Herd dogs were bred to protect the herd. While many may show a more gentle demeanor most days, when the time comes, they are absolute machines.
Funnily enough, I live close to DeKalb. Great Pyrenees are one of the more common herd dogs around here, and are a great example of gentle giants that will crush throats. They adopt just about anything smaller than they are, treat anything they see as their territory, and are known for tracking coyotes for miles just to exterminate them all for fucking with their stock.
It doesn’t end with their herd, either. They can be highly responsive to their owners. You start showing any signs of tension, they will put themselves between you and whatever is bothering you.
It doesn’t end with their herd, either. They can be highly responsive to their owners. You start showing any signs of tension, they will put themselves between you and whatever is bothering you.
Well I can’t get one because the fucker would try to wedge itself between my brain and the bottom of my skull
Well, do I have a fun fact for you then: Cheetahs are such anxious and easily stressed animals that zoos consistently failed to set up breeding programs until somebody had a bright idea and paired up a cheetah cub with a golden retriever puppy to be raised together.
Growing up with a lifelong friend in such a chill and loving dog breed allows them to live a lot less anxiously, and has been so successful with keeping cheetahs happy and healthy that the practice has been adopted all over the place.
Dogs are full of love and want to help, even if that’s by simply existing in the same space as you.
Cheetahs are just so wonderfully weird. Basically big housecats that are also rocket powered apex predators.
Also, I love The Cheetah Whisperer.
Cheetahs are so weird largely because they’re actually not apex predators and are surrounded by so many bigger predators! From lions and leopards to packs of wild dogs or hyenas, there are plenty of animals that can take down a cheetah pretty easily. Especially because they’re so overbuilt for that burst of speed that that’s basically the one trick that they have. They’re super easily bullied out of their meals by other animals, including scavengers. I think this is why they’re so chill with people, though. Because if we’re not running at them or away from them, then we’re not predator or prey, and must be some secret third thing - friend shaped! Kinda like how we’re the only other bipedal animal in the Antarctic besides penguins, so penguins largely see us as just weird-looking penguins and will hop into boats with people and stuff.
I sort of knew the overview of all that, but thanks for the detailed clarifications! :)
They can be highly responsive to their owners. You start showing any signs of tension, they will put themselves between you and whatever is bothering you.
When we watch my sisters dog, my wife has to use a vibrating collar for the dog. He reacts to everything as a potential threat to her, and that ramps up with my kids being there.
If its just me walking him, he tends to just be a roaming doofus. If I add in our (little and much older) dog, he’s fine until the moment our dog reacts.
Its actually extremely wild to me just how responsive they are to those around them.
Edit: Forgot to mention, he’s a mutt - consisting of like 7 different herding breeds common to the southern US. He’s also well over a hundred lbs, and the goodest boy (of the lovable idiot variety).
He also has zero response to my kids, they can lay next to him, on him, whatever, his only interest is looking out for them. And treats.
They’re also not deferential or clingy like a lot of dogs (and honestly, why a lot of people want a dog).
Pyrs/Maremmas have a job to do and they don’t want to sit around being scratched while staring into your eyes.
and are known for tracking coyotes for miles just to exterminate them all for fucking with their stock.
“It was just a fucking sheep!”
“you can either hand over the perpetrator, or you can die screaming alongside them!”
There is no choice. There is only kill.
I am not kidding when I say they are akin to a Terminator. Their only thought is to eliminate the threat until there is no threat left. Rip and tear, until it is done.
That dog is at least part Great Pyrenees, and those dogs were bred to protect livestock from wolves and bears. We had them growing up, my parents still keep a couple. It’s not unusual to wake up to 4-5 dead coyotes in your yard.
Is coyote meat any good?
Probably not. Most nonaquatic predators are awful tasting and very unhealthy to eat due to the buildup of heavy metals and other nasty stuff from further down the food chain.
Ah, figures. Otherwise it could be a source of free meat.
The comment is not entirely correct, it’s more if it’s a scavenging predator or live hunter. Something picky for food they have hunted themselves like a mountain lion can be amazing meat, or a bear feasted on berries or live fish. But if they’ve been scavenging like a bear with dead fish and garbage or a coyote, it can be horrible meat. Depends on species too as well as diet.
Sorry mate, but any first year biology student learns that the higher up the food chain the more concentrated the heavy metals are. Take Tuna. As free range as you can get but it is advised to minimize consumption, particularly when pregnant, due to the high mercury content.
While lifestyle does affect palatability of the meat (Bear near the dump always tastes ‘off’) it is more a question of ‘what’ is being bioaccumulated, not ‘if’. In your example scavengers are bioaccumulating pesticides and preservatives, whereas the successful predator accumulates all the heavy metals its prey, and their prey, and their prey (repeat until the bottom of the tree) consumed.
You can’t get around it. All high level predators have shitty meat, whether it tastes bad or not.
‘Erm actually’ They asked if coyote ‘the species of animal’ is good mean. ‘Good’ here meaning obviously palatability. Heavy metal accumulation can also depend on region, which wasn’t part of their question.
“All high level predators have shitty meat” My lord man, cougar meat is PRIZED, any hunting community will tell you that.
Assuming it’s similar to dog: No, it’s quite nasty, but there’s people in Switzerland who probably consider it a delicacy.
If I remember correctly, Casper went also missing for a few days - he was hunting the remaining coyotes to finish the job.
Those coyotes didn’t expect to meet the Good Boi of DeKalb, Woofer of Woe, the Hound Who Watches the Herd. Legends says no coyote can kill him and he can lift three sheep in his mouth
We’re surrounded… that simplifies things!
- Lt. General Chesty Puller
