Age Of Placement

This smiling fellow is a five month old Sarika x Milan pup headed to his new home with his ten month old partner. At 80+ lbs he isn't just a puppy - he's a capable, well started adolescent ready to go to work.

At this time, we place our pups at 6-9 months old, typically. Leaving pups here in training longer is usually an option.

Here they are at work in their new northern Idaho home.

Because Maremmas are not considered adults until two years of age it is technically correct to refer to our "puppies" as such, even though they may be the size/age of the dogs above.

Our pups live full time with livestock from the age of six weeks. They live and work together as a litter until they leave me, with changes as necessary. We do active and passive training with the pups consistently throughout their time here. An example of active training would be individual leash work and visits to the chicken coop. Passive training would be me moving the pups into new fields and introducing them to new livestock. They learn something new here on the ranch absolutely every day; this education helps them be successful in their new homes.

This five month old Sarika x Milan pup is learning about being on a leash and about new areas, and new livestock such as the mini donkey that just brayed at her!

These five month old pups have learned a LOT here and are ready for their new homes.

Our pups are very well socialized. This pair of pups have just arrived to their new home.

After the pups are four months old they have their hips certified. I do this so that I know with certainty that the pups I offer for purchase are physically sound and able to do their jobs.

This is the PennHIP certificate for one of the Sarika pups; please note the grey bar near the bottom of the page. This grey bar represents the range of scores typical for Maremmas. On it, .51 is what our Code of Ethics guidelines require for breeding dogs, .40 is the median score for our breed, and the green line is the score for this pup. Yea pup! This is a great score!

Most people shopping for an LGD would prefer to bring home a dog/dogs that are ready to go to work, not young pups that themselves are physically vulnerable and well as being a training project. I am proud to offer "pups" such as we do here.