WhiteMountainsRanch
Loving the herd life
We recently got our first LGD, Diego. He is 16 weeks old as of yesterday. 
Yesterday evening we were out taking care of the animals and I was on the other side of the farm when I started hearing a dog barking. It wasn't a familiar bark, so I stopped and listened and it was coming from the goat pasture! I run over there to find Diego barking a BIG boy bark, not a little puppy bark. A full on "I'm protecting my territory" bark, and had stationed himself in between the perceived threat and the goats.
He has a GOOD bark. 
I stayed with him for about 10 minutes because he was on the alert and all his hair was raised, but I didn't see anything. He must have seen a coyote run by or something.
We weren't going to put him in full-time with the goats yet, but since we lost our Mastiff, and he has been getting along so well with the goats, we figured it would be the safest thing for everybody.
I absolutely don't expect him to protect the goats from coyotes, but if he can stand his ground and bark at them it may be enough to keep them from thinking about trying to get in. They say presence is 90% of a LGD's duties.
Then later that night, while I was milking (we milk at 9:30 after dark, and I've been letting Diego out to spend some time outside the pen while we milk) my dog Dakota was running back and forth on his run barking his "I'm going to EAT you" scary bark. I know he had to have seen coyotes, he hates them. As soon as Diego heard Dakota barking he ran over to me and sat right next to my leg looking at where Dakota was looking and then looked at me and ran over to the goat gate.
He is so amazing! He's not nearly as naughty of a pup than I had expected.
Though I know that can change with age.
Yesterday evening we were out taking care of the animals and I was on the other side of the farm when I started hearing a dog barking. It wasn't a familiar bark, so I stopped and listened and it was coming from the goat pasture! I run over there to find Diego barking a BIG boy bark, not a little puppy bark. A full on "I'm protecting my territory" bark, and had stationed himself in between the perceived threat and the goats.
He has a GOOD bark. I stayed with him for about 10 minutes because he was on the alert and all his hair was raised, but I didn't see anything. He must have seen a coyote run by or something.We weren't going to put him in full-time with the goats yet, but since we lost our Mastiff, and he has been getting along so well with the goats, we figured it would be the safest thing for everybody.
I absolutely don't expect him to protect the goats from coyotes, but if he can stand his ground and bark at them it may be enough to keep them from thinking about trying to get in. They say presence is 90% of a LGD's duties.
Then later that night, while I was milking (we milk at 9:30 after dark, and I've been letting Diego out to spend some time outside the pen while we milk) my dog Dakota was running back and forth on his run barking his "I'm going to EAT you" scary bark. I know he had to have seen coyotes, he hates them. As soon as Diego heard Dakota barking he ran over to me and sat right next to my leg looking at where Dakota was looking and then looked at me and ran over to the goat gate.
He is so amazing! He's not nearly as naughty of a pup than I had expected.
Though I know that can change with age. 
