# LGD or Not? Best breed with kid strangers?



## Margali (Nov 19, 2021)

Trying to figure out best breeds for my situation near Dallas Fort Worth Texas. I have 12 acres with 4' sheep fence and 3 strands of barbed wire perimeter fence. Internal rotational grazing paddocks will be electric fence. have sheep and will be getting poultry in spring. I have 3 kids and they are making friends with kids in subdivision adjacent to my land.

What breed(s) are best against feral dogs and coyotes while being extremely kid safe? I'm fairly sure kids wont be crossing the hot wire but standing right at fence talking to the sheep is a given. Cross land outside sheep paddock to go to house will also happen.


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## secuono (Nov 19, 2021)

Most. Raise it with lots of exposure to WELL BEHAVED kids and it'll be fine.


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## Baymule (Nov 20, 2021)

My Great Pyrenees is friendlier than my Anatolians. Like @secuono said, exposure to well behaved kids and praise for being friendly towards kids.


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## farmerjan (Nov 28, 2021)

From experience with several neighbors that have some LGD's ;  Pyrs are more people oriented in general but also are greater roamers.  They decide where their boundaries are.  Anatolians seems to be more "herd oriented", but seem to be more inclined to be very protective of their "people" and less tolerant of  outsiders.  One place I used to take care of when the owner went away for a couple of months to his place in Alaska, had Marema's.  They were very people friendly to most anyone that I could tell.  Unfortunately, he was not an experienced animal person, so they did not get the kind of training they needed and the one (he had 2) would chase and killed a couple of lambs.  But I really attributed that to his not knowing what was acceptable behavior and what was not.  The one would roam some, but there was nothing much for them to do there and once he got rid of the few sheep he had left as it was a terrible experiment on the owners part... they were bored.  He thought the sheep could just exist, and did nothing to "take care of them"  because they should be able to exist and thrive with the dogs to protect them and him to just make sure they had enough grass to eat and some mineral offered.  No worming, nothing else.  Sad situation.  The man was quite brilliant but no common sense in "life".... He was a nice guy and has since passed away..... But the dogs were nice dogs and I think would have been good LGD's if they knew what they were supposed to do. 

Have seen several Pyr/Anatolian crosses and they seem to be fairly well received.  But again, I personally have not had much experience,  because we have not had any place where the fences were good enough to run them with the sheep except one place and then we had a neighbor that kept trying to lure the dog away because we we "so terrible" by leaving it out with the sheep and not providing it with the "care" they thought it should have and had to have the sheriff's dept finally get after them to leave our livestock alone.... it was a bad situation and the dog learned bad traits because it went to their side of the fence and constantly looked for them to feed it and it did not do the job it needed to do and protect the sheep.  When coyotes got in and the dog ignored them and sheep got hurt, and the dog went to the neighbors house, we finally rehomed the dog to a family as a pet.  And then these a** hole neighbors finally sold and moved away..... 

We had a pair of llama's that worked together and protected the sheep from stray dogs and were a sight to behold.  The biggest plus is that they also could go anywhere we put the sheep and people did not bother them and fences did not need to be near as "tight" to keep them in.  They did not protect the chickens, but did good with the sheep and we have had a couple of fixed males over the years that were good baby sitters for the baby calves too.


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