Livestock Guarding Dogs - Maremma

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[eddie n juice]

This is an old post i know, and the link no longer works for me. 

But its livestock guardian related question, so i have put it here. Please let me know if you want it elsewhere.

I have 2 trained livestock guardian dogs LGD (M and Female) on my sheep and cows. I have a 7 month old herding pup.  Ive taken the pup on perimeter walks in paddocks. Ive taken him in every single day, and had him down stay whilst i sort feeds, then we leave.  But the LGD have their breakfast, at same time as feeding stock, so they are occupied.

Now i wish to move my training away from sheep, to with sheep. But my LGD are not allowing the pup in the paddock with stock to be chasing them, and interfere.

What happens: stock in paddock, i walk up with pup, LGD come over sniff say hi and leave us. Then once we engage the stock, we seem to engage the LGD too.  If we dont listen and stop, the female comes over, and escalates towards the pup, getting more agitated the longer we continue = Unworkable. 

Ive gotten around this with putting the LGD on tether, so pup and i can work stock. This is temporary. The stock are also bonded to LGD, so they are not liking the LGD being missing when the pup is in paddock. As used to their guidance and protection in such circumstances. 

What i want to achieve: ability to herd stock with LGD in same paddock.

How have others approached this?

An alternative is to use my two cows?  Pup is happy to work either sheep or cows, more confidence than any 7 month old has a right to be, but that's him.

Pup is an Australian Koolie. (Like a kelpie. Known for wide flanks, backing sheep ability in yard work, droving and herding endurance in high Australian heat all day). Whilst i never want to trial and win a title, i do want to use him to work with me daily on the farm. 

I have not posted this in the BC forum, as every post is told not to it seems. I think its simply for trialling dogs rather than working perhaps?
 

 

 

 

[Mark Billadeau]

I have seen our LGDs interfere with dogs being silly (puppies) or rash (inexperienced dogs); what the LGDs might view as harassing their sheep.  The LGDs don’t interfere when our dogs are working properly.  We lock up the LGDs when we’re training young/inexperienced dogs or when other people are working their dogs.

[Mark Billadeau]

We’ve had major changes in our LGDs over the past year.  Sam, our maremma, after the 2022 lambing got to the point he could no longer stand, he was 12yo.  Right after Christmas Wendy, our Kangal, died suddenly.  She was herself Tuesday afternoon and dead Wednesday morning on one of her sleeping spots; no signs of injury or illness.

With the help of a couple of friends we were able to locate and bring home a 6yo Anatolian male and a 1yo Anatolian cross female that have been working together on a sheep farm with 700 ewes.

The sheep accepted Duke and Penny and they seem content on our farm.

LGD zoomies

They have made their presence known to the pack of coyotes we hear just behind our  trial field.The next task is to make sure Duke and Penny accept our Border Collies; an important step to complete prior to lambing in March.