Southern by Choice's Teaching Moments- Indoor LGD! Badger

[babsbag]

My female LGD is FAT. She is getting 4 cups a day plus green beans and I can't get the weight to budge. She will be going in for some blood work soon and starting a prescription weight loss food; she is always hungry. On the other hand my male LGD eats 8 cups a day and is on the thin side. My BCs eat about 1.5 cups a day and are pretty perfect.

I have to tell a funny story about my LGD. She eats FAST, and I mean FAST FAST, and then she sits and waits to see if Francis leaves any food, and he eats very slowly. Well she has figured out that if she eats and then runs a little ways into the field and barks an alarm Francis will leave his food and follow her. Then while he is doing his job and looking for the perceived threat she circles back to the feed bowls and starts in on his unfinished food. If he comes back she gets aggressive and in his face. I have to run intervention. I think it is just hilarious that she has learned how to trick him and the poor lovable gullible boy just falls for it every time. Gosh, I love those dogs.

 

[Latestarter]

and you wonder why she's fat? I would be doing my best to break her of that habit/trick. Just me... But it does illustrate that these dogs are far from dumb, and they CAN think things through! little butt head!

 

[babsbag]

She seldom gets to keep her score; I am in the barn at meal time feeding the goats so I am there to make sure of that. I saw her do this on 4 different occasions so I know that her alerting is just a ruse. Smart dogs for sure; well at least she is, not so sure about Francis. Poor baby is just too trusting.

 

[sadieml]

How hilarious is that? She has mastered the art of the "Hey, what's that?" move. Brilliant.

 

[Carrosaur]

Just wanted to add my experience with training Moose around the geese last summer, don't know if that's still what this thread is for but here it goes!

I had four adult geese and around sixteen goslings, some had hatched from these adults and some were bought from a hatchery. Moose at the time was around seven or eight months and got along great with "his" geese! He would stay up all night sitting on the back deck or near their pen, listening for coyotes.

When the babies arrived he treated them like toys. I guess the yellow fuzzy peeping things running across his paws triggered something. He would chase them even after I told him no or corrected him in any way. After a week of this I realized I wasn't going to have a dog for the babies, and had to try one last thing.

I brought moose out to the yard and let the babies out of their house, then the adults, Moose ran straight at the babies and daddy goose jumped in the air in a mess of flapping wings and honking. He bit onto Moose's cheek and held on, beating his face with his wings, all the while the females and the younger male were screeching with their necks straight and their wings spread out. Moose finally escaped the grasp of my big gander and ran off tail tucked to the garage.

He never chased a baby goose again!

But really, after that he was very patient with the goslings, and being attacked by big daddy goose just made him respect their space more! He still sat outside every night with them or near their pen, listening for the coyotes, although he probably thought the geese could handle it themselves after that incident!

 

[Latestarter]

Greetings @Carrosaur from the front range in Colorado ! Glad you joined us. Is that Moose in your avatar? Regardless, that's one sweet looking dog! Geese can be daunting... and down right mean! Make yourself at home and join in when you wish!

 

[Southern by choice]

@Beekissed - growing pups need food a certain amount of calories and specific nutrients that will allow these LGD breeds to grow strong bones, good size and heave energy to do their job. The first 8 months they do eat alot but after that for their size they really don't.

At 12 months-120-130 lb dog eating 5-7 cups a day is not alot of food.
Unlike house pets they utilize their food. I cannot stand a fat dog I think it is cruel to the dog. I do keep my dogs on the leaner side as they grow.

At 4 month the pups were eating 5-6 cups a day of Earthborne.
Of course there are good foods and junk foods.
I make sure the calcium/phosphorus is balanced. Too much calcium is bad for giant breeds.
Our GSd is extreme energy she is only 75-80 lbs but eats obout 8 cups per day high cal diet... no parasites- hard to keep weight on... different breed, high energy. She could pass an endurance test tomorrow.

If Ben is willing to eat constantly that tells you one of two things or possibly both- not enough food and/or parasites.

@Latestarter glad he has no food aggression- we work so hard at this yet some of them still have that so hard wired in them...

 

[Carrosaur]

Greetings @Carrosaur from the front range in Colorado ! Glad you joined us. Is that Moose in your avatar? Regardless, that's one sweet looking dog! Geese can be daunting... and down right mean! Make yourself at home and join in when you wish!

Thank you for the welcome! I've been on Backyard chickens for a few years and saw there was an LGD forum over here, thought I might join in!

Yes that is Moose, he's a one year old Great Pyrenees and a dream of a dog! We live in Tennessee, but I've always wanted to live in Colorado!

And yes geese can definitely be mean and scary, that big gander that bit Moose would attack anything that turned its back! But if you get them young they're the sweetest birds (until breeding season that is!)

 

[Mike CHS]

Welcome Carrosaur. I had several geese at a place we had just outside Memphis and one old gander that used to dare me to run over it just about every afternoon. That critter was lucky that I had a high sitting Tacoma because I never tried to miss him.

 

[Carrosaur]