[AlpacaTalk] Re: LGD's
--- In AlpacaTalk@yahoogro
>
> Hi everyone. Hope ya'll are having great weather like I am. It has been cool and breezy today. I picked up my two Pyreness a couple of hours ago. One girl and one boy. I read in an Alpaca magazine that this was the best combination, but my female seems to be really inteligent for 9 weeks old, while the male just wants to run around when he is out or whine when he is put in his kennel. I have put them in a kennel in my barn so they can get used to my new girls and vice versa. Will I be able to keep my llama in with them also? Do the llamas eventually get used to the guard dogs and not try to kill them???
>
> Thanks,
>
> Have a great night.
>
> Wendy Cruz
> Humming B Alpacas
> www.hummingbalpacas
>
Wendy -- since you got young pups, I'd recommend something along the lines of....
- Can you build a small (temp) enclosure inside the paddock (use spare fencing)? Put the puppies into that (with water, and food if they need a meal) for a couple of hours a day for the first 3-4 days. This will allow everyone to get "nose to nose" without the puppies getting too underfoot and possibly kicked.
- When they're not in the paddock, take them for a walk, on a leash. the leash is very important as it teaches the very independent minded GP that you're in charge.
- Teach the puppies, "sit", "stay", etc, how to jump into the car -- just as you would a house dog.
- I also recommend bringing the dogs into the house for part of the day so they get socialized to humans. They have the ability to bond with both humans and alpacas. And this makes it a whole lot easier if you need to take them to the vet. (trying to convince a 150 lb dog to get into the back of a car/truck can be an exercise in futility. :-)
- after the first couple of days in the temp enclosure, bring the puppies into the paddock on a leash and walk them around.
- finally, take them into the paddock off leash, but you stay and watch the interaction. Personally, I'd be carefully having them stay in with the alpacas unescorted until you'd been doing this for ~2 weeks.
- Keep walking the puppies every day on a leash (your paddock isn't big enough for them -- their natural tendency is to manage a territory of about 40-100 acres). This will help keep them from pacing the fence line because their instinct is driving them to do things they can't on your property. (note, our 15 month old GP gets between 2 - 6 miles of walking every day) This will also reinforce your leadership over them.
By the time they're 3 months, they should be able to be in the paddock with the alpacas 24x7.
After that, the key thing to watch out for is if they try and chase the alpacas. When the alpacas pronk or play with each other, the dogs will naturally want to engage -- so you need to teach them that that is unacceptable.
Does this help? Good luck with your GP's. Mines' the biggest dofus, but he takes his guarding duties VERY seriously.
Oh, and to your comment, you don't have to "train" them to guard -- that's instinctive. The bonding with the alpacas and the training to not chase will reinforce the instinct on what they need to guard versus try and eat. Make sense?
Cheers,
Dani
Dani McKenzie & Hovey Moore
Longbottom Meadows
Roy, WA
360-400-0348
http://www.longbott
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posted by Chaddo at 9:16 AM
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