Could Someone Steal Your LGD?

Mira - possibly. She loves people and will go up to anyone for attention. I don't know how she would react to a stranger going into her pasture/pen without one of her people though.

Murphy - never. He will let people in with one of us, but he is extremely stranger-wary. Not aggressive, but won't go up to them or take anything from them.

Misha - not sure. As a little puppy, definitely, now that he's older, I don't think he'd let anyone in. He's gotten much more "guardy" of late.

Snowy- No way. If she doesn't know you AND love you she won't come near you. She will bark and charge at you, but not come near you. You might be able to get to the goats, but only if you are willing to risk it. Doubtful anyone will. The list of people she knows and loves is small, only two. Me and my stepson. She is terrified of men. She never has gotten used to my husband. She will let him get close only when feeding her and then she is very tentative. We are pretty sure her former owner was abusive. She was severely underweight when we got her. She accepts my stepson because he was a little guy when we got her and he grew up with her.

Jack- no way, never. He will stand his ground and bark if he doesn't know you and love you. His list of those he loves includes my husband, me and his boy but no one else. He will place himself between you and HIS goats. You can't near them either if he won't let you.

Peron and Zorya- not sure. They will come up to people they know. They will come up to strangers if me or my hubby are there. They are not as aggressive or intimidating. They do not like to be led or ride in cars so they will fight you if you tried to load them. They might be able to be stolen if someone was willing to pick up 70+ lbs of squirming, fighting dog and load them in their car. I am not sure if they would be more aggressive if we aren't there but I don't want to find out. When they get to their full size of 100 lbs or so, it would be a challenge.

FYI- the way the farm sitter feeds them is to set down the bowl where they can see it and leave. We have to have a female farm sitter or Snowy will go ballistic and not eat.

Even reading this post made me uneasy. Last week in the local news a warning was issued for people to be on alert---LARGE dogs are being taken from people's yard. Then, my neighbor had a creepy incident with some folks on motorcycles peeling down her driveway, and then realized her garage had been opened.

I have been worrying about this this week. Would my dogs allow themselves to go with a stranger? They love their herd but I watch how they react to people who stop by. We did quite a bit of work to socialize them early on, fearing they would be people aggressive. For the most part, they like people and I do not think they would actually harm anyone---the only case in which I could see that happen is if someone were harming their babies/goats/

Case in point---my vet comes by sometimes and when he does, I either have to bring goats out of the pen or put the dogs up because they growl at him. They do see him as being a threat because he makes the goats cry. No biggie and I am glad they care that much.

But I have had SEVERAL visitors in the past few weeks and while my older LGD (Charlie) backs away and does not offer his affection, my one year old Louie flops his big doofy self on the wall for pats.

With either of them, I do worry that some stranger could walk right in and take them, Louie wanting some loving and Charlie not associating the person with any kind of harm to the herd.



What to do though? I wouldn't really want a people aggressive dog, but gosh I would die if someone took them.

When Toli was young, about a year, I thought he was too friendly and decided to test him.... DUMB idea.... So he's on the back porch, I go out the front door so he doesn't know I'm out. Flashlight to keep him from seeing me and I come around the back. The idea was to provoke him and see if he would chase me if I ran. OMG it was all I could do to get him stopped before he reached me. He was roaring like a lion and coming like a freight train... I surprised him at close quarters in the dark when he KNEW everyone was inside. Don't EVER do that.... My knees where shaking when I got him stopped.

He's about 2.5 now, about 140lb. When people are coming and we aren't outside, he stands ridged at the end of the drive and barks. Once one of us is outside and speaks to however it is, they go on the whitelist and he backs down and if they are nice to him he'll want to play and love on them. He tolerates their dogs and cats, but won't tolerate a stray. If they drive up, in broad daylight and act like they know what they are doing he just watches them. IE: Meter readers and LP gas trucks. He doesn't like it when people walk up, because that rarely happens, and he REALLY doesn't like it if you are walking and it's dark. He gets very serious when the sun goes down.

If you wanted to steal him, even if he was willing, it would take two to pick him up. He won't jump in a vehicle for me, much less a stranger. Vehicles lead to VETS and that is never good....
Robbin

How would you test to see what would happen?

terrilhb said:

How would you test to see what would happen?

Click to expand...

Ask a friend that is either very brave or very stupid to steal your dog?

Ya know what they say.....
"If you think you're in charge, just try bossin another man's dog around"

No, because:

1. Gates always locked both when I am here and gone. Anyone who doesn't fence their place, or does not set up boundaries to prevent trespassers, is IMHO, asking for what they get. You may as well throw up a "come and take all you want" sign at the entrance to your property.
2. When I am here, my dogs, who are fabulous judges of character, base their response to people on my body language, the person's body language, and how I am interacting with the people. If I am okay with folks, they are okay with them (there have been a couple of exceptions, but only two - both very suspicious dogs I owned in the past who trusted no one - but me.) Recent visit to my ranch by film crew great example. I greeted and welcomed them in. All relaxed. Guys were cool with the dogs - the dogs soon were cool with them.
3. When I am gone to my part time job, it's a whole different story. No one has to date, or probably is, going to try to get over my fence or gate with 11 huge frothing barking and very protective LGDs meeting them in the dark. I've had friends tell me they drove up to my gate when I was gone and the reception was not friendly. "No way would I go in there!"

I raise my dogs here handled from birth and socialized, totally respecting their innate capacity to judge and make sound decisions. Because I trust my dogs, they know it, and they rarely if ever have let me down in terms of sizing up people.

I kind of find the idea of stealing someone's guard dog amusing.
Why would you want him/or her if they let themselves get stolen?
Not a very good guard dog that let's themselves be stolen.

My dogs are great with people when I am around, no idea what they would do if I wasn't home and someone came around. I can have people do chores for me but the dogs know them already. My oldest girl loves people and usually comes around for a belly rub. But twice she has met someone and turned and walked away and went out to the field and just watched them. It is a very eerie feeling to know that your dog doesn't trust the person, especially when you don't know them and they are just here responding to a CL ad. I was very happy when they decided not to buy a goat, and happier when they left.