Best internment for LGD puppy?

[TXFarmGirl]

We got a wonderful LGD puppy, she is about 4 months old now, and we have her in a huge chainlink pen(that used to be our garden) with the chickens surrounding her pen in their chainlink pen...so she is in a pen, and the chickens are in a surrounding pen. She does great, and we let her out with them at least daily when we are raking the barn and such, she does great with them, does perimeter checks, counts them, etc...but when she is locked in her pen (when she can’t be supervised), she gets really bored. We have balls, and rope toys for her out there, and we’ve tied a toy to a rope on the fence, so she can pull and tug. But she is still bored we think, what activities, toys, or interaction, do y’all recommend for LGD puppies?

 

[TXFarmGirl]

She is a Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherd cross.

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Take her out and work with her when you are doing projects, cleaning the barn, walking fence lines, sit and talk to her..is she part of your family, can she come inside for a hour each night of family time ?

 

[B&B Happy goats]

She can't learn what she isn't taught, boredom in a enclosed area is a recipe for a unproductive LG.D... teach her to be friends with your animals, that they are hers to protect...it is a process, but the rewards are priceless

 

[Beekissed]

A bored pup surrounded by chickens he can't reach....right now he's forming habits about those chickens that he isn't getting consistent corrections for and that's a bad recipe for disaster. Imagine a puppy surrounded by squeaky toys that constantly move, squawk and flap....but he can't reach. He's likely pouncing, lunging and otherwise threatening the chickens when he feels like it and that's a huge no-no if you ever want him to understand his role with the chickens.

Wherever you intend for him to be working, that's where he should be....then you do intensive training each day in that area with whatever he is supposed to be guarding(chickens?) on a long lead or off leash but near enough to correct. But, before you do that, I'd do some basic obedience of "leave it", "down", etc. so you CAN do corrections he'll listen to.

Giving him toys won't mean much to him when live ones are strutting on the other side of the fence. He needs a job to do and he needs it now. He also needs to understand what that job is and he's not too young to understand that....I start pups at 2 mo. old when they arrive and they aren't penned or confined past the first week if the training is going well...if I get them that young, it goes well. One time I failed to do the necessary training right away and I lost my best duck....supposedly a pup that had been around poultry all his life(7 mo.), but now I seriously doubt that information. Don't trust another person's tales of having trained the dog already on anything...what they supposedly learn one place may not carry over to your place.

 

[Grant]

I guess my question is why is she penned? Her job is to be with the animals. If she has learned that and you are gone, who is guarding the livestock? It should be the lgd.

 

[Baymule]

Do you have a fence around the chicken pen, like a yard or pasture? If so, take her out of the pen and put her on the outside of the chicken pen. I have a GP, now 10 years old that was a free throw away because she killed chickens. I kept the chickens in the coop and run (both were predator and dog proof) and she had the run of the yard. Because of her previous treatment, she blamed the chickens and hated them for it. It took me two years to turn her around and she made a great chicken guard.

Putting your pup in a small pen is punishment. As she grows, she will resent it more and more. These dogs really don't go for toys that much. If you need to keep her busy, give her large bones--NOT the "cooked" bones in pet stores and other places. Go to a slaughter facility, most will make up boxes of dog bones and sell them. I have a 7 month old Anatolian puppy now and the pasture is littered with lamb leg bones and hog (sawed in half by the slaughter house) head bones, lower jaw, teeth and all. The hog heads came from hogs we raised and had slaughtered, dogs sure like them.

You are doing the right thing in taking your puppy out and working with her when y'all are home. if you have a yard or pasture fence, leave her in it and go inside for short periods, look out windows to keep an eye on her.

No one here is criticizing you, but trying to help. We post ideas, you take what applies to you and your dog and see what works. Let us know how she is coming along.

 

[Duckfarmerpa1]

Can I ask a dumb question...what does LGP stand for? I’m thinking something to do with guarding chickens?

 

[B&B Happy goats]

Can I ask a dumb question...what does LGP stand for? I’m thinking something to do with guarding chickens?

Livestock guardian dog.....not particularly for guarding chickens, but sheep, goats and other animals that large predators will see as dinner.....excellent farm partners

 

[Baymule]

Can I ask a dumb question...what does LGP stand for? I’m thinking something to do with guarding chickens?

There is no dumb question.