The Maremma-Abruzzese Sheepdog
The Cane da pastore Maremmano-Abruzzese or Maremma is an old breed, referred to in Roman literature as far back as two thousand years ago.
Its origins, as well as many similar breeds (Hungarian Kuvasz, Turkish Akbash, Polish Tatra, French Great Pyranees), can be traced back to the Tibetan mastiff. (For More information: www.maremmaclub.com.)
The Real-Life Story of a Maremma named Oddball
The Australian film Oddball is based on the true story of a man nicknamed Swampy and his dog Oddball and how they saved a colony of Middle Island penguins under attack by foxes.
While not portrayed in the movie, Dave Williams was instrumental in making this real-life story happen. While working a part-time job washing eggs on Swampy’s chicken farm during college, Dave fell in love with the maremma sheepdogs who were used to guard the chickens. Soon he had one of his own and today he is know as the maremma guru.
When Dave and Swampy read an article about a mass penguin attack by foxes who had swum the 1 km stretch from Warnambool to Middle Island, Swampy commented that what they needed was a couple of maremmas.
It just so happened that Dave’s dad was a wildlife officer working on the fox issue and Dave was an ecology student at Deakins. He came up with a proposal and, along with Swampy and his father, managed to persuade the Warrnambool City Council to give it a try.
After the initial trial with Oddball was a success, it took Dave about four years, many dogs, and a lot of training to come up with a pair of dogs that were perfect for the job.
The program has largely been a success; however there was an attack in the fall of 2017, which killed about 70 penguins, a third of the island’s population at the time. The dogs, who were only on the island part-time, may now reside there full-time. Also of note, in February of 2017, Oddball passed away at 15 years of age.
After helping to protect penguins on Middle Island, Dave went on to help protect bandicoots, also under attack by foxes, at the Werribee Sarari Zoo. Dave started out by training three Maremmas – one that could interact with zoo patrons and two that would not, in order to focus entirely on their job.
