livestock guardian dogs

[Kevin Cunningham]

Sounds like training won’t be an issue. Having a dominate attitude is sometimes all they need. Just make sure to over socialize if you want a dog that is friendly with strangers at the farm. Pyrs can be big teddy bears even with children or they can be aggressive to all strangers. We have a friend with sheep and even she has a hard time in the pasture with her pyr. Early and often socialization makes a friendly and safe dog. This is not to say that we also don’t let the dog bond with the stock but make sure to take them out and meet a variety of people in a variety of places. This may seem like common sense dog training but pyrs tend to be more aloof and wary than most dogs.

[jen judkins]

Thanks, Kevin and Andy….very helpful. She should be here next week. I’ll post pictures.

[Kevin Cunningham]

can’t wait to see the little (hmm) fuzz ball!

[Billy Foster]

Hi Jen
Just to add my 2 cents
We keep a GP/Maremma male and a Maremma female, both fixed.The Male will stay behind a 2 strand twine fence, the female has learned to jump through a hot 6 wire HT fence. I feel very strongly about keeping my dogs with the sheep. As was said earlier I do not want my dogs boundary lines crossing over my property lines. I feel that I ask a lot of my neighbors by the barking our LGDs do when they are in a pasture near their homes, I do not want to have to deal with a dog fight with one of their dogs. as far as training is concerned: In my humble opinion I do not think one should really have to train a LGD. One should be purchasing/breeding the traits that allow the dog(s) to perform the task. Having said that there are ways to modify some behaviors if they are undesirable. I would only buy a pup from parents that are in a stock situation full time.
Before we got our first LGD I was concerned about the “liability” of a dog in the same context as you appear to be Jen. I have come to find that the 2 dogs that we have are very nice and almost puppy like to those that they know well. Their behavior to strange things, people, animals is to sound an alarm and approach the boundary between that thing and the flock. Some of our pastures are on the road and have people walking dogs past; the LGD will bark but more as a warning to them not because they want to “get them”. We use electro-net in the pastures and the dogs respect it very well.
The only thing I will add is the issue with young dogs playing. Some young dogs can get too playfull with fragile livestock like lambs and chickens. We are very cautious at lambing with our Male since we came to own him because of his desire to play with Chickens, the chickens always lost. If I was going to guard chickens I would try to find a pup with parents that guard chickens or an adult that does.
Hope I helped.
Billy

[jen judkins]

Thanks, Billy. When I talk of training, I am speaking only of developing good pack manners and socialization. I expect the dog will take to her guardian status without much special training. I plan to crate the dog with the chickens and goats, only allowing direct interaction with them in a supervised setting until she essentially ‘ignores’ her flock. In addition, I plan to walk the perimeter with the dog daily to accustom her to her ‘territory’ until she understands her job. Its important to me that the dog tolerate our other dogs (who have limit access to the area she will live, being behind an invisible electric fence) and is friendly to the occasional human visitor.

[Billy Foster]

Sounds like you will be setting them all up to succeed. I am sure the LGD will accept the farm’s dogs. Our guardians don’t even bother the herding dog when he is working the sheep since they know him. Animals have such fine tuned senses yet we humans embarrass ourselves by thinking they can’t tell one person from another or one dog from another :).
good luck
Billy

[Kevin Cunningham]

Sounds like a perfect plan. My feeling is training is essential, instincts are naturally present in a good dog from working lines but what we are doing by having the “lion lay down with the lamb” is quite un-natural. Therefore it is the responsibility of the human to moniter and adjust behavour so that nobody gets hurt. This takes work on our part because we must not forget that a dog is a predator and livestock are prey, that we control the destiny and actions of. Just remember that it could be as long as year two before she settles into LGD mode. Good luck I love my Pyr I think you will too.

[near horse]

Our old dog Chumley is a Golden Ret/Pyranees cross demonstrated the instincts pretty early on and still is head of homeland security here, even though he’s hobbling with 3 good legs – he’s got osteosarcoma so his days are numbered. Still, any apparent “intruder” (UPS, FedEx, other vehicles) that come near the end of the driveway will get the alarm sound and have him up and gimping toward them. He refuses to be inside at night. We have coyotes very near all the time and have never lost a goat, lamb, cat or whatever. He gets on great with all our animals and all the other critters love him, including me : ). Oh, I forgot that the horses chase him away although he’s never threatened them.

Best of luck, Jen. If you can rehab some of those horses you get, teaching this pup will be easy.

[jen judkins]

Meet Daisy Duke. She helped me weed the gardens yesterday…first day on the farm. She appears to have the perfect little personality, but by the look at those paws will be a giant soon!

[Kevin Cunningham]

Take lots of photos because they do grow out of the adorable fluff ball stage quite quickly. She looks good and attentive have fun training her!

[Andy Carson]

Congrats Jen! she is very cute

[jen judkins]

So an update on Daisy, our new Pyranees. She is a wonderful dog. Except for a momentary lapse (really my fault in regard to fencing) when she killed a juvenile bird two days ago, she is just a really nice dog. She has been staying in a section of the goat/chicken shed where she can interact with both species on a limited basis. The first night she complained (having come from an indoor rescue situation), but since then has really come to love her place there and has not uttered a single bark. She has a crate with a cover, she can go in and out of at liberty and a 10 x 12 space to roam. She has figured out how to squeeze through the chicken door and likes to sleep in the coop with the big birds at night. She shows no interest in molesting any full size birds, so I think this is fine. I have her out with me twice a day doing chores and interacting with my other dogs as well as visitors on the farm. She has been well behaved with both. My goal is to acclimate her to the goats more so she can be turned out with them…and have a bigger space. She is good about sticking around and has so far not exhibited any propensity for wandering. I will continue to expand her space around the barn as her size and confidence allow. This is a fun project!

[Kevin Cunningham]

Lapses happen sometimes but the best thing is to not push how much time she gets unsupervised with the animals. She is still so young and may not be fully trustworthy for a long time, two years. Keep up the good work and just remember to take the time needed.

[jen judkins]

Well, I’m happy to report some good ‘guardian’ behavior from our 3 month old Pyranees this week. We have had a raccoon over the past week terrorizing the juvenile coop. Daisy is not physically able to get to that pen yet, and I was dismayed that she initially did not sound any alarm during the first two attacks. I got up and ran out to the barn to chase the coon off (and set out a trap last night). Last night I heard the coon start to rattle the coop, and then Daisy challenging from the other side of the shed. She was effective and I did not need to get out of bed. No bird loss and no coon in the trap. This morning, I watched her identify a wild turkey wandering into our pastures as ‘not belonging’ and she chased her off as well. Its amazing how naturally it all comes to her.

[Andy Carson]

That’s great Jen! If your dog is like mine, you may learn that there are several different types of barks. If he does a single “woof” or a few widely spaced “woofs,” I don’t go look. If the barking is intent, though, I always go check it out, even if it’s 3 AM. This gives me a chance to tell him “good boy,” which really seems to help him (my dog is less of a natural guard). Also, because he tends to bail and hold critters (rather than kill them), and that gives me a chance to dispatch them. I have only killed possum’s this way, but it’s still useful. ‘possums (in my experience) aren’t really that bright, but ‘coons seem to have an impressive ability to learn how to get food and evade defences. Given time and a food incentive, I bet most would learn lessons like “that dog is big, but it can’t get at me if I stay over here” or “here’s the hole in the fence” or “the people in that house leave at 6:30” or “I can rip through chicken wire” or “if you open this hatch, there are chickens on the other side!!!” I believe in aggressive measures to remove ‘coons quickly before they learn these lessons.

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