Dixie, at 17 months old, is nearly ready to start guarding the goats (and chickens) full time without supervision. She is allowed to be loose while I am home to watch her, but still must be tied if I will be gone for more than a couple hours.
Here are some pictures of the goats, chickens, and ever-watchful Dixie in the pasture.
The chickens are laying lots of eggs!
One major thing every farmer should do is take time to just watch his (or her) animals.
I spend a while watching my animals every day, and I learn so much about them.
🙂 So true!
We are new to the LGD’s and have a 2 month old male Anatolian/Pyrenees mix. He is very sweet but we know that there is so much to still train him on before trusting him alone with the chickens (that’s all of the animals that we have at this time). How do you go about training for being with the fowl?
Congratulations on getting your first livestock guardian dog! I would keep the pup in a pen adjacent to the poultry enclosure, and let him mingle with the poultry under supervision at feeding times. There is more detail at http://www.anatoliandog.org/poultry.htm This article is specifically focusing on Anatolian Shepherds, but it applies to all LGD breeds.
There are articles for raising LGDs with other species on that site as well. 🙂