Deborah Reid

I live with my husband and two children on a small family farm in central Idaho. Our goal is to produce and share our own naturally raised foods from our garden, orchard and livestock. We raise goats, beef and dairy cattle, pigs, chickens, waterfowl and heritage turkeys.
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My childhood summers were spent in the mountains of Idaho – along with the bands of sheep grazing the high mountain meadows with the Basque shepherds…
​and their big white dogs! 

Experience
I didn’t “discover” the Maremma Sheepdog until 2012 when we moved back to the farm. We have a variety of large predators, wolves, cougars, coyotes, bears – and the foxes were proving to be an issue with our chicken population. I started researching livestock guardian dog breeds and after months of reading and learning – we decided that the Maremma Sheepdog would be the perfect fit for our farm and our family.
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I have been personally involved in the world of purebred dogs since 1985, raising, training and showing Dobermans and Rottweilers for working, herding, and conformation. One of my goals is the protection of the Maremma Sheepdog breed against those who breed with no thought to ability, temperament, structure, or health standards. I believe in and uphold the MSCA Code of Ethics.

I have served on the 2015 MSCA Board of Directors as President. The Board was able to achieve many of the goals that I had hoped to accomplish this first year- updating the Bylaws and Code of Ethics, publish a club newsletter, and most importantly begin to offer educational information to help those involved in the Maremma breed make informed decisions regarding health, breeding and management.
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Statement of Purpose​​
One of my main objectives is to maintain the natural guarding instinct of the Maremma Sheepdog as well as the breed’s inherent good health. There should be an emphasis in breeding based on working ability, stable temperament, health and correct conformation (structure). I believe that there is no departrature between correct conformation and working ability - they are one and the same. A dog that does not have sound structure would not be able to perform their duty as they have been doing for thousands of years. The conformational standard should reflect the working ability of the breed and we should be encouraging and educating breeders to breed to that standard.
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Mission Statement
​My mission is to preserve, protect, and promote the Maremma Sheepdog breed.

Goals for the coming term:
a) Update the pedigree program and format to stream-line the registration process.
b) Continue to put education at the fore-front of the MSCA’s mission.
  • Health Committee to track health issues in the breed and to sponsor breeder education.
  • Newsletter Committee to publish a quarterly newsletter to keep the membership current on issues pertaining to the Maremma Sheepdog breed, meetings, etc.
  • Breeder Database so that breeders can track pedigrees, coefficients and health data. I feel this is especially important because of the Maremma Sheepdogs limited genetic pool – many of our dogs are closely related.
c) Help organize a club sponsored breed rescue network.
d) Promote the Maremma Sheepdog breed and actively recruit new membership to the club.