# Great Pyreneese



## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

Making a separate thread so I'm not getting off topic with the other. I have a few questions with keeping a LGD, asking as many different people as I can to get the most responses. Going to ask a few breeders the same things.

What I've come up with so far: 

They sleep with the goats, they live with the goats, they are goats ; but they are also allowed to have human affection too correct? Yes? I don't know why I always had it in my mind that they are not for touching or petting. 

Can they learn to get alone with household pets? I have three cats that, in the evening, think they are wild huntresses and bail out of the house the 2nd i get home. I dont have a dog but my girlfriend does and my parents do, as long as they know each other when he's a puppy it should be ok right?

I'm gone from 6:30 to 5:30. How big of a problem would that be with training? Below would be my current plan for puppy training and bonding.
-Take the pooch for a walk around the perimeter of the pasture every morning before work. 
-Keep him in a pen inside of the goat pen so they can see each other all day. When I get home gradually do a bit more of no fence interaction in the evening. Put in the barn in one of the stalls at night, where he can still see the goats but still no touching
-Weekends, more supervised no fence interaction.
-Introduce to all the people that would be people to stop by my house when not home.

Sorry for the wall, just want to run through all the scenarios I would run into.


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## nancy d (Oct 5, 2007)

Sounds like an excellent plan so far. LGD breeds take much longer to mature than regular dogs. Our first dog was not allowed in with his goats unsupervised until he was a good 8 or 9 months. Even then there was harsh correction. They can be hard headed & think for themselves. Very stern correction when needed. The second dog was left with goats at around 14 weeks. He happened to be born & weaned in with goats. The first dog was not.
You might want to check if there are any noise ordinances in your area. Ldgs are exempt here.
Yes they can & should be loved on but not to the point where they want to follow you out the gate.
Our boy will kill any critter than happens to get in with goats. This includes rat, squirrel, possum. A neighbors pet kitty & even a couple of our own young barn kitties.


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## BorderKelpie (Mar 27, 2016)

Your plan sounds similar to what we are doing with my ASDs, the only other thing I would suggest is to make sure your pup can walk on a leash and travel in the car. The last thing you want is a huge dog that needs a vet trip that you have to carry in and wrestle while it's injured or sick.
A friend of mine has a Gt Pyr that she can not touch or handle, I hope that dog never gets sick or hurt.


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## Goat_Scout (Mar 23, 2017)

This is a looooooooong post.  Please bear with me. 

I think the reason why some people say that your guardian dog should have no/little human contact is because that dog may decide that he/she wants to guard people instead of the animals it is supposed to be guarding. In fact, that happened to some friends of ours with their Great Pyrenees puppy. He bonded with them instead of their sheep (he wanted nothing to do with the sheep), so they eventually had to sell him.

We got our Anatolian Shepherd when she was about 8 months old. She was a sweet, kind of shy dog and it took a few weeks for her to completely warm up to us. We did (and still do) pet and interact with her everyday, but we took the advice of her previous owner and didn't let her and our house dog together at all - which I think is because she might bond with her (the house dog) too.

She likes our goats and takes great care of them. She doesn't cotton to the chickens but I don't mind that because she protects them and that's why we originally got goats - to be more of her companions!
We have a couple big electric paddocks where we move our goats during the day (every night they are back in the main pasture with Ayla). Ayla (LGD) stays back in the main pasture unless the electric paddock is connected to the main one. Then she can roam it with the goats. She stays in two strands of electric wire.  The top one is barely two feet off the ground so I am amazed! The goats stay in it too, which is great because it is so easy to put up just two strings!

I have heard that Great Pyrenees dogs like to roam more then Anatolian Shepherds. What I mean is, they are more likely to jump the fence. I am not sure if that is true though.

We got a 2-3 month old Border Collie puppy last year to eventually help us herd our cows to and from their rotational electric pastures, and him and Ayla got along fine right from the start. I mean, Jasper, being just a puppy (and full of Border Collie energy!), would jump all over Ayla and play with her nonstop when they were together. But Ayla never harmed him (she'd bite him playfully all the time, but never hurt him) and they are good friends. She still guards the goats and chickens just fine.
Ayla has never really liked our cats, but they (the cats) have wisely learned to stay out of the pasture and away from her. I don't know what she'd do though if she ever caught one of them.

Your plan seems good so far. Although I must warn you that they are usually "puppies" until they reach the age of about 2. Ayla chased and killed many of our chickens (so that we'd have to keep her tied or locked up when we weren't out there ) until she turned 2. When she did, it was like something clicked in her brain and she has never killed or harmed another chicken since. Yes, occasionally I'll see her chase a chicken for a minute or two, but she never actually catches them and it's never serious. I mean, chickens can get annoying sometimes!

I definitely wouldn't allow your puppy with the goats unless you are there to supervise him/her.

How many goats do you have total? If you have a lot you may consider two LGDs. That way, one can rest during the day while the other is on patrol, and vise-versa at night. And, they can both make a stand against multiple coyotes/stray dogs if need be.


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## IHEARTGOATS (Jun 14, 2016)

I have 4 GP in 2 paddocks ( does and bucks) on 5 acres
Never had one try to climb out
Personally I think the whole "bonding" thing with the dogs and goats is over played
My dogs want to please me
They please me by killing anything that gets in the paddock while not bothering the Goats
Most of mine are submissive to the goats at least the ones with the does are
I have one doe that just looks at them funny and they cower
Mine are allowed to chase the goats from their food

ETA
There are some really crazy people on LGD forums and FB pages


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## CrazyDogLady (Aug 9, 2014)

This is a photo of two five month old GP/ASD mix puppies enjoying some hay with their herd. They've also been known to enjoy an afternoon indoors in the AC when the weather is hot. As a matter of fact, their mama has been in for two weeks because she's in heat and I don't want more puppies right now.

Dogs are smart. Don't treat them like a fur baby, treat them like a treasured employee. My dogs do their job and enjoy it. They also enjoy the occasional break.

Sent from my XT1635-01 using Goat Forum mobile app


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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

Goat_Scout said:


> How many goats do you have total? If you have a lot you may consider two LGDs. That way, one can rest during the day while the other is on patrol, and vise-versa at night. And, they can both make a stand against multiple coyotes/stray dogs if need be.


 Right now I have 32, in the spring there's around 60-70. I think right now two would definitely be too big of a step for me. Though I could see in the future, assuming things go ok with the first one if i get one, getting another one. Which would possibly work out for the better since there would be another LGD to help discipline.



nancy d said:


> Sounds like an excellent plan so far. LGD breeds take much longer to mature than regular dogs. Our first dog was not allowed in with his goats unsupervised until he was a good 8 or 9 months. Even then there was harsh correction. They can be hard headed & think for themselves. Very stern correction when needed. The second dog was left with goats at around 14 weeks. He happened to be born & weaned in with goats. The first dog was not.
> You might want to check if there are any noise ordinances in your area. Ldgs are exempt here.
> Yes they can & should be loved on but not to the point where they want to follow you out the gate.
> Our boy will kill any critter than happens to get in with goats. This includes rat, squirrel, possum. A neighbors pet kitty & even a couple of our own young barn kitties.


No problems with noise, so no worries there. The cat part does worry me though, my three are definitely my fur babies...no shame at all. Especially since they are inside cats except for in the evenings when their majesties desire it; so there wouldn't be a whole lot of constant interaction. Mostly probably hissing interactions because they don't really care for dogs, which I'm sure would lead to a not pleasant outcome. They normally don't go in the pasture, but they do go in the barn sometimes and get pretty close to the fence. The llamas and goats both try to "get" them, so they tend to avoid that area.



BorderKelpie said:


> Your plan sounds similar to what we are doing with my ASDs, the only other thing I would suggest is to make sure your pup can walk on a leash and travel in the car. The last thing you want is a huge dog that needs a vet trip that you have to carry in and wrestle while it's injured or sick.
> A friend of mine has a Gt Pyr that she can not touch or handle, I hope that dog never gets sick or hurt.


 Yes, this would definitely be mandatory for me also.


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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

Goat_Scout said:


> We got our Anatolian Shepherd when she was about 8 months old. She was a sweet, kind of shy dog and it took a few weeks for her to completely warm up to us. We did (and still do) pet and interact with her everyday, but we took the advice of her previous owner and didn't let her and our house dog together at all - which I think is because she might bond with her (the house dog) too.
> We got a 2-3 month old Border Collie puppy last year to eventually help us herd our cows to and from their rotational electric pastures, and him and Ayla got along fine right from the start. I mean, Jasper, being just a puppy (and full of Border Collie energy!), would jump all over Ayla and play with her nonstop when they were together. But Ayla never harmed him (she'd bite him playfully all the time, but never hurt him) and they are good friends. She still guards the goats and chickens just fine.


 This is another concern, I don't have any dogs myself but my girlfriend does (an older husky/shepard mix) and he's at my house usually whenever she is.

While I'm guessing it wouldn't be a problem for too many years (as i mentioned, he's getting older) it probably could be a concern for when there's a puppy around. Right now there is a very strict policy that he's not allowed by the goats/barnyard at all. It took a couple buzzes with the shock collar but now he's very good about it and respects the imaginary barnyard line. Not sure how that would be with a puppy in the mix though.

Neither I or my girlfriend want another "pet" dog at this point so it wouldn't be a problem later one for that.

Cats on the other hand......


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## Lstein (Oct 2, 2014)

Another quick concern.

What about the pup being locked up all day while I'm at work...? How would I handle all the pent up energy and boredom?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

Personally I'd hold off on the dog. Get the gun. Put up hot wire on the outside. Make sure holes are filled.


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