Just getting started...

[Lynn K]

With Back Yard Herds and raising Kathadin sheep. My barn is just being built/rebuilt, the pasture is being prepared and I am spending time at a local farm, learning the ropes of a shepherdess! I already have chickens and bees and am getting more excited by the day as I watch the progress of my dream.
I live in Southern Vermont with coyotes and bear visiting regularly, so I am hoping to find a couple of Great Pyrenees guard dogs to live with the sheep when we start up this summer.

Would love any help I can get with finding the dogs and any suggestions or "words to the wise" as I begin.
Thanks, Lynn

 

[Baymule]

Welcome Lynn! Glad to have you here. We also have Katahdin sheep, a registered ram over commercial ewes, but looking to add registered ewes this year.

Gee, I might have to have a talk with you, you are getting prepared BEFORE you have sheep! LOL LOL I have to admire that trait, even though I don't have that myself. I tend to do things bass-ackwards, getting animals then wondering what to do with them.

My advice: READ THE FORUMS

There is tons of good information in the forums. I studied them while deciding on small livestock, finally choosing sheep, then hair sheep, then Dorper sheep. Real life experience with Dorper rams changed my mind to Katahdin sheep and I haven't looked back.

Same thing with the dogs, read the forums. We have 2 Great Pyrenees, 2 Anatolians and 1 Great Dane/Labrador cross. We are a little over dogged, but that's just how it worked out. I prefer the Anatolians to the GP's. Anatolians are a little more bone-headed (if that's possible LOL) their coats are WAY easier to care for, and they seem to be happier to stay home and tend to their sheep. I chose GP's to start with because they were said to be better starter dogs for people who never had LGD's and I have found that to be true. Each breed has their own quirks and challenges.

Read, read, read, the forums. Start with Sheep, pick a topic and start reading. The LGD forum is also full of interesting posts and you will learn much. I thank my lucky stars for BYH and the wonderful people here for all the help I have received. Ask any questions that you have. We will be glad to help.

 

[ButtonHerder]

Hello, welcome!

 

[CLSranch]

Howdy and welcome from Oklahoma.

I live in Southern Vermont with coyotes and bear visiting regularly, so I am hoping to find a couple of Great Pyrenees guard dogs to live with the sheep when we start up this summer.

I know dogs would help with a bear but what about an Ass (not your DH) or if a mule would attack a bear. I've seen pics of a riding mule attack a Mt. Lion. Picked it up by the tail, then neck and STOMPED it, after the rider stepped off to grab his gun to keep it from eating his hunting dogs.
Supposing you have enough land for another large animal.

 

[Baymule]

Howdy and welcome from Oklahoma.

I know dogs would help with a bear but what about an Ass (not your DH) or if a mule would attack a bear. I've seen pics of a riding mule attack a Mt. Lion. Picked it up by the tail, then neck and STOMPED it, after the rider stepped off to grab his gun to keep it from eating his hunting dogs.
Supposing you have enough land for another large animal.

The mule I had wanted to stomp the dogs to a mud pie. She stalked the sheep up and down the fence. She hated anything that wasn't a horse. She even stomped a coral snake one time. The horses shied away, not her. One dead coral snake coming up! I would not recommend a mule for a sheep guard. I got tired of her wanting to kill everything on the place and sold her.

 

[Alasgun]

Good story @Baymule, at least with a goat; when you tire of them they make fine jerky. Mule jerky would be, er, uh Peculiar!

 

[Baymule]

Good story @Baymule, at least with a goat; when you tire of them they make fine jerky. Mule jerky would be, er, uh Peculiar!

Never ate mule meat, so can't vouch for that.