# Anatolian...need advice



## rebelINny (Feb 7, 2014)

HI, I just got a pair of Anatolian dogs. They have been working already. 2 years old. Male and female. Just brought them home night before last. Yesterday I had them loose in one of the barns all day, in contact with the goats but not able to actually touch other than noses. They ran around a lot, very playful. I leashed them to posts as the goats came in to eat to slowly acclimate them all together. I kept them separated and unleashed at night in the same barn. This morning I let the male loose with the goats to observe his behavior. The female remained leashed so that the male wouldn't go far. The male was fine for about twenty minutes. I did have to fuss at him once for chasing a bit. Then he calmed down and went and layed down chewing a bone. I went inside for a few minutes. Came back out and he was chasing. The goats (125) were running scared a bit. He then targeted a 10lb mini kid of mine and chased her and tackled her but did not hurt her as I called him down and he tucked tail and knew he'd done wrong. The kid laid scared for a bit but unharmed. I caught Max and tied him up and gave him a talk to and he had that look like a kid with his hand in the cookie jar. How should I approach the training in this? The previous owner said he had been in with her junior boer kids and had no issues. I have a mixed herd of my own mini dairy goats and the farm's goats are saanen and alpine. Need advice on how to properly acclimate/train especially in regards to the chasing and targeting said kid. I noticed when he was leashed and they came in to eat he perked up when the same goat kid ran into the barn past him.


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## Madgoat (Jan 8, 2017)

I would advise you to never leave them unattended, until you are comfortable with the situation. It's GOOD you didn't turn them both loose together. Be firm but calm, SHOW them the goats are part of the pack they are to protect. He may have been aggressive, but by you leaving you don't know for sure. You are lucky it wasn't worse. The fact that he only bowled her over is a favorable sign? The dogs need to bond with you and the herd, don't rush things.


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## rebelINny (Feb 7, 2014)

That's what I plan to do. The dogs like me already and listen to me pretty well. I will just have to acclimate them slower with the herd and be there while they are loose for awhile. Thanks for the advice. He did have his tail wagging and I did see him do this. I feel he was playing but much too rough, but again he should not be doing that.


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## rebelINny (Feb 7, 2014)

So I woke up at 6:30 am with one of the dogs barking like crazy. I go out and the female had jumped through a broken barn window out with the goats and was keeping the goat back in the hay shed while she was barking and fussing at the three guinea's that were cornered in another barn. I guess I have another thing to fix lol I didn't think she'd find a way to jump through the open window.


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## SalteyLove (Jun 18, 2011)

So she was protecting the goats from the guinea hens?! Ha 

Well at least that is a start!

As far as the chasing - make your punishment FAST and HARSH (loud and stern, not physical) when you catch him doing it and then leave it at that. Don't continue to "give him a talking to" after the fact. They can't connect the behavior with your unhappiness for more than a minute after it happened.


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## toth boer goats (Jul 20, 2008)

You can get a correction zap collar. 
Watch and if they even think the wrong way, start to chase, touch or get near the goats, zap the dog and say "No" very strong and stern.

They already like the chase, not good. So nipping it strongly IMO will need to be done.


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## rebelINny (Feb 7, 2014)

Yeah I am totally not happy that these "already working" dogs seems to enjoy chasing the animals they are meant to protect. First off they need obedience training so that when I call them they stop and come. My boss...who is being a pain in my butt by the way, is being adamant that I put them in with the sheep right away and loose. I don't feel they are ready yet. He came this morning and again pressured me to do it so I took them over this morning and let them loose and for what? They did exactly what I thought they would do and chased the sheep down the hill into the corral. So I had to catch them and now they are tied again. So I will tell my boss and he can see to stay off my back. I don't know, but I'm guessing it is gonna take a lot of work to train these two better. And I've never trained a day. I was told they were already working.


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## Damfino (Dec 29, 2013)

Your dogs may have worked for the previous owner and herd but not for you. They need to learn to obey and respect you and this may take a few weeks of patient training. I've noticed that my dogs will chase goats that aren't "theirs". My neighbor's goats came onto my property last year and both my dogs were chasing them fairly aggressively (although they never bit them). I was surprised by this, but it was like the dogs knew those goats weren't theirs and were trying to keep the strangers away from my herd. I've occasionally had to reprimand my dogs for playfully rushing at a new herd member.

It might help if you can get your dogs into a large area away from the livestock and practice teaching them to come on command. Give a reward when they obey. I take my goats for a walk around our property every day and the dogs accompany us. This gives me a good opportunity to observe their behavior and correct them when they get too rough or playful. I don't even let my dogs play rough with each other when they're too close to the goats. 

I've noticed with both of my livestock guardian dogs (one a half Pyranees, the other Anatolian) that they each fixated on one particular kid and tried to "adopt" it like a puppy. They would follow that kid, lay next to the kid, play with the kid, and try to pick it up by the neck like a pup. Both were soundly reprimanded for this behavior and both stopped after 2-3 times. They didn't learn it from each other because I got the dogs different years and for both it was during their first kidding season and has not been repeated. It was never an intentionally aggressive behavior, but of course kid goats can't be treated like puppies so the dogs were corrected. A friend of mine went through the same thing with her Anatolean/Pyranees cross, only her dog was far more aggressive and actually put teeth marks in the goat. However, her dog was less supervised than mine and the behavior was allowed to escalate before she noticed. Her dog never seriously injured the goat it "adopted" and eventually grew out of this behavior.


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## BoulderOaks (Sep 24, 2014)

I dealt with the same "targeting" with my first LGD. When she got excited, she would redirect that excitement into trying to play with one particular kid(the smallest, youngest Nigerian of course...) and would chase, then bowl the kid over. She was reprimanded each time and eventually stopped, though here and there she will still start to chase after that same kid(now a yearling), but stops almost immediately again.

I know that the behavior is quite common in younger dogs, but 2 year olds have usually outgrown it. Mine was 2.5 though and I didn't fully trust her with the stock until 3, though I did leave her unattended from the point she was 2.5 and never had any serious issues. I kept her in a small enclosure that was inside the goat pen for at least a month or two after I got her though. Then I would turn her loose with them only with supervision for another month before I finally left her 24/7. She does a wonderful job though and is amazing with the newborns. I have 2 LGD now in separate areas and am searching for a 3rd to be a companion for the Anatolian. The Pyrenees I have is definitely happiest working alone.


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## BoulderOaks (Sep 24, 2014)

There are some really good LGD training groups on facebook though. Lots of good advice on those groups, and very informative documents and links in their files.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

You are getting good advice (lots of supervision, instant correction, etc), but I never saw this mentioned....A wagging tail is bad. It indicates excitement, NOT friendliness. Any such intense interest is bad. Wagging tails when looking at the livestock, even looking at the livestock in anything other than a casual "you just happened to cross my line of vision" sort of look is bad, and needs to be verbally corrected.

I do have some experience with LGDs and training brand new owners of my puppies to take hold of their new puppies. So I'm not talking out of my hat.


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## Madgoat (Jan 8, 2017)

mariarose said:


> You are getting good advice (lots of supervision, instant correction, etc), but I never saw this mentioned....A wagging tail is bad. It indicates excitement, NOT friendliness. Any such intense interest is bad. Wagging tails when looking at the livestock, even looking at the livestock in anything other than a casual "you just happened to cross my line of vision" sort of look is bad, and needs to be verbally corrected.
> 
> I do have some experience with LGDs and training brand new owners of my puppies to take hold of their new puppies. So I'm not talking out of my hat.


You made a good point, but trust me, when an Anatolian has fixated on something, nothing is wagging. They get what I always called the "dead" look and stalk the "victim" like a huge cat.


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## mariarose (Oct 23, 2014)

I've had ASes


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## rebelINny (Feb 7, 2014)

Thank you for all the advice. I agree getting the dogs to respect and listen to me if first and foremost on the list of training. If I can't control them then there is no letting them out with the herds if I can't stop bad behavior when it starts. I will have to go find some treats they will like (bought milkbone biscuits and they wont even touch them) and start training them and rewarding them when they come.


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