Ok guys, I messed up with our livestock guardian dog pups. Big time. I spent weeks and weeks reading every article and looking all over the internet trying to figure out what to do when bringing my two livestock guardian dogs home.
But it was frustrating because everyone had such strong opinions: Don’t have them around livestock till they are 2 years old. They HAVE to be with livestock from the very beginning or they won’t bond. Don’t have contact with them the first couple of weeks so they can bond with the livestock. Have as much contact as possible those first several weeks so they will be friendly.
Well, I might not have it all figured out on what you should do, but I have (unfortunately) figured out what you should NOT do. And I’m going to be sharing that with you today, along with a few of the things that we’re doing which seem to be going pretty well so far.
DON’T do research online
I know, I know, “But Anastasia, I’m reading this post on the internet!”. And bonus points to you for that. But seriously, all the time I spent wading through opinionated forums, Facebook groups, blogs, etc I don’t think I gained ONE helpful piece of information that went beyond common sense.
All I did gain was a lot of stress and self-doubt regarding my ability to train up these puppies to protect our livestock (and hopefully our girls). We just moved on to 43 acres and are at the very beginning stages of getting the farm up and running. That being said, we don’t have all of our fencing in place that we eventually would like to have.
Your farm is unique and your dog will be equally unique.
All the advice I was finding was from established farms that HAD all their fencing in place! So keep in mind if you do research your questions online, their scenario will undoubtedly be a little different than yours.
Whatever information you find, you will need to make adjustments to make it work on YOUR farm. If you aren’t confident in your ability to make those adjustments, my suggestion would be to call a friend who has dogs (any breed of dog will do if you don’t have someone with an LGD nearby) to give you some guidance.
Which leads me into point number two. . .
DON’T let your puppies free-range
It was points like this that would drive me nuts on forums, so I’m going to also offer a solution at the end of this point, so hang with me.
We originally locked our puppies up in the barn at night (in a separate pen than the livestock), but we’d let them be out in the yard with us during the day. We’d always find them chilling out on the front porch waiting for us. They’d join us on walks around the property and chase us as we road the four-wheeler around the check on fencing. The girls would run outside to play with them… It seemed like the perfect set up.
Until a chicken died.
We had been lulled into complacency since the puppies had pretty much ignored our free-range chickens for the entire month that we’d had them. We’d read (probably as you have) that you shouldn’t leave a livestock guardian dog unsupervised until they are at least 2 years old. But I have two toddlers, we’re in the middle of building our house so we can have heat before winter sets in, and I still have meetings and errands that need to be run throughout the day. I couldn’t have an eye on them 24/7. That just seemed like an unreasonable expectation given by someone who had never had to do it.
So we let our chickens free range. And our puppies.
BIG MISTAKE!
Our Solution:
I told you I’d offer a solution and here it is. Build a run that connects to their stall in the barn.
It’s not ideal and I hate to contain animals that love their freedom and space so much. But if I were honest with myself, they spent most of the day sleeping and playing on our front porch before. That’s a 10′ x 16′ space that’s currently cluttered with tools and construction equipment.
So the day after they killed a chicken I went out to the barn (where they sleep) and used 4 sheets of hog panel to create an area that’s more than twice that size. And guess what? They have LOVED it! The run sticks out into the field so they can watch the sheep, goats, and horses move all around them but are totally safe. They have their food and water in there and I’m going out there a couple of times a day to work on training. Currently, I’m just working on getting them leash trained and used to the boundaries of the pasture. Along with sit, drop it, and come.
Don’t bring just ONE livestock guardian dog home
Thankfully, this is a bullet we dodged. We were originally planning on getting just one, but ended up bringing a boy and girl home. And boy have we been grateful for that!
I’ve read many places that you aren’t supposed to get littermates. I’ve also read from many livestock guardian dog owners that they love using littermates. I’m not going to sit here and say which one is right or wrong. But I AM going to say you shouldn’t just get one puppy. If you choose to get one from two different breeders or the same is up to you. But I’m suggesting you make sure you have two puppies when you come home.
WHY??
Number one: they keep each other company. I had heard so many horror stories of howling and whining puppies. We’ve had ours for over a month and haven’t heard them howl or whine once.
Number two: they play/fight with each other instead of the livestock. This one has been our saving grace. Zuko (our male) is extremely playful and ornery. Thankfully, he’s been able to take that out on his sister Bella instead of our sheep or toddler. I’m pretty sure he’s the one that killed the chicken. But I’m supposed to be letting that go. . . Moving on!
Number three: they back each other up in a fight. I’ve noticed when one is scared, the other one will either go over and lick its face and encourage it. Or they will step out in front and act as a guard for their scared sibling. I love this! I feel very confident that they will back each other up against predators excellently.
Don’t put off training your livestock guardian dog until they are older
As I’ve mentioned, our puppies are about 3.5 months old. They already sit and come on command. I can’t tell you what a lifesaver that has been for us! The few times they’ve gone where they weren’t supposed to we were able to call them back over.
If they were jumping on the kids (puppies claws are SHARP!) I was able to holler at them to “SIT” and they immediately sat down & stopped jumping long enough for me to get over there. If they were jumping on me when I’d bring their food over I could tell them to sit and save myself a pair of jeans.
Everyone talked about how STUBBORN these types of dogs can be, and they are. But they also bond very strongly with their people and their animals. And for me, that made training easier when they were young.
If I had to do it over again, I would have started training the day we brought them home. They love the one-on-one time with me, and it really seems to strengthen our bond. And helps them know that I am alpha, which oddly makes them more relaxed. I can tell the difference between the days when I’d spend 15 minutes of training and the days I didn’t.
Livestock guardian dogs are EXTREMELY rewarding (so far). It’s also hard because they are so different from any other dog. They prefer the field to a dog house and sheep to other dogs. It makes me smile how unique they are compared to any other breed I’ve ever worked with.
I love the sweet, somewhat mellow personality of the livestock guardian dog. Bella is definitely more sensitive and Zuko reminds me of a lot of Simba from Lion King. Lol. But they work well together. And I hope that we’ll be able to train them to also work well with our farm.
