Training Livestock Guardian Dogs: The Ultimate Guide
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Has anyone ever told you that livestock guardian dogs are “untrainable?” Have you heard that they have been bred to be stubborn and independent, meant to guard livestock on their own without human direction?
Well, I’m here to tell you, this is one of the biggest myths about livestock guardian dogs out there.
Can you train livestock guardian dogs? You absolutely can train livestock guardian dogs and, in fact, you should train them due to their sheer size alone. They may accidentally or intentionally harm others, including livestock, if they haven’t been properly trained. LGDs respond well to both obedience training and training to livestock when positive methods are used.
In this article, I cover all the basics of training livestock guardian dogs. I discuss why, how, and when to train. I cover both obedience training and training the dogs to livestock. Whether you have Great Pyrenees, Anatolian Shepherds, Maremmas, or Kangals, this is the article for you!
Article Contents:
Obedience Training for Livestock Guardian Dogs
Livestock guardian dogs were never bred to work entirely independently. Historically, they have always worked with shepherds. Long time livestock guardian dog owner, Jackie Church of Windance Farms, says it best:
This is the perfect description of the relationship between rancher and livestock guardian dogs. Although Jackie Church is speaking specifically of the Maremma Sheepdog livestock guardian dog breed here, the statement is true of all livestock guardian dog breeds.
So get it out of your head that your dogs aren’t supposed to listen to you. Traditionally, livestock guardian dogs were never left out with their animals to work solely independently. In fact, most of these breeds require extensive human interaction for their mental health. They crave a bond with their caretaker. For millennia, their caretaker was the shepherd or shepherds, who were typically with them for long periods of time during the day.
What does this mean in terms of obedience training? It means that despite the fact that livestock guardian dog breeds are highly intelligent problem solvers that can be trusted to protect your livestock even when you’re not around (eventually), they also crave your presence, partnership, and approval. This actually makes them very susceptible to training.
When people complain that their livestock guardian dogs are hard to train, they really are showing that they don’t know how to train them. Most likely, they are not making their training fun for the dogs or they have not been willing to try things differently when their dogs are bored or disinterested with their tactics. This is never their dogs’ fault.
I’ve noticed that a lot of livestock guardian dog owners want to skip obedience training and instead jump straight to training their dogs with livestock. This is a huge mistake. Although obedience training can be time consuming, the work will pay off a thousand-fold. Every day functioning will go smoothly with your dogs when you are working together with them, not butting heads. And most importantly, someday a time will come when your dogs need to listen to your commands – lives may be at stake (see real life examples in the next section).
Why Obedience Train Livestock Guardian Dogs?
LGDs need obedience training for two main reasons:
Safety
Bonding
Obedience Training LGDs for Safety
Your dog’s large size could potentially be a huge problem if they’re not obedience trained. Imagine a 200 pound Spanish Mastiff jumping up on a child or someone with a bad back (or knees, etc.) because you haven’t trained them otherwise. Imagine trying to break up a fight between this dog and other dogs, or even between this dog and a person she found threatening, because you weren’t able to stop her verbally, having never taught her to obey your commands. Even if your livestock guardian dogs are closer to 100 pounds, you could still have a major problem on your hands with dogs that large.
Here are a couple more scenarios: Imagine your livestock guardian dog is taking on an adversary too large for her, or maybe she’s confronted a predator who is trying to get away, but she won’t back off and let him go. In these situations, it’s imperative your dog have a good recall, and listen to your “come” command.
The first video below shows an instance of the first scenario – in this case, the Great Pyrenees is unnecessarily taking on a bull moose against his owners’ wishes. The second video below shows an instance of the second scenario – in this case, a Great Pyrenees and Akbash have scared a bear up a tree. The bear is trying to get away, but the dogs aren’t letting him go, despite their owner commanding it. Warning: the second video contains profanity. All the dogs ended up being okay in these two videos, but things could have easily gone differently.
And here’s one more scenario for you. Some livestock guardian dogs will kill or attempt to kill newborn livestock, particularly dogs who haven’t yet seen births. They mistakenly believe these newborns are invaders and not part of the flock or herd they are supposed to protect. Your dogs’ abilities to respond to your commands can save your livestocks’ lives in these cases.
Below is a video showing a slightly different case, where a Great Pyrenees actually feels more bonded to a new calf than he does to the mother. He violently attempts to keep the mother away from her baby, completely ignoring the owner’s commands to do otherwise. This was another ‘close call’ where nobody got hurt in the end, but these people took a huge risk by not properly obedience training their dog and still allowing him with new livestock.
I hope you can see from these examples that obedience training livestock guardian dogs should be considered necessary, not optional.
Obedience Training LGDs for Bonding
If you want your livestock guardian dogs to listen to your commands, you absolutely need to have a close relationship with them. You need to be your dogs’ partner and their champion. They need to know that you are working together through a relationship of mutual love and respect, and they need to know that you always have their best interests in mind. What you give to your dogs in love and respect, they will give back to you. The need for a strong bond can’t be overstated. One of the best ways to form that bond with your dogs is through obedience training.
I actually hate the term “obedience training.” The term conjures up ideas of the outdated philosophy of a canine-human hierarchy where you need to be the dominant “alpha” over your dogs. It suggests your dogs need to obey you because you’re in charge. This is not the approach you ever want to take in training your dogs.
Something like “partnership training” or “communication training” would be a much more accurate description for the approach you want to take. You really aren’t teaching your dog to do what you want. Rather, you are teaching your dog how to work with you at the same time she is teaching you how to work with her. You are both training each other.
Through learning to voluntarily work together, and by doing this in a way that is fun for your dog, you will get the “obedience” you desire. This “obedience” is actually just your dog’s trust in you (knowing you respect her and look out for her) and her desire to please you as you are her partner and dear friend.
I use the terms “obedience” and “obedience training” only because these are the concepts that are familiar to people. I actually think they are misnomers, though, when it comes to the positive training philosophy.
Obedience Training Livestock Guardian Dogs Using Positive Methods
What are positive training methods for LGDs?
If you are uncertain exactly what training with “positive methods” means, here it is in a nutshell: you train your dogs what to do (not what not to do) by making them want to do the thing you are asking, not through force, punishment, or shame. How do you make them want to do the thing you are asking? Simple – you use positive reinforcement, you make training interactions fun, and you always treat your dogs respectfully. Training should feel like play. Positive reinforcement may be giving your dogs a treat, praising them, a few minutes of play, or whatever your dogs want most.
Your dogs will then view training and “obedience” as fun because they associate these with the things they love most in life. You are making the actions you want them to do worth their while, so the training is mutually beneficial. You train them only with love and respect, never with scolding or punishments. By doing this, you learn to communicate with each other.
Professional positive trainer, Zak George, sums it up well in his book, Dog Training Revolution: The Complete Guide to Raising the Perfect Pet with Love:
I also think that showing respect for your dogs’ concerns is another great positive training method. For example, if your dog is barking “excessively” (in your opinion), you need to show your dog that you see that she is concerned. You should go with your dog to see what she is barking at, thank her for alerting you, tell her it’s okay, and tell her “enough” or “leave it” or whatever your command is. Your dog will see that you have taken her concerns seriously and you respect her. This can be very powerful for your bond with your dog and for gaining her trust.
For more on why livestock guardian dogs bark and what to do about unwanted barking, check out my articles here and here.
Why train your livestock guardian dogs with positive methods?
Again, simple. Because it’s ethical and effective. You always treat your dog with kindness and they learn to obey you. They obey you not because they are afraid of you, but because they trust you, view you as their partner, and want to please you.
How to Start Obedience Training with Your LGDs
For the most effective training, you will want to take these steps.
Start with exercise – if your dogs are hyper or all worked up, they are going to have a very hard time learning anything new. Make sure they have had enough exercise that they are in a calm and receptive mental state.
Start with no distractions – your dogs will have a really hard time learning something new (especially if they’ve never had training before) if they are distracted by interesting sights, sounds, or smells around them. Set them up for success by training them in a low-key environment.
Make it fun – obedience training should feel like play, not work, for your dogs. Hopefully training will be fun for you too. Try to enjoy your time with your dogs – you will really get to know them as individuals.
Figure out what reward your dog wants most – this should be easy. Some dogs respond very well to food rewards, whereas others want to play with a favorite tug toy for a minute or two, or be praised and coddled.
Take a break when you need to - If you are feeling frustrated with your dogs, take a break. Take a few days off when you need to. Be patient with your dogs and yourself! However, if you are taking a training break, don’t make any commands to your dogs unless you’re willing to follow through on training. If you say “come” and your dog doesn’t come, you will need to follow through on convincing her to come. Consistency (following through with commands) is essential for your dog’s success.
After your dog masters a skill in one setting, you will want to work on that skill in another setting. For example, your dog may learn how to sit on the porch, but when you ask her to sit when you’re out in the field, she might not be able to do it. You need to teach her that the commands are not context-dependent with continued training in new settings.
After your dog masters a skill in multiple settings, you will want to slowly add in more distractions. This step is crucial. You want to teach your dogs to listen to you even when they really don’t want to do so. Work on training your dog around active livestock, around other dogs and people (and other things that may be exciting), and in situations they find uncomfortable, perhaps on a busy road or in a park. You’ll also want to train them when they’re hyper and haven’t had enough exercise. Your dogs need to learn to listen to you no matter what is going on around them and no matter how they feel (excited, scared, disinterested). This is the only way that situations like those in the videos above can be avoided.
As with almost everything else, practice makes perfect.
How Long Does Obedience Training Take for LGDs?
Obedience training may take a long time. It just depends on how receptive your dog is. You will likely need to consistently train your dog for months. Some commands will come more quickly to your dog than others. Just don’t give up. All livestock guardian dogs can be obedience trained if you put in the time consistently and stay patient.
You also don’t want to stop rewarding too early or you may lose some ground that you’ll have to make up later. This is always disappointing and sometimes downright frustrating, but not unusual. When in doubt – reward, reward, reward.
What Commands Do You Need to Teach to Your Livestock Guardian Dogs?
Although there are many commands you could teach your livestock guardian dogs, there are 6 commands that are absolutely essential for your dogs to learn:
Look at me – alright, so this command isn’t quite as important as the others, but it’s an easy one for your dogs to learn and it is super helpful for further training. When your dogs learn they need to look into your eyes when you say “look at me” or “watch me,” you can use this command whenever you need to distract them or prevent them from doing something you don’t want them to do. This command helps get your dogs’ attention when you are training them in distracting situations.
Sit – while this command by itself isn’t that important, it becomes important for teaching your dog the “stay” command. Dogs have a much easier time learning to stay when they are in a sitting position. This is also one of the easier commands to teach, and so is helpful to get your dog primed for further training.
Stay – this is an incredibly important command for obvious reasons. When you want your dog to stay back for her own safety (or for the safety of others), a good “stay” response is vital.
Come – this is perhaps the most important command. If your dog is doing something she shouldn’t be or is in danger herself, the “come” command is the best, safest, and easiest solution. See the videos near the top of this article for a better understanding of why a good recall is crucial.
Leave it – this is another important command that can protect your livestock or others from your dog, or that can protect your dog from predators or potentially harmful situations.
Off – this is the command I give when my dogs jump up on me or others. Once they know this command and have received it enough, they will stop jumping on people and things and the command will become obsolete.
For a step by step guide on how to teach each of these commands, get my free livestock guardian dog training guide.
Optional Training for LGDs
The following commands aren’t essential for your livestock guardian dogs, but they can round out your training program. Remember that training helps you bond with your dogs, is fun for them (if you do it right), and the more you train your dogs, the better success you’ll have with obedience.
Common commands:
Down
Stand
Shake (Great Pyrenees will thank you for rewarding for this command as they are naturally always touching you with their front paws anyway)
Speak
For a step by step guide on how to teach each of these commands, get my free livestock guardian dog training guide.
Other LGD Training to Consider
Depending on your particular situation, your dogs may need additional training for safety reasons. Additional training may include:
Leash training – this may be helpful when training your dogs to livestock, vet visits, or if you think you may ever travel with your dogs.
House training – if you plan on ever keeping your dogs indoors, this is a must.
Crate training
Muzzle training – if you are worried your dogs will not be fully socialized or if they have any aggressive tendencies, muzzle training is a good idea for vet visits.
Yep, you guessed it! I explain these training techniques step-by-step in my free livestock guardian dog training guide.
Training for Behavior Problems Particular to Livestock Guardian Dogs
Livestock guardian dog owners often face these problems more than the average dog owner:
Barking – to train your dogs to bark less or to stop barking when asked, see my articles, Livestock Guardian Dogs and Barking and Train Your Great Pyrenees (or Other LGD) to Stop Barking.
Roaming/boundary training – for information on boundary training (keeping your dogs from crossing a boundary) or controlling roaming through boundary training and fences, see my article, How to Keep Your LGD in Your Yard or Pasture. For more on roaming, see my article, Livestock Guardian Dogs and Roaming.
Resource guarding – for information on resource guarding (when dogs are aggressive about others approaching their food), see my article, Feeding Livestock Guardian Dogs.
I also discuss step-by-step solutions to these problems in my free livestock guardian dog training guide.
Step-By-Step Obedience Training for Livestock Guardian Dogs
If you need more help on the “how” of training your livestock guardian dogs, I recommend my free written guide. For more free material, I highly recommend trainer Zak George’s YouTube channel. Although I have never seen him address training livestock guardian dogs, he does have countless videos on training pet dogs using positive methods that are super helpful.
I also recommend Zak George’s book, Dog Training Revolution, which is available on Amazon.
Finally, if you are committed to training your dogs but are struggling to figure out how to train them with positive methods, I highly recommend trainer Adrienne Farricelli’s online program, Brain Training for Dogs. This is the best program I have found for training dogs with positive methods. She also teaches you how to play a number of training games with your dogs, which I suspect livestock guardian dogs in general will particularly love. LGDs are very intelligent and like having jobs to do – these training games allow them to stay mentally stimulated and to bond with you.
For more on Brain Training for Dogs, see Adrienne’s sales page here or read my review article here for livestock guardians and here for LGDs being raised as pets.
Training Livestock Guardian Dogs to Livestock
What Kind of Livestock Can LGDs Protect?
Livestock guardian dogs can protect any kind of livestock with the proper training. However, take a quick look at the table below. This table shows a list of the most common LGD breeds along with the livestock they were historically bred to protect for millennia.
Notice something about these livestock? They’re almost all ruminants: goats, sheep, cattle. But livestock guardian dogs today are also used to protect (typically miniature) horses and donkeys, llamas, alpacas, pigs, and poultry (typically chickens and turkeys).
A Special Note About Training Livestock Guardian Dogs to Chickens, Turkeys, and Other Poultry
The livestock training methods in this post refer to training your dogs to ruminants (goats, sheep, cows) and other mammals (horses, alpacas, etc.). Training LGD to poultry is a little bit different. The dogs’ relationships with the poultry are typically not the same as their relationships to livestock mammals. They don’t tend to bond with the poultry quite the same way. LGDs will sometimes kill poultry if special care isn’t taken during their training.
Because of these differences, I have covered training LGDs to poultry in a different article, Training Livestock Guardian Dogs to Chickens: A Step-by-Step Guide.
Getting Started with Training LGDs to Livestock
Training livestock guardian dogs to livestock is not one-size-fits-all. Dogs and livestock all have individual personalities that will require you to be flexible in your training. Some dogs will very naturally adapt to living with livestock and bond easily. Others may have a hard time understanding that they can’t play with the livestock the way they do with their litter mates.
The same is true of your livestock. Some individuals will easily adapt to your dogs. Others may be aggressive to your dogs. You will need to be aware that you may have challenges in this process. You may have to be especially patient, and sometimes creative, in solving problems.
Also, if you are new to livestock guardian dogs, keep in mind that starting out is always the hardest. Once you have trained livestock guardian dogs working with livestock, introducing and training new puppies is much easier. Not only will your puppies naturally model the behavior they see from your trained LGDs, but your trained LGDs will also “correct” the puppies. For example, if a puppy tries to play with the livestock, many mentor LGDs will growl or pin the puppy down to tell him he needs to stop. Sometimes they will put themselves between the puppy and the livestock, and not allow the puppy access to the stock.
Also, if you are new to livestock guardian dogs, please don’t buy just one dog or puppy. These dogs are meant to live in packs and you will likely have a lot more behavioral and training problems with a single dog. In addition, a single dog is often not enough to safely protect your ranch from predators. For more on this topic, see my article, How Many Livestock Guardian Dogs You Need.
Keep in mind that there are many different ways to train these dogs. I am sharing the way that works best for me. Others may tell you things like you should never leash your dogs around livestock, or conversely, that you should tie your dogs on a cable lead for days or weeks with livestock before letting them loose. I am sharing the way I think is the kindest to your animals and the most effective long-term.
What follows is step by step instructions – remember you will need to modify these instructions based on your animals’ personalities and problems. These steps assume that you are new to livestock guardian dogs and do not have mentor LGDs to help train puppies.
How to Train Your Livestock Guardian Dogs to Livestock
Start on obedience training immediately (get my free obedience training guide here) – you want your dogs to treat you the way you eventually want them to treat your livestock. This means you will need to train them to be calm and not to jump, chase, or bite you.
Start to leash train your puppies (also in my free guide).
Take your puppies for walks around your property (both with and without a leash – get them used to both) and get them used to your commands. Don’t walk them around with the livestock yet. Keep them separate
Let them see the livestock through the fence and see how they react to them. Work on keeping them calm around the livestock with obedience training. You want to learn your dogs’ body language so that you can prevent them from acting excited. Learn their cues and stop unwanted behavior before it happens. As soon as they look like they may bark, lunge, or otherwise react excitedly to the livestock, distract them with obedience training (try “look at me” to get their attention and then go into a training session). Keep on doing this until they no longer seem interested in the livestock (this may take several training sessions over many days or even weeks or longer).
Bring them into the livestock’s field on a leash. Make sure they are calm. If you can’t calm them, they are not ready to meet the livestock in the field yet. Keep working with them.
When they are calm, let the livestock approach them or you can slowly and calmly approach the livestock. Let them smell each other. If your dogs get too excited, distract them with training. If the livestock run away, they are not ready to meet your dogs. Work on getting your livestock used to the dogs slowly. Do a training session with your dogs and then get a little closer to the livestock. Do another training session and get a little closer. These training sessions keep your dogs’ attention on you and not the livestock (making the situation less scary for the livestock and helping them to get used to your dogs). This may take several days or weeks for the stock and dogs to get used to each other this way, but you don’t want either to be overexcited or scared.
Eventually, your dogs and livestock will get used to each other and you can start to let your dogs loose on their leashes. This means you leave the leash on them, but you drop it so they are free to move around on their own. I prefer to use a long lead in this instance, so if a dog starts to chase or get playful with the livestock, I can jump on the end of the leash to stop him and easily reel him in. I always use a harness on my dogs rather than a collar - you don’t want to jump on the end of the leash if your dog is wearing a collar as this can injure or frighten him. Harnesses are safe.
After your dogs do well loose on their leashes, you can start to let them off leash. You will always need to supervise your dogs off leash for quite awhile until you are absolutely sure they won’t exhibit bad behavior when you aren’t there. The same is true of your livestock – you don’t want to leave your dogs alone with them until you are sure that none of them will exhibit bad behavior towards your dogs.
When your dogs and livestock seem happy and calm together for a long time, you can start to leave your dogs alone in the pasture. You will want to keep out of view but still keep an eye on them. You will know that your animals can be safe alone together when you have been out of their sight repeatedly and they never have any problems together.
How to Prevent Livestock Guardian Dogs From Being Aggressive to Livestock
If your LGDs act aggressively to the livestock, they are viewing the livestock as a threat. This means that you haven’t done a good enough job introducing them slowly to the livestock.
Get far enough away from the livestock that your dogs are calm and do a training session to distract them. Slowly get closer to the livestock doing these training sessions. Once your dogs start acting aggressively or threateningly to the livestock and you can no longer distract them with training sessions, you’re too close. You’ll need to back away and try again.
You may want to try these exercises multiple times a day (individual training sessions should never be more than 5-15 minutes total) and it may take days, weeks, and possibly months (although days or weeks are more likely).
Sometimes it also helps if your dogs can see you interacting calmly and happily with the livestock.
How to Prevent Livestock Guardian Dogs From Being Playful with Livestock
You absolutely must prevent your LGDs from being playful with livestock. Playful LGDs will often nip at the back of livestock’s legs and chase them. At best, this will result in a bad habit that prevents bonding. At worst, this will result in dead or injured livestock. Nip it in the bud IMMEDIATELY.
Again, always pay attention to your dogs’ body language. As soon as one of your dogs starts to play bow or get a look on her face like she’s going to play, distract her with a “look at me” command and a training session. Don’t ever let her even start the behavior if you can help it. If she does start the behavior, distract her immediately. If she can’t control herself, you will need to remove her for the time being and try again later. There is no need to scold or shame her in these situations.
Purchasing litter mates together can really help your puppies in this regard. If your puppies have each other to play with, they are less likely to feel the need to play with the livestock. For an example of this, see the video below showing Spanish Mastiff puppies with livestock:
You also will want to keep your puppies and untrained dogs away from baby livestock – baby stock are very tempting for playful dogs and can easily be accidentally injured or killed.
Sometimes one of your livestock may try to play with your LGDs. You still need to teach your dogs not to play back with these animals. Any chasing or nipping at the livestock can’t be allowed.
How to Prevent Livestock From Being Aggressive to Livestock Guardian Dogs
Sometimes you may have some livestock that are aggressive to your LGDs. For example, you may have a sheep that tries to ram one of your dogs. This is unacceptable, especially if your dogs are puppies. A puppy could be seriously injured by this, or the behavior could prevent him from feeling safe with livestock and bonding with them.
Sometimes all you have to do in this situation is supervise for longer. Don’t let the aggressive stock get near the puppy and keep the puppy nearby on a leash. You can practice walking the puppy closer to the offending stock over time and see if the stock eventually stops.
However, sometimes this won’t work and you may need to keep the aggressive livestock separate until your dogs’ training is totally complete (and they are living happily with their charges). Then you can work on introducing the aggressive stock back into the mix. Again, this may take some time.
Work on keeping your dogs at a distance from the aggressive livestock and approach slowly, stopping to do training sessions. Test out how close you can get to the aggressive livestock before they act out. Try over a period of days or weeks to tighten that boundary until the livestock feel comfortable with the dogs.
Introducing Your Trained Livestock Guardian Dogs to New Stock
Once your livestock guardian dogs have been trained and are living happily with their herd or flock, you will need to be very careful introducing new livestock into their family. As long time Maremma owner, trainer, and breeder, Jackie Church, says in her LGD training manual:
Even worse, your dogs might kill that one sheep.
My neighbors had a Great Pyrenees poultry guardian that killed all of their new ducks. Why? Because my neighbors never properly introduced him to the ducks. The LGD, Shaggy, dutifully guarded the chickens and turkeys day and night, and my neighbors just assumed he’d be good with ducks, but they didn’t train him to them. As soon as they had their backs turned, he killed them immediately. He didn’t realize that they were his new charges.
If you get new livestock, let your dogs see you unload them from the vehicle into a holding area. Let your dogs sniff and greet the new livestock while you also interact with them. Let your dogs see you treat the livestock lovingly. When you introduce the new livestock into the pastures with your dogs, supervise to make sure your dogs aren’t separating them or acting uncertain about them. Instruct your dogs to “leave it” if they start trying to move the new animals away, and spend some time getting your dogs to understand that you want the new stock there.
Last Words on Training Your LGDs
I so hope this post has been a helpful primer for you on training your livestock guardian dogs. Please let me know what questions you have in the comments below, and please do check out my free obedience training guide if you need help.
If you need more info on training LGDs to livestock, I very highly recommend Jackie Church’s short but incredibly helpful manual, Windance Farm Training Manual: Maremma Sheepdog & Livestock Guardian Dogs. I also recommend Brenda Negri’s book, The Way of the Pack: Understanding and Living with Livestock Guardian Dogs.
I’m going to leave you now with one more quote from longtime Maremma owner, Jackie Church. No matter how difficult training may be or how frustrated you may get, always remember this:
Amen, Sister.
You May Also Be Interested in:
Brain Training for Dogs: The Best Online Obedience Training Program for Livestock Guardian Dogs
Training Livestock Guardian Dogs to Chickens: A Step-by-Step Guide
Livestock Guardian Dogs and Barking: Some Breeds Bark Less Than Others
Livestock Guardian Dogs and Roaming: Which Breeds Roam, Why, and How to Fix Roaming Problems