LGD Socialization

We have been using Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs) to protect our sheep for the last four years. Over the years we have learned a lot through trial and error with these dogs. LGD’s can be a management challenge no matter how many you have.

A lot of farmers will tell you how they try to keep contact with their LGDs to a minimum. Some believe this keeps the dogs wild and makes them better at protecting the sheep. We believe the dogs need to be socialized in the right way.

Our LGD’s get fed daily by us which gives us the chance to take a look at each dog to make sure they don’t have injuries or any issues. We like our dogs to be friendly to us and they know the difference between their people and a stranger in the pasture. Flea/tick prevention and worming is something we do for all our dogs each month and rabies is given by the vet yearly.

Our dogs have all learned that border collies often come with us and work the sheep. At first we make sure the dogs get time to sniff one another and get familiar with us close by. When the LGD’s are puppies they usually try to play with the border collies when they come to move the sheep. This can be distracting to a young border collie but they usually settle in to the work they are doing and can ignore the LGDs. When the LGD’s are older they have learned that the border collies are not a threat and not something to play with and will leave them be to do their work.