New LGD - advice please

My neighbors bring their LGD in the house with them and take him for walks; he’s a pet, too. When they brought him home from the out-of-state breeder he was covered in ticks, they were pretty appalled.

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Is the property perimeter fence? What kind? He needs a woven wire or high tensile hot fence and possibly a Dogtra or similar collar with the electric fence line tacked onto the physical fence to deter him from getting out of the hard fence. A electric fence alone will not contain him. A physical fence alone may not contain him.

Like others have said: fence, fence, fence. Containment.

He will bark. Day and night. Throughout the night. That’s him doing his job.

Since he seemed to have proven himself around poultry, I will leave that alone right now.

It’s all about fencing. There are SOOOO many of these guys being repeatedly rehomed, dumped, and shot because they wander and bark. :woman_facepalming: :woman_facepalming: :woman_facepalming: :woman_facepalming: :woman_facepalming:

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My fear with the poultry would be if he was only ever kenneled next to them, and not actually worked with around them, that he could even harbor some fence aggression type behavior, we don’t know how well he did. I’d be cautious and start from scratch, myself. Definitely a plus that he’s past the pure puppy chase stage though.

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It’s perimeter fenced with woven wire.

The barking has me concerned, tbh. But it’s very faint from inside my house, so I’m hoping the neighbors can’t really hear it or won’t be bothered by it.

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Yes we’re introducing him to the birds as if he’s never seen them before. He stays in the back with the pigs and the horses right now, probably indefinitely. I’m expecting just his presence alone to give us a reprieve from the feral dogs coming onto the property.

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Zeke’s been here about a week and has been a surprisingly extra good boy.
He barked a LOT the first couple nights but the last few it has been very minimal. Which makes sense, since he’s new and learning the area, and I’ve been reading that they’ll bark as a “just in case” if they’re unsure if something might be out there. Thankfully, his bark is a pretty deep woof, I can barely hear it when I’m in my house, so I’m pretty sure it shouldn’t create any neighbor problems. If anything, they’ll probably think they’re hearing one of the many feral dogs that run around here (hence the LGD).

He is just so freaking sweet, he really took to my husband and they play a lot. He completely disregards all the toys and bones we got him. He will happily chase and chew (NOT retrieve/fetch) a stick, though. :smile:

He’s already doing a LOT better walking on the leash. He helped me water all our plants in the front yard tonight and didn’t pull hard once. Later, while off leash, a chicken meandered over the fence to the back where Zeke stays (with the pigs and horses) and Zeke chased it, but stopped in his tracks as soon as my husband yelled his name. His chase also looked like a curious playful chase, not a chasing to eat.

So far he has stayed on the farm and is respectful of fences but, I’m sure we have a road ahead of us. I have a gps tracking collar arriving this weekend for peace-of-mind.

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Great news! He’s so cute.

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They want to please. Keep showing him the routine and before you know it, he’ll be off leash. When I had LGD, if I got something new, I would point at it and say “mine.” They learned pretty quick that meant they don’t touch it.

Keeping that in mind, if you bring in something new, say a new hen, they know it’s new. If you don’t introduce it to the dog, he might kill it as an intruder. Odd that that never extended to baby goats. They accepted those without issue.

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That is strange but also really cute. Did they perhaps see the actual birth, which clued them in?

Occasionally he tries to play with them but mostly ignores the birds

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They do try to attend births when possible but honestly it should be instinctual with these guys to want to protect babies. Some need to be mature before they are fully trustworthy but there is thousands of years of breeding behind them to do this.

It’s fascinating how they work together when there are multiple LGD with a herd. Picture wolves getting a bit too close. One or two dogs stay with the herd to protect them and the rest go after the threat. You can’t train that. Even more fascinating is when the dogs sound the alarm, the herd will run to their protectors rather than away.

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I have 3 LGD, 2 pyrs and one Anatolian/pyr mix (that one is female). She is the Head of the Dept of Homeland Security here and in charge of the other two. We have coyotes all around me and 2 made the mistake of coming into my pasture awhile back. She stayed between them and the horses and the two boys took on the intruders. They killed one and the other took off. They say you need more than one so one can stand watch and the other take care of business, or at least so the one has some back up.

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OP your dog is very cute!
My sister has a Pyrénées x Anatolian pup. Vanouk is almost a year old and huge. Sis also has a 9 yo Picard. She has had dogs her whole life and says Vanouk obeys really well in the house and in the fenced in yard, but when she’s outside (Sis has horses on a lot of land) all bets are off.
Here she is watching TV with Sis

Playing with the Picard

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