This is Marcia. Marcia was born and raised right here. She, has been trusted implicitly with our ewes and lambs since her first lambing at age one year. During her first year, in addition to learning how to be a good guardian, Marcia learned to be in the house and to have leash manners, how to ride like a lady in the car and that it’s okay to not like obnoxious dogs at the vets office, but it’s not okay to lunge at them for being idiots. During her first lambing, Marcia sat back several yards from the ewes and just watched. I imagine it was a little bit of a shock to see a squirming, crying, lump of life covered in a potentially tasty snack drop out of one of the ewes she’d been living with her whole life. So Marcia sat back and waited and watched, taking her cues from her human and her pack. I have no idea why Marcia is Marcia. I don’t believe I can take credit for her raw reactions to unexpected situations. I think this is the result of centuries of selective breeding, and okay, some of it from her training and just time spent with her. This is also why, despite the obvious hip issues in this breed, I will never again cross with another breed. Call me selfish, but I want the Spanish Mastiffs inherent traits to continue. Currently, the number of really great instinctive, discerning guardians seem to outnumber the not so good within this breed. I’d like to keep it that way. I’ve seen what has happened to other guardian breeds and I think it’s criminal to hear about breeds who are known for wandering, or barking too much, or who can’t be trusted with livestock until they’re two years old, and to know the fault lies squarely with us….with people and their egos and greed. Currently, I’m watching Faith and waiting to see her yearling reaction to lambing. Faith shares a father with Marcia, and has been raised the same way. We’ve only had one lamb so far, Marcia told her half sister to stay the hell away and Faith walked out a few yards and laid down, good girl! I can’t wait to see what the next few days bring….and yes, I’ll try to get photos.

In this video Marcia is doing the same thing she’s been doing for the past two days. Sitting close to this ewe and her lamb. When they move, Marcia moves. She doesn’t threaten her mom and dad when they walk by, she just sits and watches. I’ll be interested to see what she does when a couple ewes all lamb the same day..last year, she didn’t do this until the final lamb was born almost a week after the rest, once the lamb was coordinated enough to keep up with the others Marcia went back to just guarding the flock. I know, I’m a dog nerd….