2 lost pack llamas

[gb]

There are a lot of wild animals I would rather run into than sheep dogs, there have definitely been some attacks in the sheep areas west of Crested Butte. The aspen trees in that area are often carved with "Peru" and the year (or X rated drawings). Peruvians have been working the sheep in that area for decades, pretty interesting stuff. Presumably they speak Spanish and not just Quechua or something else.

Good luck getting those llamas back!

[Wimyers]

The sheepdog I encountered on Wetterhorn was the best part of the day.

[justiner]

Cold-blooded killers, all of them.

como_dog.jpg (192.21 KiB) Viewed 2754 times

[Boggy B]

The sheepdog I encountered on Wetterhorn was the best part of the day.

That dog was underperforming. The typical posture of the dogs that accompany herds around Wetterhorn Basin, American Flats, and everywhere else I've encountered them in the SJ, is extremely aggressive. I go out of my way to avoid the sheep. Usually the dogs don't venture too far beyond the perimeter of the herd, but they chased me a half a mile across American Flats once. I've also heard of them attacking people trying to be friendly with them.

[Bombay2Boulder]

The sheepdog I encountered on Wetterhorn was the best part of the day.

That dog was underperforming. The typical posture of the dogs that accompany herds around Wetterhorn Basin, American Flats, and everywhere else I've encountered them in the SJ, is extremely aggressive. I go out of my way to avoid the sheep. Usually the dogs don't venture too far beyond the perimeter of the herd, but they chased me a half a mile across American Flats once. I've also heard of them attacking people trying to be friendly with them.

This, that encounter is an outlier. I still have nightmares from my different sheep dog encounters in the San Juans. Never fun. 3 of them where particularly bad on lime mesa trail a couple of years back, been chased for 0.25 miles there, very unnerving. This is quite opposite to some of the well trained dogs you usually run into the Alps who respond well to the commands you are supposed to use if they come charging to you. I know this was an issue for Silverton locals a few years back. I feel for the ranchers, guard dogs are not cheap and training them is additional overhead.

[nyker]

Far cry from 'ol Horton on Quandary

[Wimyers]

The sheepdog I encountered on Wetterhorn was the best part of the day.

That dog was underperforming. The typical posture of the dogs that accompany herds around Wetterhorn Basin, American Flats, and everywhere else I've encountered them in the SJ, is extremely aggressive. I go out of my way to avoid the sheep. Usually the dogs don't venture too far beyond the perimeter of the herd, but they chased me a half a mile across American Flats once. I've also heard of them attacking people trying to be friendly with them.

I gave him a big honkin' piece of salami, so hopefully I ruined his work ethic for good!

[Boggy B]

I gave him a big honkin' piece of salami, so hopefully I ruined his work ethic for good!

Ha, maybe that's the move. As that dog was closing the gap I was looking for a sharp rock--perhaps chucking salami over my shoulder would have been more effective.

[cedica]

In 2004 I did my last overseas trip to Kosovo with the Army before retiring. Loosely, as a mission we climbed Mount Ljuboten (8,200 feet) looking for nefarious activity. Plenty of sheep up there with no shepherd and just the "Sharr Mountain Dogs" to guard the sheep. These dogs are known as the "wolf killer" and they look it!

The locals over there often outfit them with spiked collars, so they very much look the part. It's a tough neighborhood for everybody, dogs included.

But according to the stories I've heard, they would never be aggressive towards children or small dogs.

[rmcpherson]

For those curious, like me, why livestock grazing is permitted in wilderness areas, this article is a good summary of the history and politics of how it came to be included in the Wilderness Act. We have Colorado Congressman Wayne Aspinall to thank for the carve-outs in the original 1964 Act.

[l_balcomb]

Lost Llama update; Many thanks to 116ajm for the pictures. My Sister and I went down and backpacked for a few days. tried to go up where he was but was too much for us old ladies. I'm 70 in a couple weeks. they were also spotted way high closer to the West Fork Pass, so they are probably/hopefully heading back to where we started at the Wetterhorn Basin TH. We've had contact with the Gal that runs the cows in the West Fork and as she rides a couple times a week she will hopefully know when they come down. Could be a while. They seem perfectly happy being mountain goats. We were able to recover one set of panniers and gear but still on the look out for the other set, They are bight blue and white and the top load was bright lime green. We know/think they are somewhere between the middle Canyon trail and the top of that ridge above the West Fork. it'd be a miracle if someone stumbled over them but we'd love to hear where.
I see a lot of talk about the guard dog and want to say that 23 years of llama packing in the high county of Colorado has prepared us for encounters with them, and we were prepared. we crossed to the far side of the valley, put my dog on his leash, got together in a tight group...but this was one sneaky aggressive dog. Nothing like we have ever seen. I'm very thankful he didn't seriously hurt my dog. What a mess! to put it mildly
Thanks to everyone's for the support. We're still very hopeful we'll get them home. It's hard because we live so far away but we'll get it done. please continue sending any info of any kind. thanks, take care, Lisa

[nyker]

I am not familiar with llama physiology and this suggestion may be useless, but when my dog(s) were lost years ago, we put pieces of our clothes in spread out lines leading back to a central location hoping they would pickup the scent and follow it back, which they did and we found her!
Would something like that work with llamas?