Don’t miss the cues with livestock guardian dog behavior

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livestock guardian dogs and sheep
Seven, left, and Allanon, right, watch over the sheep, at Farei Kennels, in Maine. (Farei Kennels photo)

It didn’t start yesterday.

Every day, I have owners contacting me, looking to solve unwanted behaviors. They all have a common theme. Their frustrations are the same. “It was unprovoked.” Or “It came out of nowhere.” Or “He’s never done this before.“ Regardless of the end result, I tell them all the same thing: It didn’t start yesterday.

Missed it

You missed the beginning stages, I tell them. There was communication long before the behavior you saw today. You just missed it. Body language is universally understood. Except by humans. We’ve given most of it up in favor of verbal communication. What little is left is subconscious, and most people don’t even realize they do it. If you’ve ever taken a good class in people management, you’ve probably touched on some of it.

Animals do it without thinking. It’s their first form of communication. If you expect to be an effective owner, you’ll have to learn it, too. Really learn it.

Pay attention

That means paying attention. Being there, watching and not getting involved. That’s the hardest part for most people — they have to get involved. It’s part of the human condition.
I had Reina, a young female livestock guardian dog, doing chores with me, recently. She followed me into the horse pasture while I handed out hay, sniffing around, until she found a choice frozen cobble. Our newest addition, a pony, has only been here for a short time and is still uncertain about the dogs.

The pony came forward, head lowered. Reina watched her approach and stood up as she got closer. When the mare pinned her ears, Reina lowered her head and dropped the horse cobble. Moving backwards slowly, all of her body language said she understood and had no intention of being a threat.

She moved well back, until the mare’s body relaxed again. Reina promptly flopped down and sighed, over her lost treat I’m sure. Although I was keeping an eye on them to make sure everyone succeeded, they didn’t need me. I’m confident in Reina’s good sense. The mare is a level headed individual, too. They worked it out.

Comes to blows

When you tell me something happened “out of the blue,” I’ll say you missed those first conversations where it wasn’t worked out. Now, it’s come to blows. Aggression toward their livestock is the most common theme.

“My young dog attacked a goat, completely unprovoked.” Really? Forgive my skepticism. Something along the way led up to this altercation. Maybe it’s an older doe who had no experience with livestock guardian dogs and overreacts. Livestock guardian dogs can get tired of pot shots and eventually defend themselves.

Young dogs can sometimes resource guard bedding, food that doesn’t belong to them or prime sleeping spots. If you aren’t there, you’ll miss those first signs of inappropriate behavior. Maybe it’s a new addition still trying to figure out its place in the herd. If you aren’t there, you’ll miss the interventions when they try to interact. The hard stares as the herd queen asserts her position.

Young dogs can misconstrue normal herd maneuvering as hostile and take steps to protect “their” stock from new members. The same goes for breeding season. A new buck or ram can be viewed as hostile and aggressive.

Then, there’s the other side of the coin. I’ve seen stock that were just plain mean to dogs. I know that putting a young pup in with mothers to teach them manners is an accepted practice, but stock aren’t always reasonable. Young dogs who are bullied grow up learning the golden rule: always bully those who are smaller than you.

House dogs

House dogs are another common theme. I hear of livestock dogs attacking them “out of the blue” on a fairly regular basis. On the one side, we have those with only a relationship through the fence or from afar. The house dog runs back and forth, barking at livestock and dogs alike, threatening to show everyone who is boss. When the inevitable meet up does occur, the only reasonable conclusion is a fight. At long last, the livestock guardian dog gets to say its piece.

On the other side, there are the house dogs who resource guard the new puppy from its owner, the bed, the food and snap and growl whenever the puppy approaches. It always comes as a surprise when the livestock dog grows up and, eventually, plows the house dogs into the dirt.

These are just simple examples of complex relationship failures. Missed communication that leads to behaviors seen as “unprovoked.” But, in all cases, the underlying theme is the same: It didn’t start yesterday.

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20 COMMENTS

  1. Hello we have a fourteen month old male anatolian shepherd who is pretty good with our goats but there are some goats that have tried to beat up on him and lately he will answer there agression with his own. He will stop barking and chasing when we tell him no.he is only with them until under supervision. I’m interested in your thoughts.
    Thanks so much.

    • We believe in a safe working environment and mutual respect. We not only reprimand our stock for poor behavior we allow our dogs to defend themselves appropriately.

  2. We had 2 brothers anatolian Pyrenees brothers . They were raised with their goat herd. March 29th 22 we had a tragic fire. We lost 3 barns our goat herd and McCoy . Malaki, and McCoy were never apart. I have a small boer goat herd around 5 months old . Ki wants nothing to do with them? I really need him to do his job. He is a wonderful dog We love him dearly . He hates to be in the house, and ultimately I need to do what is best for ki. Giving him up is not a option.

  3. So my sheep have been getting attacked pretty heavily by my neighbors dog so I got some livestock guardians however this dog has attacked twice and both times one of them did nothing she was scared but she didn’t do anything to stop him dose that mean she’s going to learn to attack them? I have a few questions

  4. We have have 2 mixed LGD’s. Half siblings; a female 9 months, & a male 18 months. She has been with our sheep/goat herd since she was a puppy with no problems. He came to us recently from a goat herd that was going to the sale. He has been mostly good with our sheep, but has begun to try to breed the lambs & has injured several of them by grabbing them by their back legs. I’ve got him scheduled to get snipped with the vet, but is there anything I can do to correct this before he starts killing?

  5. I have Anatolian shepherd Pyrenees cross 10 month old female. She keeps pestering the sheep who are her same age gets smaller than she is. Today she pulled out a tag ripping the ewes ear. The first two times I caught her, I thought she was just suckling it’s ear today through different. When the sheep are out, the pup is up. When the sheep are confined to the barn area overnight, the pup is free to patrol, but not be with the sheep. When I’m doing chores, she is free to take her self in and out of the field. And then generally to her bag until I return to the sheep. But oh no, not today I left her out so I could watch her behavior, That’s when this assault occurred. Needless to say, she is back in confinement and the ewe lamb will be OK.
    What do I do now, am I expecting too much of such a youngster?

  6. I have two backyard goats. Yearling does. I just brought home a 11 week old Anatolian Shepherd.it’s my intention to leave her with them to grow up as their guardian dog. So far things are not going well one of the goats is really mean. Head buts the puppy really hard whenever she comes close. I read the post says to discipline the dog and the livestock. How do you discipline a goat? What can I do?

  7. Thank you so much for sharing your knowledge with the world! I have a question for you as well. Our LGD is almost 6 years old. He has always been sweet and gentle with our goat herd but just in the past couple of months, when he hears a threat and takes off, if a goat is too far from the herd he’ll sometimes give a nip to their ears almost as if he’s telling them to go back to safety, then he goes to the fence to tell off the threat. I’m not sure what to do because I do think he is trying to keep them safe. But we have had a few small injuries to their ears. What would you suggest?

  8. I have a mostly Karakachan male puppy, who has been living in a smallish paddock (less than 1/4 acre) with my four “retired” Jacob Sheep ewes, aged 12-14. I got him at 3 months old, from a farm where his parents guard goats, and the puppies were in with them as well. I kept him in a 10×20 kennel next to the sheep pasture for a month or so until he had grown big enough not to escape the fencing around the sheep. He is strongly bonded to me, and I have socialized him to local people and dogs that I trust in the neighborhood. He hasn’t shown much interest in the sheep, I figured that since they are slow with arthritis and wouldn’t run he wouldn’t chase them. One ewe is more active, and he has chased her, but stops when I tell him. She is afraid of him, but the other ewes just ignore him. He is now 7 months old, and this morning I found my oldest, very lame ewe dead and partially eaten. I hoped she had just died naturally and he had taken advantage, but there was a blood trail to show that she had been moving while bleeding. So my conclusion is that the dog killed the sheep. There was no damage to the neck or head, but he had eaten her from the rear and ate almost all of a back leg. Is there anything that I can do to prevent this behavior? Can he ever be trusted with my sheep, especially my lambs?

  9. Have a heard of goats and 1 18 month old maremma/pyrenees mix LGD. She has been with the heard since she was 5 months old. I have made some mistakes and missed signs. She is now chasing and biting the goats. Sometimes she will sit in the midst of them no problem, but most of the time she is chasing and eventually biting. How do I break these habits?

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