Pyrenean mastiff livestock guardian dog focus of Feb 19. webinar
Leading industry breeder Karina Whittington to speak
The Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service will host a webinar on Feb. 19 focused on livestock guardian dogs (LGDs), specifically the Pyrenean mastiff breed.
The webinar is free and will begin at 3 p.m. Participants must preregister on the LGD Facebook page.
The Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo has a research program dedicated to livestock guardian dogs and utilizes them at its ranches and in partnership with private ranch owners.
The webinar is part of an ongoing series on LGDs, featuring AgriLife Extension and industry experts who cover a wide range of relevant topics.
Speaker, webinar focus
The guest speaker is Karina Whittington, president of the Pyrenean Mastiff Association of America. Whittington is a member of the Spanish and Finnish breed clubs, Club del Mastin del Pirineo and Pyreneittenmastiffit Ry.
“I’m excited to have Ms. Whittington as our featured speaker for this webinar,” said Bill Costanzo, AgriLife Extension livestock guardian dog specialist in the Texas A&M Department of Animal Science, San Angelo. “She has been breeding livestock guardian dogs for almost 10 years. This breed has a lot of potential to help producers with large and small predator threats.”
Whittington stumbled upon the Pyrenean mastiff while searching for a mobility and medical response service dog. In 2016, she finally found her first Pyrenean mastiff and in 2017, she began researching how to become an ethical and responsible breeder.
Since the start of her love affair with the Pyrenean mastiff, Whittington has built a library of different books from the breed’s country of origin and manages the largest Pyrenean Mastiff Pedigree database of over 11,000 dogs worldwide, which also provides over 2,000 photos of dogs from around the world.
Whittington currently manages all-breed educational content on behalf of the club, which is also the club’s only English resource.
“My only goal now is to help ensure the Pyrenean mastiff has a prosperous future and to share the love I have for this breed with others,” Whittington said.
