I've heard of alpacas bonding with sheep to protect them & even seen one in action at the Bendigo Sheep & Wool show a few years back. I'd just read the blurb on the tent of the bloke selling alpacas to protect sheep, when a yappy dog walked walked the laneway. The alpaca was sitting with 3 sheep in a pen & looked up sharply, then stood facing the dog to protect it's sheep!

Desperate farmers turn to donkeys for protection Demand is on the rise for rescued Hunter Valley donkeys to protect stock from being maimed or killed by wild dogs.

Wild dogs are considered so devastating across New South Wales that scientific officials have declared them a key threatening process.

Farmers lose millions of dollars each year and now they are turning to donkeys, which are notorious for fending off dogs.

The Good Samaritan Donkey Sanctuary in the Hunter Valley has taken to pairing donkeys with desperate farmers like Mike O'Brien.

Mr O'Brien travelled from Queensland to get his donkeys Milo and Coco.

He says he has lost no sheep since they started work.

"I've tracked dingoes going flat across a paddock and seen the donkey tracks after them," he said.

"The dogs have taken-on an electric fence. So they really stick the skids on under the dogs if they turn up in your area - and they do kill dogs.

"I've had all the donkey/ass jokes told to me and it's like water off my back.

"I'm marking 100 per cent lambs again, so I'm smiling."

Mr O'Brien says donkeys are tough, bond well with stock and live up to 40 years.