Sheepdog
Chillin' with the herd
I posted a thread about the male anatolian that we just got regarding him not settling in and not eating....
Well we have the food thing figured out, he just needed to go hungry for a night and he soon decided he liked his food.
He still wants to be out with me and not so much in with the sheep, he is just over 12 months and was raised with goats and sheep, but on a small 5 or 10 acre block and was housed with the goats and sheep close to the previous owners house. We have only had him a few days, so he is still settling in.
He has company of another dog... I have a huge barn which is divided in two with cattle mesh fence. The pyrenees puppy is in with three quiet ewe lambs in one side and the anatolian is in with an adult dorper ram and 4 adult ewes.
So he ate his dinner this morning whilst I stood there with him, when the sheep came up to him, he growled and lunged at them, but didn't bite them. If he didn't do this, they would eat his food. Not sure if this is acceptable behaviour..... idealy he probably should be fed separated but how can you do this... I don't know of any possible way ...... unless I go with the magnetic door thing in a separate enclosure..... see my original post about that... but it would be expensive and a lot of messing around to do this.
So is it normal for a LGD to protect their food like that???
Also, I watched the ram yesterday trying his luck... he is a very quiet ram, but being about 16 months of age, he is at the age where he is being a boy and trying to assert his dominance. The anatolian was laying in his usual place and the cheeky ram walked over to the dog and looked at him... Zeuss the dog ignored him. Ram gets a bit closer, Zeuss still ignores him. Ram stomps his foot, Zeuss ignores him. Ram playfully butts Zeuss, Zeuss ignores him, ram stomps on Zeuss, Zeuss growls and lunges at Ram and snaps at him. Ram runs off just a few feet, Zeuss doesn't chase him, just lies right back down in his spot.
I haven't had much to do with LGDs and obviously the dog had to protect himself somehow or the Ram would be jumping all over him. I am assuming that this dog is okay because he got the Ram to quit and then it was over, he didn't chase or appear to be particularly aggressive about the whole incident.
Also, how long should we give him to settle in. He wants to follow me and isn't that interested in staying with the sheep... he doesn't whine or howl, but when he sees me, he wants out and he was trying to push past me when I opened the gate into the pen until I reprimanded him for that.... he has pushed past me a couple of times and gets into the second pen where the pyrenees puppy is and he doesn't show any interest in the puppy, he just wants to mark his territory and pee on everything... could that be because he is in a barn and is used to being out in a small pasture? We will be moving him outside soon, but I just wanted to make sure he bonded with the sheep and knew where home was.... he is such a big dog, he could jump out of the fences in the pasture... they keep the sheep in, but if he really wanted out, he could jump or climb over.... Same is to be said in the barn, it is open at the front and he could jump out if he really wanted too... but I put him in the barn just to get him settled in. Maybe I should put him out with the rest of the sheep in the pasture????
Any advice please, much appreciated. Also, should I have him neutered, I am not wanting to breed at all... but I also don't want to spend the money on neutering him if he isn't going to be a good worker.
Well we have the food thing figured out, he just needed to go hungry for a night and he soon decided he liked his food.
He still wants to be out with me and not so much in with the sheep, he is just over 12 months and was raised with goats and sheep, but on a small 5 or 10 acre block and was housed with the goats and sheep close to the previous owners house. We have only had him a few days, so he is still settling in.
He has company of another dog... I have a huge barn which is divided in two with cattle mesh fence. The pyrenees puppy is in with three quiet ewe lambs in one side and the anatolian is in with an adult dorper ram and 4 adult ewes.
So he ate his dinner this morning whilst I stood there with him, when the sheep came up to him, he growled and lunged at them, but didn't bite them. If he didn't do this, they would eat his food. Not sure if this is acceptable behaviour..... idealy he probably should be fed separated but how can you do this... I don't know of any possible way ...... unless I go with the magnetic door thing in a separate enclosure..... see my original post about that... but it would be expensive and a lot of messing around to do this.
So is it normal for a LGD to protect their food like that???
Also, I watched the ram yesterday trying his luck... he is a very quiet ram, but being about 16 months of age, he is at the age where he is being a boy and trying to assert his dominance. The anatolian was laying in his usual place and the cheeky ram walked over to the dog and looked at him... Zeuss the dog ignored him. Ram gets a bit closer, Zeuss still ignores him. Ram stomps his foot, Zeuss ignores him. Ram playfully butts Zeuss, Zeuss ignores him, ram stomps on Zeuss, Zeuss growls and lunges at Ram and snaps at him. Ram runs off just a few feet, Zeuss doesn't chase him, just lies right back down in his spot.
I haven't had much to do with LGDs and obviously the dog had to protect himself somehow or the Ram would be jumping all over him. I am assuming that this dog is okay because he got the Ram to quit and then it was over, he didn't chase or appear to be particularly aggressive about the whole incident.
Also, how long should we give him to settle in. He wants to follow me and isn't that interested in staying with the sheep... he doesn't whine or howl, but when he sees me, he wants out and he was trying to push past me when I opened the gate into the pen until I reprimanded him for that.... he has pushed past me a couple of times and gets into the second pen where the pyrenees puppy is and he doesn't show any interest in the puppy, he just wants to mark his territory and pee on everything... could that be because he is in a barn and is used to being out in a small pasture? We will be moving him outside soon, but I just wanted to make sure he bonded with the sheep and knew where home was.... he is such a big dog, he could jump out of the fences in the pasture... they keep the sheep in, but if he really wanted out, he could jump or climb over.... Same is to be said in the barn, it is open at the front and he could jump out if he really wanted too... but I put him in the barn just to get him settled in. Maybe I should put him out with the rest of the sheep in the pasture????
Any advice please, much appreciated. Also, should I have him neutered, I am not wanting to breed at all... but I also don't want to spend the money on neutering him if he isn't going to be a good worker.