A 9 week old LGD should be placed with a couple of stock animals in a no-climb fenced area of their own only if you have a couple of goats who are very gentle and will not frighten or injure your puppy.

You may want to borrow a couple of animals to begin your introduction process from a friend or neighbor who may be willing to have you help them hand feed a bottle baby or two if you don't have appropriate adult goats. This would help the other producer out, and when your puppy is old enough to hold his own with larger stock, you can return the borrowed animals.

As you go along, when your pup begins to play or is too rough with the young baby stock, then get something tougher. Play this one by ear, because every dog's progress and abilities are different and each stock animal's temperament will be different as well. Put stock in with the pup just a "hair" tougher than he is. This is a subjective item, so watch carefully and make adjustments before things get out of hand. It will save you oodles of time later on if you are really observant and proactive now.

If your older goats are tolerant of your pup, you can take him out on a leash to walk among them each day and do your fence-line walks. Begin to test this by taking the pup in your arms to walk among the stock. Observe your goats reactions, and make a qualified decision before you subject the pup to the goats. You may want to take special treats out for you goats so that you can establish a "pattern" of treats associated with the puppy in the minds of your stock so that this pup will always mean something pleasant to them. If you have to, put the pup in a front pack type of carrier while you feed your goats until he is just too big to haul around. This will obviously happen very fast, but it may begin to get you all going in the right direction.

After everyone is comfortable, and you know the puppy will not be threatened, take him out on feeding and stock work chores each day on a leash attached to your belt. If for some reason you can't put the pup in with a couple of your animals, and you can not procure a couple gentler animals from someone else, then put a puppy pen in where your pup can have nose- to-nose contact through fencing with the flock, but they can't get to him until he is big enough and confident enough to contend with the stock (this may take 6 or 8 months or more -- depending on the stock).

You will have to start the new pup with the livestock close enough to the house that you can supervise it and be available to stop undesirable behavior as soon as it starts. Once the pup no longer exhibits chase behavior, is large enough to be visually intimidating to coyotes and has learned to ALWAYS stay inside the fence, you are ready to move it to the new area. This can take up to 18 months.

Even if you can purchase an adult Livestock Guardian Dog, it will take several months to accustom it to the livestock and close supervision to be certain it will stay inside the fences. A fully-trained LGD is worth its weight in gold, and is almost NEVER available for purchase. If a dog works well, it's owner isn't going to want to sell it. So available adults include dogs that have already failed as livestock guardians, or rescued dogs that were formerly family pets but are now unwanted by their owners. Some of them make very good working dogs, but it takes a lot of work.

Livestock Guardian Dogs

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