Our Livestock Guardian Dog

Pooh Bear is our 2 1/2 year old livestock guardian dog, a Great Pyrenees.  We have a small herd of Nubian dairy goats and our concern for them is the coyote and other peoples' dogs.  Before we got Pooh Bear I would lock the goats inside the barn at night, nighttime being when coyotes are most active around our farm.  We have our pasture fenced with a five foot woven fence, with chicken wire along the bottom stapled to the ground.  When we were building our house we lived in a large travel trailer and built the fence to keep our two house dogs in, so we figured it would also keep the stray dogs and coyotes out.

Pooh Bear, our Livestock Guardian Dog

We chose the Great Pyrenees because of his history as a Livestock Guardian Dog (LGD) and his friendly nature with humans.  Some of the other LGD's are scary and we didn't want that at our little farm.  On large farms the Great Pyrenees usually guards over 160 acres so his tendency is to roam.  Our goats, always believing that the plant growth on the other side of the fences has a better flavor, tended to climb on the fence to eat what was growing on the other side and would knock down the fence.  The goats were afraid to climb over the fallen fence, but not Pooh Bear.  He would then go wandering.  Our solution was to put an electrical wire along the top; we no longer have that problem and it gives us an additional layer of protection.

I had to string a lower wire along the fence that borders the gravel road as neighbors walk their dogs off-leash and it would set Pooh Bear off.  I observed him throwing himself against the fence in a frenzy and feared he might break through.

Pooh Bear watching over his herd of Nubian Goats

 Pooh Bear has two different barks.  When he sees one of our barn cats or a deer the goats pay no attention to his bark, but when he hears a coyote and barks, all of the goats run to a place behind him, watching their protector intensely.  It's really awesome to watch.  We disbud our kid goats (a process of removing the new horn growth so the goats don't have horns when they grow).  We use a goat farmer in Oak Harbor to do that for us.  One year when we returned with the kid that was just disbudded its mother rejected the kid and wouldn't have anything to do with him.  Pooh Bear became his best friend with the two of them always seen together.

Pooh Bear as a puppy and his little friend

 We have a friend that owns an 180 acre ranch in north central Washington State that is very rugged.  They raise fiber goats with no fences and use one Great Pyrenees to protect their herd.  He tells the story of his dog killing a courgar that came after their goats.  So we asked him to assist us in buying a puppy.  The first day I brought the puppy home and introduced him to our goats the dog and I were walking on an old log, showing the goats that we could do that also.  A large chunk of the log split off and a nest of bees swarmed out, stinging both of us.  I looked at our poor puppy, rolling on the ground swatting at the bees and thought of Winnie the Pooh - from then on he was called Pooh Bear.  It's a great name for him as he looks like a bear (he weights 120 lbs and looks larger with his fluffy hair) but to humans he is just a Pooh.

Pooh Bear spends 99% of his time living with the goats - his time off is every evening when we take him for a walk (on leash) with our other two dogs.  We will often see him grooming the goats, licking them, especially around the face, ears, and urogenital region.  I have often seen one of our goats go up to him and stomp her foot to wake him up and he'll start licking her leg.  On the bad side, when a kid is not feeling well he tries to help and he is too rough.  He may paw at them and has been known to pull on their ears, trying to get them out of a tight spot.  This year when the kids are first put in the pasture with their mothers we plan on putting Pooh Bear in an adjoining pasture with our bucks.

Pooh Bear resting while the herd is out browsing in the pasture

LGDs are  hardy animals and often do not use a dog house or shelter, even in inclement weather.  They generally prefer to sleep in the open, somewhere high where they can easily observe their surroundings and often, even when it is snowing, I will see Pooh Bear sleeping out in the open.