So, I finally broke down and got some Pyreneeses...

[warhorse]

I've been accumulating a menagerie (currently 5 horses, 2 cows, 2 mules, 5 nannies, 2 bucks, 9 kids, 3 coops of chickens, 4 cats, and 3 dogs) over the past several years, and had decidedly not gotten a LGD because I did not want any more dogs (the heelers were enough to keep after). I keep the heelers kenneled because they cannot help themselves about killing chickens and chasing horses when unsupervised (but they are quite useful in moving animals from field to field with me). I had taken losses on chickens over the years likely due to snakes, hawks, coyotes, stray dogs, and had shot at least a couple stray dogs. When I added the goats to the mix last year, I lost 3 of 6 kids when they were 1-2 weeks old during the night. The remaining kids grew and were doing well over the summer, and I was expecting the next cycle of kids in January when I lost those 3 kids plus 2 more adults in a period of about a week. I wasn't sure if it was a bad hay bale at first, but by the time I had lost the adults I knew it was coyotes.

So, I got a six month old female and a 6 week old male and moved the pregnant nannies into the old garage next to the house for kidding. The dogs roamed for about a week but then settled in and have been hanging around the house and barn really well for about a month. They sleep in the garage with the goats. As the kids have gotten bigger, I wanted to give them "outside time" but still not confident to turn them out in the back pasture, so I built a "yard" off the back of the garage. The next morning after the fence panels went up, I noticed something had tried to dig into the the "yard" that night. My son thought it was the fox terrier or a possum, but when I went in to feed the goats, "Lady" was determined to go in with me. So, I let her in after I fed the goats, and she walked the perimeter, and went inside the garage (she had only been on the outside of the livestock panels when she was in the garage, on the other side) and sniffed all the corners inside and out. Then, she sat in the middle of the "yard" for a few minutes and watched quietly as I moved the water tub and picked up some of the kids. The kids were curious about her and as they went up to her, she laid down and sniffed them. When I went to leave, she just came with me and went about milling around the barnyard.

How cool is that?? These seem like awesome dogs, and I wish I had gotten them sooner!

 

[warhorse]

I hope this works... this is Lewis:

 

[warhorse]

and, this is Lady:

 

[Queen Mum]

Good for you!

 

[fortheloveofgoats]

That's awesome. Hope it keeps going well for you. They are cute and beautiful. Thanks for sharing.

 

[lilhill]

Congratulations! Pyr's are great dogs. We have two of them and couldn't have our goats without them. Too many coyotes around here.

 

[terrilhb]

Congratulations. They are beautiful.

 

[Beekissed]

I love that name for the pup...Lewis. He looks a sweety!

 

[Mzyla]

They sure are awesome! Thanks for sharing and congratulations!
Sometimes you may think that they lazy, laying down a lot....but just wait when they sniff/see something of a predatory nature,
they will charge on it with lightening speed!
And believe me; if you the master will lavish them with love and give them a exceptional home, an environment that they like it, then you have nothing to worry in case if they take off on occasion. They will be back very quickly. Only a dog that is not happy at his home, will be looking for something better.

I used to lock down chicken coop every night and that was anoying...Now, since I got LGDs I never once locked the coop for the past 8 months - not one chicken missing!

And remember - please provide them with raw bones! They still young and need something to be occupied with. Instead of digging or chasing something, they just hold on to the bones.
If I forget to provide bones for my dogs - they just bring one them selves from the forest, like here:

 

[SDBoerGoats]

That's awesome to hear. I have been thinking about getting one. We are fencing off property across the creek for the goats to go out on during the summer. The creek is dry all summer but a few years ago a guy driving past our house at night stopped and called us around 10 that night to tell us he was sitting on the road watching a male mountain lion walk across the road and drop down into the creek bed! Sure enough the next morning my husband went out and found the tracks. Soon in the paper the mountain lion was on the front page, as he had been killing sheep just a few miles from our place and a trapper had been hired to trap him. I hear coyotes at night in the summer too. So far my goats are out during the day and always brought up to their pens every evening.

You say you have other dogs, I am wondering how the LGD are with other dogs. I have had people tell me they will attack them too. I have a German Shepherd, who has to be watched around the goats, and a Chihuahua, who doesn't bother anything but I sure don't want anything to hurt him. I've also been told you don't make them pets, you just leave them with the goats, but that would be really hard for me to do. I can't own an animal and just leave it out in the pasture with no human contact! But we are increasing out herd quite a bit and will have more goats on the hillside, across the creek, etc. and i don't want to lose any. I only have 7 acres but still can't see every inch of it all the time.