Just getting started...

[Lynn K]

With Back Yard Herds and raising Kathadin sheep. My barn is just being built/rebuilt, the pasture is being prepared and I am spending time at a local farm, learning the ropes of a shepherdess! I already have chickens and bees and am getting more excited by the day as I watch the progress of my dream.
I live in Southern Vermont with coyotes and bear visiting regularly, so I am hoping to find a couple of Great Pyrenees guard dogs to live with the sheep when we start up this summer.

Would love any help I can get with finding the dogs and any suggestions or "words to the wise" as I begin.
Thanks, Lynn

 

[Baymule]

Welcome Lynn! Glad to have you here. We also have Katahdin sheep, a registered ram over commercial ewes, but looking to add registered ewes this year.

Gee, I might have to have a talk with you, you are getting prepared BEFORE you have sheep! LOL LOL I have to admire that trait, even though I don't have that myself. I tend to do things bass-ackwards, getting animals then wondering what to do with them.

My advice: READ THE FORUMS

There is tons of good information in the forums. I studied them while deciding on small livestock, finally choosing sheep, then hair sheep, then Dorper sheep. Real life experience with Dorper rams changed my mind to Katahdin sheep and I haven't looked back.

Same thing with the dogs, read the forums. We have 2 Great Pyrenees, 2 Anatolians and 1 Great Dane/Labrador cross. We are a little over dogged, but that's just how it worked out. I prefer the Anatolians to the GP's. Anatolians are a little more bone-headed (if that's possible LOL) their coats are WAY easier to care for, and they seem to be happier to stay home and tend to their sheep. I chose GP's to start with because they were said to be better starter dogs for people who never had LGD's and I have found that to be true. Each breed has their own quirks and challenges.

Read, read, read, the forums. Start with Sheep, pick a topic and start reading. The LGD forum is also full of interesting posts and you will learn much. I thank my lucky stars for BYH and the wonderful people here for all the help I have received. Ask any questions that you have. We will be glad to help.

 

[ButtonHerder]

Hello, welcome!

 

[CLSranch]

Howdy and welcome from Oklahoma.

I live in Southern Vermont with coyotes and bear visiting regularly, so I am hoping to find a couple of Great Pyrenees guard dogs to live with the sheep when we start up this summer.

I know dogs would help with a bear but what about an Ass (not your DH) or if a mule would attack a bear. I've seen pics of a riding mule attack a Mt. Lion. Picked it up by the tail, then neck and STOMPED it, after the rider stepped off to grab his gun to keep it from eating his hunting dogs. 🤔
Supposing you have enough land for another large animal.

 

[Baymule]

Howdy and welcome from Oklahoma.

I know dogs would help with a bear but what about an Ass (not your DH) or if a mule would attack a bear. I've seen pics of a riding mule attack a Mt. Lion. Picked it up by the tail, then neck and STOMPED it, after the rider stepped off to grab his gun to keep it from eating his hunting dogs. 🤔
Supposing you have enough land for another large animal.

The mule I had wanted to stomp the dogs to a mud pie. She stalked the sheep up and down the fence. She hated anything that wasn't a horse. She even stomped a coral snake one time. The horses shied away, not her. One dead coral snake coming up! I would not recommend a mule for a sheep guard. I got tired of her wanting to kill everything on the place and sold her.

 

[Alasgun]

Good story @Baymule, at least with a goat; when you tire of them they make fine jerky. Mule jerky😳 would be, er, uh Peculiar!

 

[Baymule]

Good story @Baymule, at least with a goat; when you tire of them they make fine jerky. Mule jerky😳 would be, er, uh Peculiar!

Never ate mule meat, so can't vouch for that.