Raising Great Pyrenees/Akbash as Both Pets and Livestock Guardians: Can It Be Done?

January 5, 2020 Bri Wyzard

Recently, I received an email from a woman with a 10 week old Great Pyrenees/Akbash puppy. She had intended for this puppy to be a working dog, guarding her goats. However, she and her family immediately fell in love with the dog, and wanted her to also be a house pet. The woman wrote to ask me if this would even be possible.

So, can Great Pyrenees/Akbash serve as livestock guardian dogs during the day AND be house pets in the evening? Yes, livestock guardian dog breeds, such as Great Pyrenees and Akbash, can both protect livestock during the day and live in the home during the night. Livestock guardian dog (LGD) breeds love to have an outside job to do and also love to be part of the family. An indoor/outdoor life is the most desirable life for most of these dogs.

LGDs historically have lived nomadic lifestyles. They traveled with giant herds of sheep, cattle, or goats across the countryside. Coming inside the house was not an option for these animals.

Today, many ranchers still don’t lock their livestock up at night, and so they need LGDs to protect their livestock both night and day.

However, many families today are living a homestead life. They are raising a small number of animals on their small farms, and they lock the animals up in a barn at night. Livestock guardian dogs still serve an important role in protecting these livestock during the day, but they may not be needed for protection at night.

If this situation describes you, you may want to consider letting your LGD be a part of your family in her off hours.

If you raise your Great Pyrenees/Akbash as a family pet, are they still capable of protecting livestock?

Have you seen the claim that if LGDs are too bonded to you they won’t be able to bond with the livestock? That’s a myth. Historically, livestock guardian dogs worked closely with shepherds and developed close bonds with them.

It is true that in some cases, ranchers of big operations use LGDs that are almost feral because they don’t want their dogs bonding to humans at all, but these are the exceptions and not the rule. For more on this subject, see the book, Brave and Loyal: An Illustrated Celebration of Livestock Guardian Dogs.

Livestock guardian dog breeds are protective of their homes in general, and are capable of bonding with almost every animal who’s a part of their home. They don’t have to live with the sheep 24/7 to bond with the sheep.

Like us, LGDs are capable of forming relationships with many different individuals. Their bonds with some individuals will be stronger than with others. Regardless of bond strength, they will protect all individuals who are part of their home.

For instance, I’ve found that LGDs don’t particularly bond with chickens, but that hasn’t mattered. They still protect the chickens from predators because the chickens are part of their territory. I’ve known a Great Pyrenees to kill a coyote that was going after one of the chickens.

So, even if for some reason your LGD doesn’t bond particularly well with your livestock (which is unusual), she will still protect them.

How can you train a pet Great Pyrenees/Akbash to protect your livestock?

Be aware that in this article, I am talking to people with puppies. If you have a Great Pyr/Akbash adult that has lived as a house pet his entire life, and has never been exposed to livestock, you may not be able to turn him into a livestock guardian. You can try, but just know that he might say no.

Step 1: Start by raising your puppy in the house.

I actually recommend this for all LGD puppies, regardless of whether they will be house dogs or fully outdoor dogs. Puppies are often terrified of being left outside with livestock and need to be started in the house. It’s also important for your puppies to bond with you.

Step 2: Take your puppy out to greet the livestock and walk around the field as often as possible.

The more time you spend with your dogs out with the livestock, the more the livestock field will feel like part of their home to them. Your puppies will start to look forward to it. If you are even able to sit out with the livestock and read a book or something, that would help. Just get your dogs used to spending time out there.

Many homesteaders will want to eventually confine their dogs to the livestock yard. Some, however, may want to allow their dogs to roam. Roaming is one of the many ways that Great Pyrenees/Akbash keep predators out of the area.

If you plan on letting your dogs roam, I would suggest also doing daily perimeter walks around the rest of your property with your puppies, so that they start to understand what land is theirs.

For more on roaming, see my article, Livestock Guardian Dogs and Roaming: Which Breeds Roam, Why, and How to Fix Roaming Problems.

For more on confining your LGD to a pasture, see my article, The Great “Escape Artist” Pyrenees: How to Keep Your Pyr in the Yard or Pasture.

Step 3: After several months, start leaving your puppy alone in the pasture with the livestock.

After your puppy has been accustomed to being around the livestock with you, and after she seems very comfortable out there, try leaving her alone for very short periods of time. Start with a minute or two. You may even want to stay in view initially, so she can see you’re still there.

Then, if your puppy seems fine, start moving out of view. You will hopefully find that she doesn’t mind you are gone at all. Then you can increase the length of time you’re gone until she seems totally okay with being away from you in the field.

This process may take hours, days, weeks, or months – it just depends on your dog. Don’t rush it. If she’s fine with you being gone for 10 minutes, but not 20, stick with 10 minutes a few more times before trying 20 minutes again. Maybe try 15 first. She needs to feel confident that you are always coming back and that she hasn’t been abandoned.

If your puppy is used to being left alone in the house, then her transition to being left alone with the livestock should go much more smoothly. She’s much less likely to have separation anxiety. Once your puppy is no longer afraid of being outside alone, she’ll very likely prefer the company of the goats (or sheep or cattle) outside to being home alone inside.

Over time, your puppy should start to bond with the livestock, and being outside with them will be like “social time” for her, visiting friends.

At what age can your puppy be left alone with the livestock?

This is a good question, and there is no straight answer. Some dogs may be excited to spend most of the day outside at a fairly young age, but many will need to mature quite a bit more before they’re ready to do this. It’s normal for your puppy to be afraid of being alone outside for 6 months or more. This is especially true if you don’t have any other dogs out there with her.

Great Pyrenees/Akbash (and all LGD breeds) mature much more slowly than other types of dogs, so keep that in mind. They generally take 1.5 to 2 years to fully mature, and some breeds, like Spanish Mastiffs, may take even longer. For more on this topic, check out my article, What is the Lifespan of a Livestock Guardian Dog?

If your puppy is having a hard time adjusting to being with the livestock, she might just still be too much of a baby. Be patient, don't push her, and don’t give up. It doesn’t mean she won’t make an excellent LGD someday. It just means she needs more time to get there.

The last thing you want to do is leave your puppy out there when she’s terrified or upset. When dogs are forced to be alone outside with the livestock when they’re not ready, they may form a very negative association to being outside with the animals.

These dogs feel abandoned and become extremely anxious and upset. They’ve learned the livestock field is not a fun place, and that they can’t trust you. You can fix this, but fixing it is much harder than simply preventing it in the first place.

What if you follow all the steps and your dog still doesn’t want to be with the livestock?

As long as you are patient and work with your puppy on her terms and her schedule, she should make an excellent guardian dog eventually (while still being your snuggle bug at the end of the working day).

If, however, after all this, you still find that your puppy is showing major anxiety with being left outside with the goats, you might want to try some separation anxiety training. Whenever I have problems with any of my dogs, I always turn to Zak George’s YouTube channel. He trains only pet dogs, but his principles are golden.

Below is one of his training videos on separation anxiety:

The video is about a dog left alone in the house, but you can apply these same principles to leaving your dog alone with the goats.

If you are raising your Great Pyrenees or Akbash as both family pets and livestock guardians, please let me know your experience in the comments below!

For Love of Livestock