a fight. If you know you have a large pack of coyotes and even counted 11 of them earlier in the night (and then went to BED) you need to have no less than three dogs out there, not two. Preferably 4 or 5 or more. Or a facility to house your sheep to keep predators out.
This is not a feel-good story. He literally hung his good dog out to dry. Besides the fact that Casper isn’t even fully mature and shouldn’t be left out without support and with that blue eye isn’t even a full Pyrenees.
I agree this is not a feel-good story. It’s irresponsible on many levels. The photos of Casper are not a real LGD. It bothers me when I see – especially down south – “LGD” thrown around as an excuse to not provide a dog with training, housing, or adequate care. 
While they’re made to be the villain in this story, I feel for the coyotes allegedly killed. No party was set up for success here. There is no reason coyotes should be able to get into your livestock paddock, especially not eleven of them. It really sounds like these sheep were not properly contained and neither was the dog if he was able to escape and chase them down. This LGD abandoned his flock, this is not a real LGD, and does disservice to the perception of LGDs everywhere.
The perception is such a huge thing, so many of the FB comments were about how this is what these dogs are bred to do, this is what they’re supposed to do (kill predators), of course the owner did nothing wrong because GPs are meant to sacrifice themselves to take on packs of coyotes, etc. Mostly from people you could tell have never ran stock nor kept real, working LGDs. No. They’re not. They’re supposed to check perimeters and bark and scream to the world that these sheep are not worth the trouble, and making contact is their last resort. But everyone thinks these dogs are supposed to be Rambo out there alone 
And what Southerner running sheep doesn’t have a rifle??? Out there throwing ROCKS?! Come on.
Wow. If predators are this bad you would think the so called " farmer" would have several LGD’s protecting his flock. Poor Casper for having to go it alone. He is lucky to be alive.
I have no idea what is true or false in this story but it hit me the wrong way. Was the so called " farmer" just watching through the whole thing??
The first story that came out, before this rescue stepped in to help, said he saw the supposed 11 coyotes earlier in the night, but went to bed. Then, when the dogs started barking, he went out and threw rocks at them because he had no other way to help. Then Casper chased them past his fence and after a short search the owner said to heck with it and went back to bed. They searched the next day and didn’t find him. The day after they accidentally stumbled onto him hiding in the chicken coop, torn to shreds. So they tried to doctor him at home first. Then finally took him to a vet but the vet, “wanted too much money” so took him back home again.
Despicable.
I’m glad I’m not the only one not enjoying the story.
I want to say I haven’t seen a fence that can keep coyotes out. You can make it difficult and unappealing with good fences, Hotwire, guardians, a closed up barn, etc but coyotes are going over or under fencing. So we have to make the risk and effort not worth the reward.
I do chuckle when people complain about containing their wandering LGDs on small acreage. If they built a fence that could contain their dog, such a fence would also likely deter the opportunistic predator. So I agree a good fence is important.
When we raised sheep, we brought them in at night. No blood, no gore, no drama, and happier sheep. We hear the coyotes where we live now. If we get into sheep again, they will come in at night to a barn. Predators stress sheep, even if they have protectors. If you want to run your sheep on large land leases with a shepherd in a trailer moving and watching over them, yes, you need dogs. Your average backyard sheep flock needs a barn. The boom in popularity of livestock guardian dogs among hobby farms has been very troublesome. The farms aren’t typically large enough or the dogs are not properly trained. Irresponsible breeders selling the dogs as one size fits all share the blame as well. The coyotes aren’t the biggest problem here. It’s poor training, poor handling, and poor shepherding. “Giving up” wasn’t an option when those animals provided necessary income for your family. That ethic should still be there. You search for your sheep, lamb, dog, cow, or calf until you find them and bring them out of danger. That’s the contract humans made when we domesticated these animals. On a large land lease of thousands of acres, yes, I get it, it that’s why you hire a shepherd to be with the flock 24/7. A large ranch? You get out there by first light to search until they are found. There’s no giving up. On your smaller farm less than 200 acres? Get out there and find your animals. No excuses. If you can’t, sell them or bring them in every night.
Yes! This exactly!
Well, I just stalked the guy’s facebook and not only all of the problems mentioned by you guys above, the dog managed to escape his cone and rip all of his stitches out.
Sorry, no excuse for that either. Someone needs to stay with him 24/7 if need be. That or figure out a cone he can’t rip off (ie, not that crappy fabric one they have on him).
I never thought to look at his FB. I was picturing someone old and unfit, now I’m even more irritated.
Same. Younger guy, with far too many animals for his skill level. Yuck.
Calls himself an urban shepherd. He ought to be shepherding cars or lawnmowers instead. Gross. “Ewe Can Do It Naturally”
I did this when we started with sheep and goats. Funny thing is that my goats put themselves away now when it starts to get dark. We hear lots of coyotes too but our barns are all up by the house and with dogs and such we’ve (thankfully) never had a problem.
I’ve never been a fan of asking animals to do our dirty work, like this or police work or war.
As an alarm system? Sure.
I don’t understand why he doesn’t own a gun. Oh he threw a rock. Yeah him. Then he went to bed.
We have coyotes and they go running when you fire a 22 into the ground or at them. The certainly don’t stick around. In his FB he says firing off a shotgun would not have helped. BS.
I think he basically lives in town? So probably for the best he didn’t grab a gun but he gets a big fail on …whatever it is he’s doing.
