Can A Maremma Be A Good Family Companion Dog?

That's hard to say, since I don't know your family.  These dogs are bred as livestock guardians, so you can expect them to be protective of their livestock, family, and home.  That makes early socialization imperative, as you know, and that means from the time you get her through adulthood, in my opinion.  You would want her to meet people coming and going to and from your home, too, since you are in a semi-rural area where things are often not as busy, so be prepared to ask all your friends to help you insure that she regards that as normal.  Otherwise, people that you want to welcome may seem as intruders to her later.  We have a member here who knows a lot about the breed, so maybe she will come by to offer some of her wisdom.

I don't know if you're referring to Benedict, who I haven't noticed in a while, or Brookcove, both of whom own Maremmas. I have a Great Pyrenees mix who, while aloof to strangers -- not in an aggressive manner, but in an "I pee myself" manner -- is a wonderful house pet. I know that Brookcove has one working dog that she has retired and is trying to turn into a house dog. I don't recall how that was going, other than that s/he wanted to get back to work. For Misha who has never known a job, there is no such problem.

I would add that visible barriers are important to this type of dog. Don't leave them tied out or in an unfenced (even electric fenced) area. They can, and probably will at some point, decide to go someplace else. Not because you're not great and all, but something in those woods made a noise that just had to be investigated. Misha's mom removed a 3 foot spiral tie-out spike from the ground while on a choke chain, and she was undersized.

 

I've never actually met a maremma before, but I have a great pyrenees and understand that they are pretty similar. Our pyre is a wonderful family dog. We live in a very small rural town and have a reasonable sized fenced yard. I've been told that they may be escape artists, but ours has never tried to get out of the fence. She's very loving, but not demanding. We got her used to taking walks around town and that seemed to help with socializing a lot. Just about every kid or dog-loving adult we passed just HAS to pet the big white fluff ball. She is very good with strangers and is especially gentle with small children. She gets very upset if a stranger peeks over the fence or tries to come into the backyard through the gate, but she seems to understand that if we've let them in the house, they're friends. She house trained very quickly and we've never had a problem with her chewing shoes or furniture like we did when our Aussie was young. The only issue we've come across was her insistance that she sleep outside at night and her consequental barking after dark. After a few days of her pouting about sleeping in the house, she adjusted very well & we've had no other problems. Congrats on the new addition to your family!