16 show animals were killed in one weekend at a Texas school barn. The district said dogs dug under the fence. Here's how to close the 3 gates on your farm before your first visitor walks in.

Before You Open the Gate is a plain-English playbook for farm owners who keep goats, sheep, lambs, pigs or poultry and open their gate to paying visitors. It shows you how to keep loose dogs out of your pens, write a visitor pet policy people actually follow, set up a safe animal area, and get your insurance and permit answers in writing. 84 pages, 13 chapters, 10 big-print diagrams. Instant PDF download.

What's inside:

• The 3 Gates of Protection: your animals, your visitors and your paperwork

• The Fence Buyer's Guide: heights, mesh, dig guards, hot wires and costs per foot

• Species-by-species protection, plus guardian dogs, donkeys and llamas compared

• Night lock-up, neighbors and roaming dogs

• Three pet policies, eight real farm examples, the gate script and hot-car facts

• A 3-zone animal area layout, handwashing and bite first aid

• The First Hour checklist and how to tell a dog attack from a coyote attack

• 7 insurance covers to ask about and 4 word-for-word call scripts

• The law at a glance: 14 US states, 3 Canadian provinces and the UK, plus agritourism sign rules for 13 states

• Team training with 6 role-plays and an event-day plan

• 8 copy-and-paste templates, 5 worksheets, 3 signs, a 30-point risk scorecard, logs, checklists and a 30-day plan

By Stephen Loke, founder of AgritourismSuccess.com, whose farm is featured in Bloomberg News and Asahi Shimbun. General education, not legal or insurance advice. 30-day money-back guarantee.