More than one LGD?

[FoxFarms]

We have some chickens, ducks and dwarf goats in an area about a quarter of an acre. At this time we have a English springer spaniel/Great Pyrenees mix that watches over everyone. I let her out for a little bit in the morning and some in the afternoon to run with our other dogs. But I just feel bad because I feel dogs need to be in pairs even if she has the other animals, am I right to think this way? Also I’ve been thinking of expanding to about 1 acre fenced (id love to do more but that field fence is rough on the hills out here and expensive). Would that be enough for 2 dogs? We have about 20 very hilly acres that is in the woods with 100s of wooded acres behind us so I feel she does our animals a lot of good and I want her to be happy but I don’t want two of them to be cramped. Thanks for the answers, it is fun to get everyone’s views on these things.

 

[Coolbreeze89]

Hopefully some more experienced LGD people will chime in, but it’s my experience that a second dog allows them to alternate who’s on duty. I recently added 2 pyr/toli pups to my single adult pyr/toli. The eldest seems to be more willing to pause his patrols as the younger two are finally starting to show some guarding behavior (though the eldest still takes the lead, of course, if something is out of place).

Does your dog patrol the full 20 acres? Then you definitely need more. If you’re fencing the dog in on 1/4-1 acre, then I doubt you’d need a second dog.