Our Livestock Guardian Dogs
Purpose
Every farm or agriculture operation needs some kind of predator prevention to protect your hard work and investments.
Whether you grow vegetables or raise livestock, your operation will draw in some kind of vermin that will undoubtedly take a toll on your production.
We have chosen to employ some of the best livestock guardian dogs (LGDs) for our goat operation.
These dogs keep skunks, coyotes, raccoon, bobcats, and possums away from our animals by deterring them and patrolling the fence line.
Without our working dogs, our animals would be much more susceptible to these predators, even with secured fencing and barns.
Our dogs
Samson (male)
Samson is an extraordinary dog.
He is part Great Pyrenees, Akbash, and Anatolian shepherd.
At almost 3 years old, Samson has proven himself to sire a litter of puppies due to his immense intuition, temperament, and desire to work.
What we love about Samson is his cunning attitude and his ability to learn and ease of training. He was guarding independently at 10 months old.
Samson is athletic, not hyper aggressive, and chooses to stay and guard instead of wander like many Great Pyrenees purebreds are notorious of doing.
Xena (female)
Xena is a fierce protector but also a sweet and loving human bonded dog.
Xena has many complementary qualities to balance Samson. She has an extremely good nature around kids and young animals. Xena is loyal, she prefers to guard and not wander,
and supports her mate when facing predators.
Xena has a very calm disposition which makes her very easy to train. She is intelligent and a people pleaser.
Xena is approximately 50% Great Pyrenees, 25% Anatolian shepherd, and 25% Akbash.
Xena is petite at 85lbs but size does not limit her guarding abilities. She is strong willed and strong physically as she protects her flock diligently.
Livestock Guardian Duties
Samson and Xena guard stock on 218 fenced acres.
We have 150-200 birds like guinea fowl, free range chickens, and quail.
They also guard 75 goats day and night along with cattle and calves.
The LGDs are also around horses, donkeys, cows, cats, and other dogs along with a multitude of farm guests and visitors.
They will run and chase hawks and buzzards and respond to the guinea fowl distress calls and check out unique or unfamiliar noises.
Taking Home A New Puppy
Adjustment
Bringing you puppy home.
Whether your pup is 10 weeks or 6 months old, bringing your puppy home will take adjustments.
Your puppy should be kept in a safe area from large livestock so that the puppy has time to blend in with their stock and not fear them (like being head butted or stepped on).
You should give your puppy a designated safe place to eat away from stock as they may bully your pup and take its food.
We recommend keeping the puppy in a large kennel or run with panels when not around the puppy so they can be safe and watch stock.
Training & Expectations
While every trainer, breeder, owner, farmer has a method on how to train puppies- we do NOT suggest you ”throw“ your puppy into their intended job and expect your young pup to just get it and rely entirely on instincts.
Your puppy will need guidance, supervision, and training to learn what to expect from YOU.
These dogs have an innate desire and ability to guard (and well) but as puppies, they do not harness enough maturity to rely 100% on their instincts and this is where you will have to come in.
There are plenty of LGD training resources available.
Expect to work with your dog.
Until the puppy can be 100% trusted around stock (8-14 months in many cases), rely on good fencing, lots of exposure, training and learning commands, and maybe tethering.
Vaccinations
We suggest that your puppies and dogs stay current with vaccinations since they will be outside a lot and around vermin.
We like our dogs to be able to be leashed and taken to the clinic for their shots.
We recommend that you leash train your dogs and this will come in hand when training your dogs around stock as well.
Well behaved and well mannered dogs are good dogs (to us).