Dog on the Loose

Insurance companies are quick to note that the biggest threat to alpacas is other loose dogs, such as the neighbor's dog that got loose and gets into your alpaca's pasture. We have a guardian dog, Spot, who watches out for these type of dogs. What Spot doesn't guard for is our own house dogs. We have two house dogs, and we specifically set up our backyard to keep them separate from the alpacas. However, once in awhile Quinn gets loose. While I know he won't hurt our alpacas, I'm not so sure the alpacas won't hurt him. Those moms can be very protective.

These pictures aren't the best because they are taken at some distance with a lot of cropping, but I think you can get the idea.

Here all the alpacas are watching the loose dog (I've mentioned before how the alpacas will all stare at any form of danger, here is an example of that):



Snickers, and her daughter Rose, won't just stare. They have to go and investigate. When visitors come to our farm, Rose and Snickers will come to greet them. Rose loves to sniff people. When there is danger involved, Snickers is ready to stomp (I've heard of alpacas stomping smaller animals to death). Quinn wasn't going to stand still for a stomping lesson, so he took off running.

Here is Quinn running, alpacas (Snickers and Rose) and Zack chasing behind:



Here Quinn is trapped at the gate (he managed to squeeze past it).



In the end no one was hurt, and we are reminded again how important it is to make sure all gates are closed to keep the house dogs away from the farm animals.