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Expert
Posts: 1549
  
Location: Southwest Louisiana | Okay so I finally found a great pyrenees. She's 4 months old and is very sweet. Loves the kids and was raised around chickens and ducks. Since she's still young and playful, I have her in a 12x12 kennel that is inside the goat pen. She can see the goats, chickens and ducks all day but can't get to them. When I go outside, I'll let her and the two goats out (they all 3 follow me all over our 20 acres). But I won't leave them together at night or when I'm not outside.
Well, my husband decided to fence in our back pond for the ducks. It's a small pond, about a 60ft circle, and is enclosed by pine trees. He put up 500ft of fence in a circle to enclose the pond, trees and some grass all the way around. Great place for the ducks. He wanted to leave the dog in there, but I didn't really think she was ready, because sometimes she gets too playful with the goats - puts her paws on them, chases them and knocks them over. She doesn't open her mouth, but she's obviously a lot bigger than pygmy goats and these ducks.
He left her in the duck pen for a few hours yesterday and said they'd be fine. He went out yesterday evening to find her chasing the ducks, knocking them down and pulling on them. One has a bald spot on its neck and has blood all over its wing. She obviously did something to it. Took her out and put her back in the pen alone.
My question is, how will she ever be safe in a pen with them? Or are these signs that she isn't a great guard for ducks and goats?
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 Veteran
Posts: 188
Location: stuck on an island, Canada | Post on goat health and care on Facebook everyone is really knowledgable about livestock guardian dogs.
I think you will just have to do a lot of work with her, she is basically supposed to ignore the livestock but want to chase predators. | |
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 Extreme Veteran
Posts: 554
| I have a Pyr, for her not to go after the new animals will take work. Once she realizes these animals are supposed to be there she will be fine. With my dog anytime i get a new critter i have to babysit her and stop her from getting too playful. It takes several days of this and then she is fine around the new animals. My ducks hatched out a ton of babies a couple of years ago and I didn't introduce them until the ducks were a little older and I sat outside and watched the dog. When she got too playful I disciplined her and she got it but it did take days. Training a Pyr is a little more work than other breeds and a little different to train. | |
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Expert
Posts: 1543
Location: MI | She is only 4 months old, and typically LGD are considered 'in training' until they are 18months old. Generally as a rule, between 6-18months is their 'teenager' time.
We have 2 Maremma, similar to GP except they are from Italy, not Spain, and are supposed to be not quite as prone to wandering. Our male we got at 9 months, the female was 3 months. They are brother/sister from different litters. They are now probably around 3 years old and are AWESOME at their jobs. They protect our 17 acre homestead with a few steer, calf or 2, chickens, ducks, turkeys at times, horses, and some cats. They could easily handle more.
Our female went through a teenager time where she 'played' with our chickens, and killed probably a total or 7-10 of them before we broke her of the habit. At that time we didn't live on the property, so it was difficult, but we made it through (our joke is that we haven't lost any livestock to outside predators since we got them, lol) and she is rock steady now. LGD require different kind of training though, they are insulted by different things than our house dogs (herding variety). For example, we used a drag with Punzi after she would 'wander', and when she attacked chickens she was put in a crate in a secluded area/or in with the chickens for a period of a few hours. She got the picture, it just took time. When she was around the chickens she had constant supervision until we could trust her more.
Now her brother, Chopper, never played with the chickens. He's got an old man's heart, lol.
Good luck, I LOVE our LGD. They are awesome, have incredible instincts. Punzi now cares after the calf and cleans him up every time he's out running around...they are good dogs.
I'm also get a lot of good information from the GoatsLivestockDogs Yahoo group. It's been quiet lately, maybe they're all on Facebook, but might be something to check out.
Edited by Ridenrun4745 2014-05-14 12:17 PM
 (Punzi.jpg)
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 Punzi.jpg (12KB - 237 downloads)
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