Labradors and Goats

[bbredmom]

MY mother's neighbor very stupidly bred her "Silver lab" (Weimerainer/Lab Cross Designer breed) with a chocolate lab, thinking she'd get all silver puppies and could make a mint. Well, she all chocolates. Adorable, but chocolate. And of course, hasn't sold a single one. Well, now she is giving them away. They have had all their shots and are very healthy, but completely Lab-Wild (anyone who has had a lab knows what I'm talking about).

The woman keeps them outside all the time now, barely interacts with them or the mother, and when she does go outside to feed them, takes a rolled up newspaper to swat them down from jumping on her.

My husband and I are big softies, and have talked about taking the tunr, but we dont know how labs are with goats. And I'm also worried about upsetting the balance. We have shorthaired collie, two shelties, a Newfie-lab mix, and our Boss Dog, Oscar the Great Pyr.

Oscar will be two this weekend, and in the last few months, we have noticed that he is coming into his own in regards to being a guardian. He's always protected the goats from outside forces (coyotes, stray dogs, etc.), but for the longest didn't seem to care if one of our dogs harrassed a goat.

However, if the collie herds them too much, or even if the dogs and the cats get to roughhousing too much, Oscar steps in and does his alpha dog thing. Never aggressive, just very "ok, enough!".

My question I guess is two fold

1. Are labs good with goats in general?
2. And if the puppy tries to play or chase the goats, could Oscar accidentally hurt or kill him trying to get him to stop?

 

[aggieterpkatie]

1. I would think it is possible to train a lab to not chase animals. Labs are very hyper active for the first couple of years, so they need lots of exercise and lots of training. You wouldn't want to leave the lab and the goat together unattended.

2. I would guess that Oscar would get rough if the lab is being obnoxious with the goats. It's YOUR job as the adult to train the lab and prevent the lab from running/chasing/roughhousing the goat. As long as you train the lab and don't let him/her run wild, I'm sure it can all work out.

And you mentioned Oscar will stop the collie from herding the goats too much? Are you actually working the goats, or are you just letting your collie run them all around the place? If you're actually working the goats, you need to remove Oscar or put him on a leash so he doesn't get stressed out or interfere with a working collie. If the collie is just running the goats all around, you need to put a stop to that as well. It's not fair to let the goats be tormented.

 

[TigerLilly]

My neighbor currently has 3 labs & I have 4 goats. I was worried about this same thing when I started bringing goats home, so I would stand by and observe when they all met up at the fenceline. They have done fine with mine and sometimes it seems like they are all at the fence 'talking' to each other. There has been no aggression on the part of the dogs; they are not trained for anything other than being great pets, so maybe that has something to do with it as well.
I hope you have the good fortune that I do when it comes to this.

 

[bbredmom]

1. I would think it is possible to train a lab to not chase animals. Labs are very hyper active for the first couple of years, so they need lots of exercise and lots of training. You wouldn't want to leave the lab and the goat together unattended.

2. I would guess that Oscar would get rough if the lab is being obnoxious with the goats. It's YOUR job as the adult to train the lab and prevent the lab from running/chasing/roughhousing the goat. As long as you train the lab and don't let him/her run wild, I'm sure it can all work out.

Yes, we wouldn't just depend on Oscar to train the lab. I just wouldn't want some sort of Lab hunting instict to come into play that we can't train out of him, and then have to find the poor thing a new home.

And you mentioned Oscar will stop the collie from herding the goats too much? Are you actually working the goats, or are you just letting your collie run them all around the place? If you're actually working the goats, you need to remove Oscar or put him on a leash so he doesn't get stressed out or interfere with a working collie. If the collie is just running the goats all around, you need to put a stop to that as well. It's not fair to let the goats be tormented.

The goats are not tormented. I would nto allow an animal to be tormented on my property. She's not constantly harrassing them-in fact I've never seen her actually run after a goat. Just every few hours, she nudges them from one part of the yard to the other. If Oscar is laying with goats in that part of the yard, it annoys him, and he shoulder bumps her.

I have some of the fattest, laziest goats you can imagine. Even if Arwen did run after the goats, which she doesn't, More likely than not they would just lay there and look at her, and then bella would head butt her.

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Yes, we wouldn't just depend on Oscar to train the lab. I just wouldn't want some sort of Lab hunting instict to come into play that we can't train out of him, and then have to find the poor thing a new home.

Well, labs don't really have the instinct to hunt down animals, they're meant to retrieve already killed animals, and labs have "soft mouths" which means they instinctively are very gentle when they pick up the hunted animals.

The goats are not tormented. I would nto allow an animal to be tormented on my property. She's not constantly harrassing them-in fact I've never seen her actually run after a goat. Just every few hours, she nudges them from one part of the yard to the other. If Oscar is laying with goats in that part of the yard, it annoys him, and he shoulder bumps her.

I have some of the fattest, laziest goats you can imagine. Even if Arwen did run after the goats, which she doesn't, More likely than not they would just lay there and look at her, and then bella would head butt her.

Sounds like it will work out! Hopefully you can get your mother's irresponsible neighbor to STOP breeding mutts!

 

[bbredmom]

Oh yeah, luckily the woman has already said she is going to fix her bitch. And her sister, who actually owns the house, discovered how torn up the backyard is the other day, and told her if she doesn't keep more puppies from happening, she can find a new home!

 

[aggieterpkatie]

Oh yeah, luckily the woman has already said she is going to fix her bitch. And her sister, who actually owns the house, discovered how torn up the backyard is the other day, and told her if she doesn't keep more puppies from happening, she can find a new home!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

I would think you can train the lab mix to be fine with the goats too. I had trouble at times with young retriever mixes and poultry. I think that's a much harder situation to train them to behave in. But I'd think they will become buddies with the goats.

Your lgd could decide to be more aggressive in protecting his goats than you would want.

Glad to hear there won't be any more unwanted pups. I won't go there again.

 

[wishin4horses]

Our lab was trained when we got him. For what, I am not exactly sure but when there are deer in the back yard, we call his name and say come and he comes immediately. We got chickens this spring and was worried how he would be with them. He is a perfect gentleman! We throw treats for them and he just stands there and waits for his. We throw a treat for him and often the chickens get it first. He never grabs for it when the chickens are going for the treat. He'll give the rabbit a couple of licks and then lays down and watches them play. Our lab is great!!

 

[Shiloh Acres]

Our lab was trained when we got him. For what, I am not exactly sure but when there are deer in the back yard, we call his name and say come and he comes immediately. We got chickens this spring and was worried how he would be with them. He is a perfect gentleman! We throw treats for them and he just stands there and waits for his. We throw a treat for him and often the chickens get it first. He never grabs for it when the chickens are going for the treat. He'll give the rabbit a couple of licks and then lays down and watches them play. Our lab is great!!

How sweet! I think labs are great. Heck, they might be more suited for my lifestyle than my dogs, but I just got hooked on herding breeds early.

I do find the retrieving breeds I've worked with to be a bit ... Shall we say "challenging?" ... as pups. They can be some of the more gentlemanly and calm breeds when they are older though, seems like. I just love their personalities. . But the pups are active, rambunctious, and VERY smart (usually) which keeps their humans on their toes.