# Great Pyr suddenly attacks goat



## dawnterese (Nov 17, 2012)

I have had our Great Pyr for almost a year now. He was five months old when we got him, and at first he lived out in the field with my Nigerian Dwarf goats. He was great with them and very protective...barked ALL night. Then he figured how to get out of the fence and we could do nothing to keep him in, so to keep him from getting run over by a car, we took him in the house where he now spends most of his time. He still goes out to the field to run and play and has been great with the goats until last week when my two does gave birth. When the second one kidded, we took him to the field to meet the new babies and he was really gentle and sweet with them. Then he found the afterbirth and started eating it. When the doe came up to him, he started attacking her! I quickly got him leashed and started to pull him away, but this doe kept following him and trying to rub up against him, and he just kept growling and trying to attack her. It was the strangest thing. I gave it about a week, then took him back to the field. He seemed fine with all the goats at first. Then he went into the birthing hut and found something kind of dried up looking which I assume was a piece of the afterbirth I overlooked. When this doe walked up to him when he had this in his mouth, he tried to attack her again. The same sort of behavior followed with the goat trying to rub up against the dog and the dog trying to attack the goat. Is this all related to the afterbirth maybe, or has my dog just suddenly developed a dislike for this one goat? And why would the goat keep trying to rub up against an attacking dog?


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## ThreeHavens (Oct 20, 2011)

Was he raised with goats from birth?


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## dawnterese (Nov 17, 2012)

Yes, he was. We got him at five months from a Nigerian Dwarf goat breeder, so he had been around goats until we got him.


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## milkmaid (Sep 15, 2010)

Was it more than just being protective of his "food"?


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## ksalvagno (Oct 6, 2009)

I think that was food aggression because he found a special treat and thought the goat was going to get it. You are going to have to really work with him and also make sure there is no way he can get any afterbirth from now on.


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## kristinatucker (Jan 3, 2012)

I would say a food aggression problem for sure. One of our LGDs is this way and I have to keep her food in an igloo house where she has to go IN to eat and she will even stay in there eating and you can hear her growl if a goat is standing outside her house! I have had to remove her from the goats because I cant trust her. She roams all the property around now just not right in with the goats. I dont know how or if you can fix that. I know Caesar Milan (sp?), the dog whisper) does a lot with food aggression and you can probably google some tips from him


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## dawnterese (Nov 17, 2012)

Thank you all so much for the replies. I believe you are right about the food aggression. When I used to feed him in with the goats, he would always growl if any of them came near except for one little runt goat who he would let eat his food with him. He had just never actually attacked the goats before though. Maybe he just didn't like his food as much as that "special treat" he was eating.  It's strange because with people, he is never food aggressive. I can stick my hand right in his food bowl and he doesn't even flinch.


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