Irrational fear of Guard dogs

[L and M Ranch]

Hello everyone. I have a really nice year and a half old male who is tons of fun to train. He has one big issue though. He's VERY worried about the guard dogs if they're right with the sheep. When I started him last winter I used my goats and some feeder lambs in a smaller area near the house. So the guard dogs aren't ever there. This is how I generally start all of my pups by the way. I started taking him out to the pasture to help this summer. He's absolutely stellar as long as he knows where the guard dogs are and they aren't right on the backside of sheep when he's trying to move them. He'll work around them but speeds up to blow by them or will try to go the wrong direction to avoid them. I kept thinking time would just "fix it" but it doesn't seem to be. My guard dogs have never been mean to him at all. They can be a bit playful but they seem to read in him that he's nervous and actually leave him alone. He doesn't have this fear of other breeds of dogs that are unfamiliar.

 

Anyway, any suggestions would be greatly appreciated.

Thanks.

[Lana]

Laura, i have a young dog who acts just like the way you described. She flanks well off of the guard dog, and then gets back to work. She never takes her eyes off of the sheep, but she is very influenced by the LGD. Both of our LGD dangle a long chain, and Marty put a keeper clip on the ATV. We move sheep and e net a lot so we need to clip the LGD to the ATV when we move net.

 

When i take Mint out to the larger flock i try to just ignore the LGD, most times the LGD tire of sniffing her, and we just move on. If not i clip the LGD to the ATV, and then work the dog/move sheep. I learned with the other young dog Nell that scolding the LGD just upsets the Border Collie, and excites the guard dog

 

Hope that helps.

 

Lana

[SoloRiver]

This may sound (or be) totally stupid, but it might be worth trying.

 

If you have an LGD that is trained to walk on a lead, and the young dog is trained to walk on a lead, then just leash them up and calmly take them for a walk together once or twice a day. Doesn't matter where, doesn't have to be for very long or far. For some reason parallel walking seems to work wonders for getting dogs to accept each other. They don't have to interact, they don't need to acknowledge each other at all, they just need to walk in the same direction next to each other under your leadership. I suggest the leashes so that they must walk next to each other, and because most of the LGDs I've known have not been real big on going for walks with humans. I do not know if getting used to a particular LGD would generalize to being OK with all of them, but I'd start with one dog consistently and then maybe start mixing it up with new LGDs.

 

Would it be possible also to kennel the young dog next to an LGD so that he can get used to having one nearby without being forced to interact directly?

[abcollie]

Hello everyone. I have a really nice year and a half old male who is tons of fun to train. He has one big issue though. He's VERY worried about the guard dogs if they're right with the sheep.

 

Hey Laura,

 

I had one that was attacked by a guard dog (before I got him) and was VERY skittish about working around them. I put some "dead broke" sheep in a round pen with my old guard dog (that you could step on and she wouldn't notice:~) with the dog. The sheep stayed with me and I made the dog flank out making him go close to the guard dog. I did this for awhile and he got much more relaxed about the whole thing.

 

It took him a LONG time to get where he just gave the guard dogs a "glance" (instead of crossing over trying to get away from them). He never totally got over it but it stopped being a huge issue as he matured.

 

I've learned "the hard way" to make sure I give a whistle on the first outrun of the day ... to give the guard dogs a "heads up" that I'm working and the dog coming out is a "friend not foe" :~)

[L and M Ranch]

Thanks for everyone's suggestions. My guard dogs aren't leash broke and I only have one that I can catch easily. Although my youngest son doesn't seem to have any trouble getting any of them to come to him! They aren't ever near the house really as the sheep aren't pastured real close to the house/kennels. He's never been attacked or even really "played" with by the GD's so not sure where he's nervousness with them is coming from honestly. As soon as we get some of the fall cattle work out of the way I'll try bringing some ewes in and hopefully I can get my older GD to come along. I'll try putting them in my "round" corral so no one can escape. I may even just take a good book and hang out there for awhile before I try working.

 

Thanks again!