Unega Mountain Dog Rescue

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Ketchum, ID
Unega Mountain Dog Rescue

DEDICATED TO THE PROTECTION AND RESCUE OF LIVESTOCK GUARDIAN DOGS IN IDAHO AND SURROUNDING AREAS.
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WE FOCUS ON THOSE THAT ARE CONSIDERED AT-RISK FOR INJURY, CRUELTY AND ABANDONMENT, AND THAT MAY BE SUBJECT TO EUTHANASIA AND INHUMANE TREATMENT

08/22/2026

And then today.

Today he came home to the rescue.

He ate two full meals. Both of them. Every bite, plus his antibiotics and his pain meds. And then he walked out into the grass and laid down and slept like the world had finally let him put something down.

I went out to check on him and found him just like this. Mouth open a little, nose up, eyes half closed, breathing in the wind coming off the mountains. Not working. Not watching. Not hurting. Just a guardian lying in the clover, taking in the air.

I’ll be honest with you I got almost no sleep last night along with Emma she was on the road in the middle of the night with a different dog who needed emergency care, then here this morning to get this man to rescue and fed. That’s not a complaint. That’s just what this looks like when there’s no after-hours care in this Valley and the phone rings anyway.

This is what your support looks like when it lands. It looks like a tired dog asleep in the grass with a full belly, and our team willing to drive through the dark to make sure that happens.

To Dr. Sofia and her crew you are the reason he’s lying in that clover.

And to this dog: you tough, magnificent man. Sleep as long as you want. 🤍

Unega Mountain Dog Rescue

08/21/2026

An update on our porcupine boy!

Right now he is still being monitored by our vet. He is in a lot of pain but doing incredibly well with lots of meds and love and care. The ultimate goal right now is managing his pain and getting this big boy to eat!

We will update more soon. Thank you for watching and sending your kindness for this man❤️‍🩹🐾

08/20/2026

We got the call from one of the biggest sheep operators in the region. One of his working boys—a big, old Great Pyrenees who has spent years earning his keep protecting sheep—had taken a porcupine head-on.
I have never seen anything like this.
His muzzle, gums, tongue, the roof of his mouth, under his jaw—hundreds of quills. And look at the scars on that face while you’re at it. That’s a résumé. That’s a dog who has stood between a band of sheep and whatever was coming for them, over and over, for years.
And here’s the thing about these dogs: he was still working. He would have kept working. He would have quietly starved to death because he couldn’t eat or drink, and he still would have stayed with his sheep.
That isn’t loyalty the way people use the word. That’s who they are.
We have no 24/7 emergency veterinary care in this Valley. None. So when Tiffany drove straight out to pick him up, and Dr. Sofia and her team stayed late, after a full day and off the clock, to save this old guardian, I need you to understand what that means out here.
It means he is going to live.
That’s it. That’s the whole difference.
Dr. Sofia and her crew are the reason this magnificent old man is going to make it. 🤍
And this is exactly why we keep saying: operators, please call us.
We will help you.
We are not here to take your dogs. We are here to help with healthcare, questions, clarity, and understanding. It’s a two-way street, and we are begging you to meet us halfway.
This guardian has worked his entire life protecting his herd. When he is healthy, we will bring him back to his operator. And when a guardian is at the end of his working days and his operator doesn’t want or cannot keep him, we will take him in and find him the proper home for the life he deserves.
We are not here to take. We are here to help.
These dogs give their hearts and souls to their devoted posts. When they are injured, we will give everything we can to save theirs.
To every operator who picks up the phone instead of walking away: thank you. That call can be the whole ballgame.
And to this tough, magnificent old man: I can’t wait to give you something soft to eat. 🤍 🐾
Unega Mountain Dog Rescue

08/19/2026

There’s a dog we can’t stop thinking about. We don’t know where he is. Someone did and then they stopped answering us.

Here’s what we were told. Over three years chained in the same spot, wearing a shock collar. No shade. Matted head to tail. That’s his whole life. Morning, noon, and night. Day after day after day.

Nobody knows what’s under all that matting. Sores. Infection. Bugs living in it. Toenails curling into his pads, ears he can’t get relief from, eyes nobody has looked at in years. Three years of things going wrong on a dog who has no way to tell anyone.

We’re not angry at the person who reached out. We understand. When it’s family, speaking up costs something. You still have to sit across the table from these people.
So let us be plain about what we’re actually offering. We are not law enforcement. We don’t pull up and seize dogs. If the owner is willing to sign him over, we’ll take him and give him whatever help he needs. However long it takes, He just has to get out.💔

But none of it happens without a location.
He doesn’t know somebody tried. He just knows the chain. Every quiet day is another one exactly like the last.

If you reached out and went silent, it isn’t too late. Send us the address. We’ll take it from there please 🐾🙏🏻

08/14/2026

Badger & Cricket Two Hearts, One Home

They came to us together, and together is how they’ll leave.

Badger and Cricket are a bonded brother and sister who lost the only life they knew when their owner’s husband passed away and she could no longer care for them. They’ve been in foster care with an incredible foster mom who’s been giving us the gift of time and time is exactly what it takes for a dog’s real personality to come to the surface.

Cricket is pure joy in motion. She’s an escape artist, a water baby who has claimed her kiddie pool as her personal kingdom, and a professional zoomie-runner. She’s vocal, she’s busy, and she’d happily chase anything that moves. She has adjusted beautifully happy, playful, and ready for the world.

Badger is the big gentle giant. Very Pyr in the best sense steady, soft, and sweet. He is also scared of his own shadow. Loud noises, new smells, quick movements all of it worries him. We don’t know what this boy went through before us, but he carries it. He’s slow to trust, and he’s earning every bit of confidence honestly.

Here’s what tells you everything about these two: Badger will not eat if he can’t see his sister. His foster has been working on short separate activities where they can still lay eyes on each other, and that’s about as far apart as this boy is willing to go.

Both of them love being in the house, and neither is destructive. They want a couch, a soft place to land, and people who will let Badger come to them on his own timeline.

We’re looking for a home with a tall, secure fence (Cricket will test it), patience, and a whole lot of quiet consistency for Badger. He will get there. He just needs someone willing to wait for him.

Are you the right home for these two?

Inquire here: https://www.unegamountaindogrescue.org/adoptorfoster

❤️ ❤️

08/11/2026

A decade ago, you did not find Livestock Guardian Dogs in shelters. Today, you find them everywhere.
You find them in rescues that are full. You find them on Facebook, being passed hand to hand. You find them on euthanasia lists.
Some of that is the homesteading trend dogs bought for a lifestyle that didn't last, bred by people who saw a market instead of a working animal. That crisis is real, and my colleagues in rescue across this country are drowning in it.
But in Idaho, there is a second crisis stacked on top of it, and it is the one we were built to answer.
Every year, working Livestock Guardian Dogs are left behind. Left on the range when the band moves on. Left when an operation changes hands. Left when a dog gets too old, too injured, or too slow to keep up. In 11 years we have taken in more than 400 of them. We have pulled dogs off mountains with old wounds, with ropes embedded in their necks, with nothing left but the will to keep guarding something.
Here is what most people don't know: under Idaho law, those dogs are not legally dogs.
They are classified as production animals the same category as the livestock they protect. The cruelty protections that would apply to the dog sleeping on your kitchen floor do not reach a dog doing the hardest job in agriculture. Abandonment isn't abandonment. Neglect isn't neglect. It's animal husbandry.
SB1241 pushed that classification deeper into Idaho code and stripped local communities of the ability to do better on their own.
A dog does not know the difference between the couch and the mountain. Loyalty is loyalty. Suffering is suffering.
So here's what you can do:
Do not breed these dogs. If you want a puppy, foster one of the many pregnant females needing placement, or adopt. Yes working LGDs can be adopted, and they thrive.

Support ethical rescues however you can.
And in Idaho: call your legislators. Tell them Livestock Guardian Dogs deserve to be classified as dogs and protected as dogs. We know this crisis is real we are standing in it. Thank you to our friends Rocky Top Rescue & Animal Sanctuary

07/26/2026

Oh sweet Posey 🌷

All she needed was time. And now she’s in it for love, for care…for staring anew.

Let’s get this girl HOME. She doesn’t want to be alone. She wants other loving dogs to play with, to learn from, and to wrestle with! She is an absolute stellar young lady. Her puppyhood still shining bright; curiosity, tenderness, and wanting right there. Will you grab ahold of her? 🥹

Posey would like a HOME, near Sun Valley, ID! She is ready to invest in a yard and people and lovely dogs! Not a working environment, but do know she is excellent around livestock and children.

Message, email, fill out our form. Let’s get this girl into her loving new start!
https://www.unegamountaindogrescue.org/adoptorfoster

07/23/2026

Every. Single. Month. It never stops.

Meet Posey 🌸

She was out there alone for a month. A month of surviving on whatever a baby could find.

She came to us with a gash down the side of her face; next to her ear four inches long. The scars across her head still new and pink. Her belly and legs covered in burrs, and a steel tag clipped through her ear—the skin around it infected. Steel. Through the ear of a puppy. We’ll have to sedate her just to get it off her.

She is five, maybe six months old.

So let’s cut the bu****it and niceties, HOW does this happen? When a dog isn’t touchable, they leave her. The band moves on, the horses go, and nobody comes back. Not that day. Not ever. She is left to the elements, the coyotes, the wolves. A six-month-old puppy…alone, expected to fend for herself until something out there finishes the job.

That is not an accident. That is not bad luck. That is cruelty. That is neglect. That is a crime. But to the State of Idaho, our Agricultural Department, and representatives apparently it’s NOT a crime. How fu**ed is that. Are YOU hearing us now?

And she isn’t the first. She’s this month’s.

Posey is resilient. But no guardian should ever have to be. Resilience is what we hand them when we fail them, and we are so tired of handing it out.

She survived. Now she gets to LIVE. Decompression, vet care, that tag off her ear, a crew that checks on her, and for the first time in her short life she’s sleeping hard, eating without fear, and learning what it feels like to be somebody’s.

She was never disposable. Not for one day of it.

****it

Address

Ketchum, ID

Telephone

+12087213349

Website

http://www.unegamountaindogrescue.org/, http://www.idahogives.org/

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