Guardian dog chewed up a goat today.

[ducks4you]

Sorry--glad you're happy.

 

[dianneS]

I just had another amazing incident with this dog tonight! The gate to the goat pasture wasn't latched (my fault) and all the goats got out into the horse's small paddock (not goat proof fence) and the dog was loose with the goats. That dog did not leave those goats at all, he stuck right with them the whole time and kept them in the paddock, he didn't let them escape further. He was surrounded by free-ranging chickens too and didn't look twice at them! I called to the dog and the whole herd followed him back thru the gate into the goat pasture where they belong!

The horses had made their way into the goat pasture while the gate was open (there is really good clover in there and the horse pasture needs mowed right now, so I left the horses out there for the night) I am watching that crazy dog and my mini horse, who used to hate each other, playing together right now! This is quite entertaining, I've never seen anything like it! That dog is allowing the horse to bite the scruff of his neck. It must feel good?? He pounces around my mini and the mini jumps around and bucks and kicks at the dog. The dog flops down in a submissive pose a lot, that's good. Oh! Now the horse is chasing the dog! Oh this is too much fun! I wish my camera was working.

 

[TigerLilly]

I just finished reading this thread from start to finish & I just want to say "Thank You" to everyone who encouraged Dianne to hang in there & offered advice. I say this because I found it to be an interesting situation & I learned from it.
I am also glad, Dianne, that you stuck with Alex & let him mature.

 

[dianneS]

I just finished reading this thread from start to finish & I just want to say "Thank You" to everyone who encouraged Dianne to hang in there & offered advice. I say this because I found it to be an interesting situation & I learned from it.
I am also glad, Dianne, that you stuck with Alex & let him mature.

Yes, thank you to those of you who offered such great advice and support, I don't know how I would have gotten through it otherwise.

I am glad that I stuck with him and gave him a chance since he has turned out to be the dog I had hoped he would be.

I just introduced two baby fainting goats to the herd recently. Alex was leery of them at first and tried to separate them from the rest. He got tied up a few hours a day to let the little goats get used to the new herd without being overwhelmed by the presence of a dog. Thanks to the oppressive heat, Alex doesn't have the energy to chase the new goats, so the integration of new goats has been very easy. They are learning not to fear the dog and have become part of the herd very quickly and with very little stress! I'm very pleased.

 

[meme]

Neutering always helps!

.

 

[meme]

thats great.

 

[CYGChickies]

I'm not an expert at all, but I 've read quite a lot while raising two female great pyrenees, 13 and 9 months old. To be quite honest, from what I've read and experienced, your dog is just acting like a juvenile/pup, which I know most all LGDs will do and will get over that as they mature. Every now and then my 13 month old tried to play with my young chickens, which she grew up with (they were born when she was 4 months old) , and was corrected every single time, until she had her first heat. After she got off her first heat, she began to ignore the chickens, except for a small hello smell everytime they meet. I still don't give her unrestricted access to them but I'm very confident now that she's ready to take on her flock, full time. Anyway, what I'm trying to say is that the pup is still learning. As long as he's playing and not really attacking (prey drive) he's right on course, given that you keep monitoring and find a way to discipline for every fault. I think you need to give him hell for misbehaving, no need to get physical, just yell, really YELL, pick up buckets and throw them in his direction and lift your arms. When he crouches a little and tries to avoid you, leave him alone and start acting as if nothing happened and he's a good boy again, keep on doing your chores or act as if tending the sheep. He will be "shamed" and if he's got an LGD inside him, his sensitivity and meer shame he went through will make the behavior stop, till he forgets again in a month(s) Then you do it again. As he matures, he will stop the play and you'll have a real LGD which will give you (god willing) thousands of nights of sound sleep knowing he's out there taking care of business. But yes, training an LGD (not to play with livestock) to maturity takes a lot of time and a lot of patience, that's just the way it is.

I agree with the "puppy" thing and that shame is a huge driving factor for behavior control. We holler and point and if that fails we flip ours onto their backs and growl because that's what their sire did when he was teaching them as babies on the farm and we wanted to continue a tactic that obviously worked. We have two pure Pyrs that are brothers. They're intact and not quite to a year yet. We introduced them to the goats right away and my Nigerian herd queen beat them at every chance. At first I stopped her but then I noticed them wanting to chase the younger goats so I let her go at them uninhibited. She taught them herself not to chase, mouth, bark at goats and they don't even offer to hurt the day-old kids now. Chickens they want to sniff and the chickens run and then puppy instinct says to chase which could lead to something ugly. I don't want them to get the reward or experience of blood from a chicken so I make sure all interaction is strictly controlled. When they are no longer pups THEN I will trust them more with the birds.

They have required no more training than teaching "no" and to come when called. Ours will walk--pouting--on a leash, will be wormed and given shots and examined by a vet without snapping. They will let us bathe, brush and pick ticks and burrs off of them with only a little protest and they will lay with the goats but also know that the herd queen is in charge. They even let our babies headbutt them and don't growl or snap.
They've protected our silkies from raccoons twice and spent a day with our chickens that busted out of their run with only one incident of "over-interest" in a flighty hen. I haven't noticed any issue with hormones other than sometimes they will have hump fights. We don't have any female dogs so I decided to let them "develop" the natural way and go from there after they're full adults. Just be patient and remember if you want them to do anything besides kill predators (such as coming, walking on a lead, sitting, behaving in the car) you have to teach it. Also our dogs are socialized with us and our family and they still quickly notice strangers and menace them even as puppies.

 

[Petty]

May be the dog have tasted blood and is now out of control. The best measure is to take him out of the farm. Get another well-trained dog.