We bought a puppy a few weeks ago from a goat breeder near our area. The puppy is 9 weeks old and is 3/4 great Pyrenees and 1/4 Anatolian. She was born in the goat pens and has been raised with them. The first week went great with her, but this last weeks she has started to chase the goats and nip and them. Anytime I see her to that I have been stopping her and telling her no and a little swot too. Last night she killed one of my turkeys and completely ate it. Should I be concerned that she will continue to kill the chickens and turkeys, now that she has got a taste? Not sure what I should do with her. She will be around the chickens and turkeys and we wanted her to be guardian to all these animals!! Any advice would be great...
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She doesn't mess with them at all during the day, it was at night when she was locked up with them. Right now we are in transition as we are finishing up the new chicken coop, we have half the flock in the old coop and the new turkeys and baby chicks in with the goats. Very crazy right now. Anyways I think I'm just going to lock up her somewhere else tonight so she's not tempted at all. She really is a good dog, and I think we can curb some behaviors. When the new coop is done she will be able to circle around the chicken run area, but not be part of them. So the only way she will get one is if they fly over the top. She doesn't even pay attention to them during the day. Hoping she was just playing with them, then killed it then ate it. Not sure. Very irritating though. If anyone's new to turkeys, you know how costly they are to start out!! Cannot afford to loose anymore. Thanks for the advice I will try locking her in separate pen tonight and see if she gets into anymore trouble. What kind of LGD do you have Deborah?
We have 2 GPs and a GP cross. One of them leaves the poultry alone, and the other two will chase the birds every once in a while. We did lose some half-grown chickens to one of them, but they prefer to just make the adult birds scatter. Having said that, it does tend to be hard to break a dog of the habit of killing and eating them. If you're able to contain her now and introduce her to the goats and poultry on your terms maybe you can fix the problem. If she's only a few months old then you're not relying on her for predator control yet so containment wouldn't be putting your livestock at a predator risk that isn't already there.
We have problems with our GPs wandering and just had a neighbour stop by to let us know that they almost shot them this morning. There is a small pack of feral GPs around who have been killing lots of deer in the area and our dogs were almost mistaken for them. I wouldn't have blamed our neighbours for shooting them if they had as they have to protect their own livestock and pets (one neighbour believes the feral GPs killed his dog), but I guess we're going to have to come up with a better plan to contain our dogs. As well as not wanting them killed, I also don't want to be "that inconsiderate neighbour who doesn't control her animals".
We live in an area where my LGD can NOT be tied at night, or she would be totally useless. During the day, predators stay clear of the area she's in, but at night, she has to be able to patrol. If I weren't able to lock everyone ELSE up while she patrols, we'd have problems. lol
Our first two LGDs were GP, and we sold them to pet homes after they started killing our poultry. I was brand new to homesteading when I got them, but like Rachel, I have also since heard that GPs have a problem with poultry. I even know someone who sells puppies from their GPs that they keep tied 24/7 because if they were left to run loose, they kill their chickens. If you live in an area where you seriously need an LGD then keeping it tied totally defeats the purpose of having it. I think there are some GPs that may not have this issue, but at this point in my homesteading journey, I would never buy a puppy from a farm that didn't have their dogs guarding their poultry. Even then, there is no guarantee that you wouldn't wind up with a puppy that chases or kills them, but the odds are certainly better than if the puppy came from parents who kill poultry.
In addition to the dangle stick, I have also heard of putting a harness on a LGD and tying it to an old tire. The dog can get around the pasture but can't chase very well. This is not meant to be a long-term thing because again it's not an effective guardian like this. It's just for slowing them down while they outgrow their puppy stage.
I don't know if there's much truth to it, but I've heard that GP have a tendancy to munch fowl. I know this is true for my GP. My solution was to chain her during the day, so that chasing isn't an option, and then let her loose at night when everyone (goats and fowl) are locked away. I recommend http://www.amazon.com/Livestock-Guardians-Donkeys-Protect-Storeys/d... this book. It's got the most information (in one spot) that I could find about training. I got my dog as an adult, but you should be able to work with your puppy. The chasing has to stop. Do you have a "dangle stick"? http://www.lgd.org/trainfaqs.html#dangle I didn't like the idea of the harsh stick, so I used a jolly ball for the same purpose. Now, though, I can't even use that, because she was killing birds (playing with them to death. She thinks everyone can play as rough as she does) so I have her chained at a stationary place in the yard where everyone has access to HER, but she can't chase them.