Squad of mostly rescue dogs bring more than favorable fortune to Good Luck Cellars winery in Kilmarnock
By Barrett Baker
There are many wineries around the Commonwealth of Virginia that have dog ambassadors welcoming guests to their tasting rooms on a daily basis. There are others that make visiting with your canine companion as favorable an experience for your pooch as it is for you. And there is at least one winery we know of that is known for their canine-themed wines, named after their dogs.
However, there is only one winery in the state—to the best of our knowledge—that uses dogs to stand guard over the grapes as they’re maturing on the vines. However, Good Luck Cellars in Kilmarnock is hoping they can persuade other vintners to take up the practice.
The Grapevine Patrol Squad, as the dogs of Good Luck Cellars are called, stay out in the vineyards to protect the grapes from deer, opossum, racoons, turkeys and other critters that otherwise would eat up the profits. There are two to four dogs assigned to each of four fields.
Mostly hounds from local shelters, the dogs at Good Luck Cellars help keep birds, deer and other animals from nibbling the grapes, but they are also a big hit with winery guests.
Each field has an insulated shelter to protect the dogs from the elements and volunteers go out to fill the feeding stations and water bowls regularly. The dogs also get all recommended veterinary care.
“This all began when my husband and I started this vineyard in 2005 and realized we were competing with a lot of animals and birds that like grapes as much as we do,” says Katie Krop, owner of Good Luck Cellars. “We tried a number of different plans and none of them worked, but then we heard about an orchard in New England that was using dogs to guard their apples. So, we looked into it, and since then our grape loss has been reduced by at least 80 percent.”
Most of the dogs are hounds that come from local animal shelters that are heartworm negative and have been neutered or spayed. The vineyard’s fields are surrounded by invisible fences, and it takes the dogs about a week of training before they are comfortable and understand the boundaries. They keep two to four hounds in each area because dogs are pack animals and don’t like to be alone.
“I think people love going out into the vineyard to visit with the dogs,” says Terrie Dort, president of Northern Neck Partners for Pets who not only helps to find suitable canines for the job, but has been training dogs at the vineyard for ten years.
“Every time I’m there, people are out in the fields, petting the dogs and playing with them. I think the people sometimes get confused because once we have the dogs trained and take away the flags that mark where the invisible fence is, the people can’t see the line, but the dogs know where it is. So, people don’t understand why the dogs are just sitting there, looking at them, without coming over.”
Krop also loves the idea of people going out to see the dogs: “The dogs add to the whole experience here. People come out and take pictures of them, and it really encourages visitors to walk the vineyards to not only visit with the dogs, but to see the kinds of grapes we grow before they go in the bottle. I love having people out there.”
One might wonder why Dort, who is a long-time advocate for animals, believes this is a good deal for the pups.
“For an abandoned hunting dog or a dog that has ended up in the shelter for whatever circumstance, it’s a pretty nice life,” says Dort. “They’re free, they have companionship, they can eat whenever they want, they can run—and they do love to run and chase things—and they’ve got lots of space to do that, so it’s a very good life for them. It’s a great solution for some homeless animal that needs a place to be instead of facing euthanasia or being stuck in the shelter for extended periods of time, which can be tough on a dog mentally.”
Both Krop and Dort have been proposing this idea to other wineries, but no one else has jumped on board yet.
“If more vineyards would adopt this process, shelters and rescues would be in better shape,” says Dort. “Virginia is rather unique in that we have all these hunting dogs that are rejected because they won’t hunt or they are overbred and there are so many extras, so we see a lot of abandoned dogs that would be perfect for this kind of life in other wineries.”
Learn more at goodluckcellars.com.
Photos courtesy of Good Luck Cellars
Barrett Baker
