Stoneybrook’s Alishe
Alishe was my pick of the litter from Hank and Hailey’s 2010 litter of eleven pups, nine of which were female… She has an incredibly soft, manageable coat, solid black pigment on all pads, even solid black nails. She is a perfect ten in my opinion of the Maremma Sheepdog Breed Standard. Alishe is OFA Certified good; hips, shoulders and elbows. She received her eye CERF in December 2012. Alishe had her first litter in the spring of 2013. She has proven to be a wonderful mother, mentor and flock guardian for both sheep and goats. Alishe has the kind of personality that would tempt you to keep her as a companion, but is clearly attached to her flock. She is very outgoing, energetic and loves absolutely everyone. Alishe thrives on human affection and will mooch any attention she can rob from visitors.
Stoneybrook’s Panda (Transumante Pandora)
We imported Pandora (Panda, for short) in December 2012 from Dario Capagrosso. Panda has turned out to be one of our most promising young foundation females. She has a calm, disciplined temperament and has an attractive eye appeal to boot. She has one of the nicest heads I have ever seen on a Maremma. Panda has produced two litters, sired by Stoneybrook’s Hoss. We have retained two of these pups in our breeding program, Terex and Daunte. Both of these young sires have appeared to mature at an extremely young age. Both were guarding full time by the age of 7 months and were completely trustworthy with young lambs as well as poultry. Panda has proven to pass on the low prey drive and strong bonding instinct to her offspring that is so essential to a successful livestock guardian.
Stoneybrook’s Nala 
Nala was imported 5 years ago from Italy. We have enjoyed watching her grow into a beautiful and beloved livestock guardian. She has gone through many kidding seasons, and has proven to be gentle and trustworthy with the babies.
Nala has the thick, rugged coat of her Italian ancestors, which enables the Maremma Sheepdog to remain comfortable despite sub zero temperatures. Ironically, she seldom gets matted, and her coat seems to require very little attention in terms of grooming. She will literally molt in the spring and shed out all that thick undercoat. She has never been shaved, never had a hotspot, ear infection, itchy, dry skin or anything of that nature.
Nala is content just hanging out with her goats, but also enjoys any attention she can mooch off her two legged friends. Nala is triple registered with Ente Nazionale delle Cinofilia Italiana, (ENCI) Maremma Sheepdog Club of America, (MSCA) and the United Kennel Club (UKC). Nala is OFA Certified Good.
Click here to see view Nalas pedigree and more photos
Stoneybrook’s Hailey- The foundation dam of our Maremma breeding program
Hailey was always so eager to greet me when I went out to do my chores, but equally as content to go right back out with her sheep. She taught me so much about what makes the Maremma Sheepdog unique. Hailey had been imprinted on sheep ever since she was a just a pup. She assisted with lambing, broke up quarrels among the sheep, chased off coyote, wolves, eagles and even tried to befriend a young whitetail fawn that found her way into the sheep paddock. Several years ago, I had decided it was time to add poultry to her flock guardian duties, specifically a band of Rhode Island Red roosters that thought I might “free range” with the sheep. Well, things didn’t turn out quite the way I had planned…
I returned to find her peacefully resting in the shade with what looked like a scene from the holocaust. Hailey eradicated 27 chickens for me that day in less than 2 hours. I humbly admit that I was the fool for not thinking this through, and simply turned her loose with what appeared to be lamb eating vultures from her perspective. Since then, I have learned to introduce chickens more slowly and have been successful in teaching her that chickens are not an aerial predator, but rather, partners in our little ecosystem. Once she figured this out, we had no further issues. And lucky for me, I had no chickens to butcher that fall.
Once again, Hailey taught me of the importance of supervision when raising a young pup or adding a completely foreign variety of livestock to the guardian duties. Yes you can imprint an older dog on another species, but it does require an introduction and a bit of time and patience. Hailey left us in the spring of 2014. She now resides in her favorite spot next to this tree, where she loved to spend her afternoons resting in the shade.