Ridgetop
Herd Master
You were so lucky to see that behavior and understand what they were doing. Not everyone realizes what the behavior they are seeing means and many LGD owners misunderstand how the dogs work as a team to protect. That type of behavior is the LGD stuff you can't teach. The dogs either have it in their genetic makeup or they don't.
Older trained LGDs can teach it to the younger ones though which is why if you have good LGDs, you need to bring in a puppy every so often for the experienced dogs to train. This is something you have to do before the older ones get too old to be willing to teach. I like to bring in a puppy when the next oldest is fully trained and working around 3 or 4 years. At that age they are old enough to know what they are doing, still strong enough to defend against predators on their own, and young enough to play with the puppy and train it. I feel bad when people wait to replace their LGD until their old dog is 8-10 years. At that age the older dog doesn't want to train a puppy, may have health issues, and can't protect both the flock and the puppy. The puppy won't be able to help much against predators until it is about 2 years old, mainly because it won't have the experience. By bringing in a puppy to be trained by the older dog at about 4 years old, the old dog will have backup as it ages, and you won't lose it to predators when it gets too old to fight them off. Most LGDs do not back down to predators when they get too old, they still will fight to the death to protect their flock.
Our team (including Josie the Mule) will bring the sheep out of the gully and park them on the flat with Josie, then go back into the gully to deal with any threat. The dogs run around the sheep in a circle to get their attention then the sheep follow them to the "safe spot". When we had an injured ewe in the gully that would not come up in the evening, Rika ran around us in a circle when we went out to feed and led us to the ewe down in the gully. When all 3 of our dogs were here, I also saw the older 2 bring the sheep to safety, then post the younger dog with them while the older ones go back to deal with the danger. Years ago, when we had dairy goats and 2 Pyrs at lambing time, one Pyr went out to chase off the threat while the other fell back to protect the kids.
Amazing behavior in LGDs.
Older trained LGDs can teach it to the younger ones though which is why if you have good LGDs, you need to bring in a puppy every so often for the experienced dogs to train. This is something you have to do before the older ones get too old to be willing to teach. I like to bring in a puppy when the next oldest is fully trained and working around 3 or 4 years. At that age they are old enough to know what they are doing, still strong enough to defend against predators on their own, and young enough to play with the puppy and train it. I feel bad when people wait to replace their LGD until their old dog is 8-10 years. At that age the older dog doesn't want to train a puppy, may have health issues, and can't protect both the flock and the puppy. The puppy won't be able to help much against predators until it is about 2 years old, mainly because it won't have the experience. By bringing in a puppy to be trained by the older dog at about 4 years old, the old dog will have backup as it ages, and you won't lose it to predators when it gets too old to fight them off. Most LGDs do not back down to predators when they get too old, they still will fight to the death to protect their flock.
Our team (including Josie the Mule) will bring the sheep out of the gully and park them on the flat with Josie, then go back into the gully to deal with any threat. The dogs run around the sheep in a circle to get their attention then the sheep follow them to the "safe spot". When we had an injured ewe in the gully that would not come up in the evening, Rika ran around us in a circle when we went out to feed and led us to the ewe down in the gully. When all 3 of our dogs were here, I also saw the older 2 bring the sheep to safety, then post the younger dog with them while the older ones go back to deal with the danger. Years ago, when we had dairy goats and 2 Pyrs at lambing time, one Pyr went out to chase off the threat while the other fell back to protect the kids.
Amazing behavior in LGDs.
