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The Great Pyrenees is a very old breed, thought to originate about 10,000 years ago. They were used as guard dogs during wartime and to protect livestock in peacetime. They are a very popular livestock guarding dog and family pet, and despite the Great Pyrenees’ size and their protective instincts, they are generally gentle giants that are good around children and small animals. They are one of the few livestock guarding dogs that thrive in either role, as a pet or guard dog, being able to bond with sheep or with people. They will instinctively guard whatever they bond with. For this reason, many people feel they should only be allowed to bond with the livestock they will be guarding and not humans. This is not very practical when you need to handle your dog, and the good news is, Great Pyranese can be trained to bond with and protect sheep, and also bond with and obey their human handlers.
The Great Pyrenees' personality is a bit of an enigma. They naturally exhibit strong guarding behavior for whatever or whomever they are bonded to and also submissive gentle behavior with what they are guarding. They will be aggressive with predators or threats to the sheep they are guarding, rushing at, growling, barking and intimidating, wolves, coyotes or other dogs. However, trained with adult sheep, Pyrenees will behave submissively, gaining the sheep's trust and eventually living with and protecting the sheep. They generally are gentle and get along well with children and small animals, such as cats, ducks, and chickens, which is important on a farm where family and livestock need to be able to move about unthreatened, while still being protected. The Pyrenees’ unique ability to combine aggression towards threats, generally other canines, and submissiveness towards livestock makes their behavior ideal for working on a farm and protecting sheep.
Many young Pyrenees dogs are trained to guard sheep by association with other mature livestock dogs. It is best to train a Pyrenees with another Pyrenees, as their guarding behavior and bonding instincts are different from most other dog breeds, and an appropriate model for behavior is another Pyrenees that has already become established in a flock. To bond with sheep, several mature sheep that are not easily intimidated are generally used in controlled environments, such as smaller pens with the young Pyrenees, to allow bonding to take place.
The Protect an Area Method
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Most Recommended
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Provide boundary
Have the area you want your Pyrenees to protect clearly defined. The area should be fenced. Where sheep are being contained, a relatively solid fence with sheep wire usually provides a clear boundary.
Contain
Introduce your young Pyrenees to the area. Initially keep your Pyrenees on a leash and walk the boundaries of the property or contain him in a smaller enclosure within the area such as a dog run or smaller yard. You will need to start with a dog that has limited experience of the outside world, so a rescue, or mature dog, being transferred from another home is not appropriate for this method.
Limit experience
Avoid taking your Pyrenees anywhere else. Do not leave the property with him, except for veterinary care when necessary. Do not go for walks or car rides. If possible, have veterinary care provided on site.
Correct any chasing
Start allowing your Pyrenees off leash around the property. Supervise your Pyrenees around sheep and other small animals present in the area. Although these dogs are naturally gentle with smaller animals, an excited pup may chase a small animal that runs, in play. Discourage chasing if it occurs. Distract your dog and say “no”. As Pyrenees do not have a strong prey drive, chasing behavior is usually easily corrected.
Increase responsibility
Gradually extend off-leash time in his guarding area as your Pyrenees begins to bond and protect all animals within his territory, including sheep within his designated “home”.
The Bond with Sheep Method
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Effective
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Put puppy with ewe
Put a weaned puppy , usually about 8-12 weeks of age, in a pen with a ewe and a 2-3 week old lamb.
Provide retreat
Make sure the pup has a shelter from the sheep, where he can get food and retreat when required, such as a dog house or kennel.
Ewe teaches manners
The ewe will protect her lamb from unwanted intrusions and ensure that the Pyrenees pup learns to respect her and her lamb by head butting the puppy if he gets too close or acts inappropriately.
Increase sheep socilization
Move the puppy to a pen with several ewes and lambs once he starts to understand ignoring the lambs and giving space. Allow him to socialize and bond with the sheep. Make sure your dog has a safe place he can get away from the sheep. Once comfortable, after several days, move your young dog to a pen with young sheep of the same size as him. Supervise to ensure he continues to respect boundaries, move to a previous step if necessary.
Expose to flock
Once your dog has learned not to harass sheep, he can be moved to the flock's regular enclosure and be allowed to cohabit with the entire flock and protect the sheep.
The Dog Role Model Method
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Introduce dogs
Introduce your young Pyrenees to an older Pyrenees that already guards a flock of sheep. Introduce dogs in a neutral location, not where the sheep are, as the older dog may see the younger dog as a threat.
Control situation
Keep you young pup out on a leash at first so he respects the older dog's space. Allow dogs to smell each other. Provide attention and praise to both. Repeat frequently over several days.
Socialize
Increase socialization with the older dog, allow them off leash together in a controlled environment, free from sheep to bond.
Familiarize with sheep
Start introducing the young dog to the sheep pen once the older dog has accepted the younger dog, keep the younger dog on a leash. Walk around sheep, discourage excited behavior and encourage submissive behavior. Introduce the younger dog to a few sheep in a small enclosure. Choose sheep that are not easily intimidated, such as a couple mature females or rams, and let the young dog learn to submit to the sheep.
Allow older dog to model guarding
Start allowing the young dog to accompany the older dog in the sheep pen once your new dog has learned appropriate submissive behavior around sheep and the older dog is comfortable with him. The older dog will “finish” the training, modeling appropriate behavior to guard and protect the flock.
Written by Laurie Haggart
Veterinary reviewed by:
Published: 03/16/2018, edited: 01/08/2021
Training Questions and Answers
Hi, I own these two Estrela Mountain Dogs, a Portuguese breed of mastiffs (basically cousins of the Pyrenees, mine are the less common short hair coat and colours are also less popular, specially the dark one but they are pure breed). These dogs have been used to guard - not herd - cattle since forever and I bought them to guard my sheep. The dogs arrived at the age of 13 weeks and they've been with me for a month. The dogs sleep at the farm, with the sheep, and I live in the village. My main goal has been for the puppies to bond more with the sheep than with me. I show up in the morning and feed them, then disappear for a few hours and return at the end of the day. The problem is that they are not really bonding with the sheep, instead they are just bored and waiting for me to return. To make things worse, I already had two Irish Terriers that do live with us and are a great source of amusement for the puppies. They cannot keep the pace of the terriers but they certainly picked from them the chasing each other and fighting games, together with some attempts to tackle the sheep - nothing much so far. They also learned passages through hedges and manage to escape the strick perimeter intended for them. The terriers also need some action - boy they do need action! - and I must take them to the farm but I wonder if their presence is not spoiling the puppies' training for guarding... I know they will not stay behind and guard the sheep unless they bond with them, my question at this point is if, at the age of 4 months, they are still well on time to develop this bonding by sleeping next to them or if I might have missed the critical period for that sort of "imprinting". I also would like to know how much of a problem is the presence of the terriers. The dogs have to know each other otherwise when the Estrelas grow up they might become aggressive towards them. Many thanks for any advice!
July 2, 2019
Fraga and Penha's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1128 Dog owners recommended
Hello David, It sounds like the pups from that litter may have had too much interaction from people from birth - which is normally something you want for a pet dog, but something you have to be careful about with a livestock guardian dog. If you didn't bring pup home until 13 weeks that is also late to bring a pup home who needs to be introduced to livestock if he was not being raised with them at the breeder's home. Since the puppies are still young they may still be able to bond with the sheep given time. They probably will have to do a lot of catching up though, and there are no guarantees. Guarding instincts also probably won't become obvious until closer to a year - as you approach adulthood just watch for signs of aggression toward the sheep most of all if they have not obviously bonded. I would not despair just yet. I would limit interaction with your other dogs. You can still bring the dogs with you occasionally for socialization purposes but the interactions need to be more structured, with less play and free roaming that teaches the puppies bad things. I am most concerned about your terrier's behavior toward the sheep - that is definitely something you do not want to risk puppies learning from the other dogs. You may need to keep the terriers on leash while with you so that they are used to being in their presence but not directly playing with them or near the sheep. Bringing one dog at a time might also keep things calmer. I would reach out to others who have experience with raising livestock guardian dogs and ask if they have ever dealt with the late bonding and what ended up happening in their case and how they handled the situation. Knowing what others who have been in your same situation have done that has worked can give you great ideas for trouble shooting the situation, and knowing if additional things need to be done that you wouldn't normally have to do if they had bonded with the sheep earlier. Forums are a good place to ask questions also if you don't have people in your community you can talk to in person about their experience: Forum 1: https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/training-new-livestock-guardian-dog-zbcz1608 Forum2 : https://www.workingdogforum.com/vBulletin/f33/best-livestock-guardian-breed-11176/index7.html Forum 3: http://www.greatpyr.com/forum/showthread.php?39445-Livestock-Guardian-Dog-as-Pets-(Ethical-Argument There are also bloggers out there with a lot of experience who share their experience for free: http://tiramarhomestead.com/2017/01/succeeding-with-a-livestock-guardian-dog-puppy/ Continue to keep human interaction boring and not overly affectionate so as not to encourage further preference for people. You want the dogs to be tolerant of people and let you handle them when needed, but not overly social with people - as you know I am sure. Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
July 3, 2019
I got a 6 mo old GP puppy out of a livestock auction over the winter and she would rather be with my goats than people or other dogs. She likes us just has very strong instincts and won’t go more than 50 feet from them. It was said that she was raised with goats and she is a super guardian. I picked up some new baby goats a few weeks ago and a friend saw a GP puppy looking for a new home. He was 12 weeks old but raised in a home. I have him sleeping in the stall with the babies but he can’t wait to get out in the morning to me and my house dog and carries on when I lock him in for the night. I have left him with the older GP and they love each other but when she goes back to work he squeezes under the fence and shows up at my door. If he’s out on his own he chooses not to be near the goats. He’s just a baby but I worry I’m not going to have the same luck with Tot as I did with Tater. Any suggestions?
July 1, 2019
Tot's Owner
Caitlin Crittenden - Dog Trainer
1128 Dog owners recommended
Hello Tracey, It sounds like the pups from that litter may have had too much interaction from people from birth - which is normally something you want for a pet dog, but something you have to be careful about with a livestock guardian dog. If you didn't bring pup home until 12 weeks that is also late to bring a pup home who needs to be introduced to goats if he was not being raised with them at the breeder's home. Since puppy is still young he may still be able to bond with the goats but you will need to limit interaction with people where you can and be firm about him not sleeping with people at night. Your other dog is a good role model for him. I would not despair just yet, bonding with goats is your main goal right now, the guarding instincts probably won't surface until after a year. I would reach out to others who have experience with raising livestock guardian dogs and ask if they have ever dealt with this and what ended up happening in their case and how they handled the situations. Knowing what others who have been in your same situation have done that has worked can give you great ideas for trouble shooting the situation, and knowing if additional things need to be done that you wouldn't normally have to do if he had bonded with the goats earlier. Forums are a good place to ask questions also if you don't have people in your community you can talk to in person about their experience: Forum 1: https://www.motherearthnews.com/homesteading-and-livestock/training-new-livestock-guardian-dog-zbcz1608 Forum2 : https://www.workingdogforum.com/vBulletin/f33/best-livestock-guardian-breed-11176/index7.html Forum 3: http://www.greatpyr.com/forum/showthread.php?39445-Livestock-Guardian-Dog-as-Pets-(Ethical-Argument There are also bloggers out there with a lot of experience who share their experience for free: http://tiramarhomestead.com/2017/01/succeeding-with-a-livestock-guardian-dog-puppy/ Best of luck training, Caitlin Crittenden
July 1, 2019