Teaching an old dog new tricks...

[RoahT]

We recently lost our old dog that we'd had since he was a puppy, and soon after we got a 5 year old German Shepherd with no experience with any kind of livestock whatsoever. She is very wild with our cows and sheep, and they all (besides our one air headed, life-is-a-picnic ewe, haha ) hate her. She is a good obedient dog otherwise. My brother says forget it, you can't teach an old dog new tricks. Should I just forget it? Or is there something I can do to train her to be a good livestock dog? Any ideas, advice, etc? I don't have any experience training dogs.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

What do you want her to do? Guard or herd?

 

[RoahT]

She already guards well and has even broken out of her cage to chase off a few bears. But we can't keep her in the barn with the other animals and have to keep her in a separate run or cage. We want her to at least be able to hang out in the barn with the others. Herding would be nice, but that's not so much of a necessary thing as her just being with them.

 

[Southern by choice]

You can definitely train her. @Goat Whisperer asks the same question I have.

What exactly are your goals?

 

[RoahT]

I guess that would be helpful information, huh?

 

[Southern by choice]

Most in your situation would be looking more for a farm-dog... one that looks out for the property, doesn't actually herd or guard livestock... but doesn't harass the animals yet keeps an eye open for small critters and human intruders.

 

[RoahT]

So can I teach her to not harass the animals? and how?

 

[TAH]

I'm no expert but I know you can teach an older dog not to mess with the animals!

When we had friends move to our house they brought there yellow lab (6-years old).... He would try to chase the goats. No way was I taken one bit of it!

I started with letting him see them thru the fence while on leash... When the goats would come up I would have him lay down until I saw he was calm... This took several tries before he would not even consider chasing!

Next was thru fence off leash! He was awesome... I remember he tried chasing once (thru fence) and I corrected him and then showed him what I wanted.... After a while of this I would take him in while feeding the goats... and before to long he was off leash in the goats area calm and happy.

I will say if your dog doesn't listen to a come, stay, sit, lay down, etc... It will make it really hard to train.

Yella was already very well trained!

 

[Sara Ranch]

My ranch is the third home for two dogs. I have been working with them NOT to chase or to harm the animals, from the little chickens to the big cows.

I bring each animal to the dogs to let them smell.

Later it's walking them on the leash near, then by, then through the animals.

I praise good behavior.

I redirect bad behavior.

The dogs are sometimes in an outdoor kennel, sometimes on a leash, and sometimes in a pasture. And then there are the times the dogs escape the fenced pasture or their outdoor kennel or manage to get away from me. It's not a total scare fest anymore.

When I work with my dogs, I try to take them for a long walk or get them to run around in a safe area, have them work off that energy before I try to do "training". Seems to help.

 

[Goat Whisperer]

I guess that would be helpful information, huh?

Yes.