Maggie, sweet Maggie

by Marianne Glofcheski
(Lochaber QC)

My good and sweet friend, Maggie, has been living with me for about four months now. She had gone through a rather traumatic experience. She lost her home, her herd and her job all at once.

She has been recuperating during this time, getting over the stress induced physical issues that had resulted from all the events of her past year.

She is a working girl and after a four month recuperation period is now ready to guard again. Her perfect home would be on a hobby farm where she could live in the barn with her charges but spend lots of time with her human to receive love, cuddles and understanding that she deserves. She does love her human but she must be approached with patience and respect.

Oh, and she does not think the barn cats should be wandering around outside.

I would like to see her go to a small or hobby farm where she could live in the barn with `her’ animals but would not be required to go out into the fields. She is small, only 65 pounds, up from 62, at present but I have hopes of getting a few more on her soon since we have solved the problems with her digestive system, parasites, and possibly of even a chicken allergy although I have no way of checking this out.

Since she has regained her health, she refuses to eat chicken. When a raw-fed Pyr does this, it is usually indicative of instinctive self-defence.

She is presently happily eating raw beef, lamb and goat bones and getting vitamin supplements as well as glucosamine for a bit of morning stiffness. I am mixing in some cooked oatmeal (1cup in 1 pound coarsely chopped meat) to try to up the calories and will soon add some ground vegetables into the ground beef/oatmeal mix.

Of course, being a Pyr, she will only eat a certain amount so there is no use trying to get more into her. Hand feeding stopped working as soon as her digestive system started functioning again!

This is her story as I understand it. I have been told that she has ‘always’ been with goats. I rather wonder at this because of her loving attitude to humans. However, Maggie was working on a goat farm but her herd was sold.

She was rescued by another goat farmer and happily guarded her bucks and bucklings in her barn while another Pyr worked with the females. Nine months later, her barn caught fire and her herd perished in the fire which swept through the wooden structure very quickly. She tried to get them out but she couldn’t and the lady managed to tie her out so she would not go back.

In true Pyr form, Maggie tried to clean up the carcasses to discourage roaming predators. She tried to eat them all but there are too many and they were black-charred. Her system clogged with a smoke / tar substance.

So, Maggie suffered a third failure. She was not able to get her bucks out of the fire. She had no more home to stay in and now, she was not able to clean up and so keep away predators from the remaining females.

The lady put her in with some of the females but her trauma was so bad that she nipped at the females and disagreed with the male Pyr.

Maggie had something akin to PTSD, post traumatic stress.

The lady called the club to see if there was somewhere Maggie could stay until they were able to clean up and rebuild. I said I’d take her. She was skin and bones when she came, not having eaten much over the last months since leaving her original farm. It would seem that she was somewhat depressed and not eating well since the first move.

Four months later I asked about her future. The owners of the burned farm were still not at a point where they could start rebuilding. We agreed that Maggie would be best to find a new job, working on a farm again but taking into consideration her age.

She is 8 + years old. She would like light guardian work. She will do well on a diet of raw beef with a cup of porridge mixed in, meaty bones, 500 – 750 mg of glucosamine daily . (I put the glucosamine tablet into the ground beef.)

She would need to have lots of love, cuddles and fence / border walks with her human, as well as long conversations. She loves to hear me talk to her about everything and nothing. With this, she will create a great bond with her chosen human. Furthermore, apart from chasing the barn cats, she gets on with dogs by just ignoring them.

I do think she would also very nicely become a companion dog if she had lots of human attention and a nice warm kennel near the house or on a verandah so that she may easily go out to pee. Taking long walks on leash with me and just hanging out listening to me rattle on are favourite activities and she does love her human time!


Marianne Glofcheski

(819) 985-1044