New Working LGDs

[BCSnob]

Yesterday I brought home two Anatolian Shepherds that came from a large sheep farm.

6yo Duke

He is taller and longer than Wendy was. He was a bit snug in his crate (48"L x 32"W x 35"H) coming home.

1yo Penny


They had been working together on the sheep farm and seem happy together here


The only issue so far is Penny wants to attack the barn cats who had learned Sam & Wendy were cat friendly.

[Scottiemom]

Your border collies are amazing, Mark. Just beautiful how they are so focused. Glad you've got some LGD's to help them out.

Dale

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

Penny seems to grasp that the collies are doing your bidding? (and therefore are "OK")

Being near a collie sure puts their enormous size into perspective!

As an aside - our son just lost his last maremma 😞 They seemed very able to discern a "pet visitor" and as long as the visitor didn't harrass the livestock, there were no conflicts. Given the size of our crazy family and how many dog visitors they had, this was pretty impressive discernment!

[BCSnob]

Since lambing starts early March, we need to be confidentDuke and Penny will accept our border collies working our sheep. We rely upon our border collies to help move new mothers and their lambs from the field (where most give birth) to barn stalls where we keep the new families for a few days.

Saturday I took Fern and Lee (one at a time) out to work the flock while just Penny was loose with the flock. Penny has never been around border collies working sheep. She was interested in meeting (and hoping Fern or Lee would play) but not in interfering with them working.

I didn’t record Fern; I did record some of Lee’s work session.

Video 1
Video 2

Next up is repeating this with Duke and then with both Duke & Penny

[BCSnob]

I needed to borrow a second giant crate to transport both Anatolians home in our van. I got one from a friend who told me she placed her LGDs with a plant nursery (leaving her sheep unprotected) because of frequent and consistent complaints from the general public to animal control about her LDGs living in a fenced field unattended (they did have shelter). One of the animal control officers started demanding she come deal with the unlawful living conditions of her dogs (unattended). Clearly, this officer and the general public do not know the exemptions for:
"....DOG IS LAWFULLY AND ACTIVELY ENGAGED IN:
(1) HUNTING;
(2) LIVESTOCK HERDING OR GUARDING;
(3) SLEDDING;
(4) SPORTING; OR
(5) TRAINING."

This is not the first time I've been told about the general public causing issues for owners of working LDGs; for example "rescuing" one from a fenced field with their sheep and taking it to the animal shelter because it was obviously abandoned.

[BCSnob]

I was given a tour of the farm where I got the dogs; saw their other dogs and sheep. We flushed a golden eagle from a tree on our tour (one of their predators); I was told the dogs have not been very successful against the eagles or the mountain lion if the sheep are spread out.

Duke and Penny seem content with their new home
Play time

[Deb_and_Ed_M]

This is awesome - I loved the video of the sheep checking out the "new kids in town"

Glad you have some protective partners again. My son lost both his Maremmas; but now that they aren't raising calves and piglets, the guard duties are being carried out by "Ricky Bobby" the miniature donkey....LOL!

[BCSnob]

“Fun Fact” for everyone; Kangals & Anatolian Shepherds have the highest bite force of any dog breed, 2x-3x that of Pitbulls. Fortunately, unless they are poorly bred they have very little human aggression.

[BCSnob]

They'll need a vet check soon; the sheep farmer was told by her vet that they didn't need to treat for heartworm in south-eastern WV.

Saturday night we crated them in a barn stall to be safe instead of turning them loose on the farm after I got home after sunset. Sunday morning I had Lee move the sheep into the barnyard, put him back in the house (saving the dog-dog introductions for later), and let Duke and Penny loose in the barnyard.

New dogs & curious sheep

Silly puppy Penny

Since the sheep were not scared of the new dogs and other than Penny being a little rambunctious I could tell there would be no sheep-dog issues.

Penny had been on a drag at her home farm to slow her down a bit (prevent her from running through and playing with the sheep) so I pulled out the drag we used with Sam when he was still young. I then spent 2hrs following Duke and Penny while they checked out the field/fence lines, followed and marked the trails foxes follow through the field, and monitored them with the barn cats (Penny grabbed and picked up one of them). I made sure they both got fed, learned how to get in and out of the barn where their autofeeders are, and made sure both were using the autofeeders.

At this point we just need to make sure Penny doesn't kill cats and both meet and accept our working border collies. We will have both LGDs on chains in the field to watch the Border Collies work (Duke has been around working Border Collies gathering “his” sheep) and we’ll carefully do the dog-dog introductions watching for and reading the reactions.

[dturm]

They look great. How much training goes into getting these two to adapt to your place and flock or is it just instinct?

[Scottiemom]

Hope they work out for you, Mark. I know you are anxious for some help guarding your flock.

Dale