Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo

Summer is in full swing with lots of hot days and little rain this year.  Many producers are reducing their herds to have feed resources available for the stock they keep.  Now would also be a good time to do some health checks and body condition scores of your LGDs.  Dogs have a body condition scoring system like livestock.  However, instead of five levels, dogs have nine levels of condition scoring.  Ideally, LGDs should be kept in a 4 to 5 body condition score (BCS).  If your dogs are lower than a level four or five, make sure to deworm them and provide them with some extra kibble to regain any lost condition.  Dogs with scores in a 1 ½ or 2 BCS range should be examined by a veterinarian for health reasons and possibly kenneled for a couple months until they regain proper weight.

AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program: Events and Update

The Texas LGD Association will be holding its first annual membership meeting on August 20 at 1p.m. at the First Community Spur Arena in San Angelo.  The organization will also have a table at the AgriLife Sheep and Goat Expo that is being held in San Angelo on August 19 and 20.  If you haven’t joined the organization, you can log onto their website to fill out an application and pay your dues through PayPal.  For more information about the annual meeting or the organization you can email me at bill.costanzo@ag.tamu.edu.

The AgriLife Center will be hosting its 49^th Annual Sheep & Goat Field Day on August 19.  We will give updates on a variety of projects going on at the Center in addition to an update on the LGD bonding project.  The AgriLife Sheep & Goat Expo is also happening that afternoon at the Spur Arena in San Angelo and will conclude on August 20.  Make sure to register for that event on our website.

LGD Identification

 Livestock guardian dogs take a tremendous amount of time and money to train.  In addition to those costs, dogs that are missing and not

ID tag on an AgriLife LGD collar. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2019)

found may cause a loss of production for the producer’s herd as well.  Some producers choose not to identify their LGDs with collars or ID microchips because of the cost or they fear that the dogs may get hung up on vegetation and brush.  We have not had this issue with any of our dogs.  We believe that it’s important to provide a couple different methods of identification for our dogs. All AgriLife LGDs have a collar with a name plate listing our contact information, are implanted with an ID chip and have photos taken of them regularly.  Many of our dogs also wear GPS trackers.

I would encourage all producers to use at least a good quality leather or nylon collar with a name plate so that dogs can be returned should they leave the ranch boundaries.  A name plate should list the producers name, city, state and phone number.  If there’s extra room, you should add the dog’s name too.  It may be helpful for the vet or animal shelter to know your dog’s name to help care for it until you are notified and can retrieve your LGD.

Complete ID chip system. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2020)

ID chips are also affordable and can be purchased online or at your local veterinarian.  They are an easy way to prove ownership should your dog be stolen or purposely removed from your property.  The chip should be implanted in the loose skin on the dog’s neck.  There are several different companies online that you can register your ID chip with, and some are even free.  If your LGD is found and taken to a vet or local animal shelter they will scan the dog to see if it has an ID chip and then contact the owner.  It’s important to update your ID chip company with your current contact information if you move or change phone numbers so that your correct information is always on file with the registry.  We use Free Pet Chip Registry to register the ID chips for all of our dogs.  It’s very easy to use and you can easily transfer information should you sell a dog.

ID pictures of two AgriLife dogs. Distinctive markings in the face of Doc (left) and on Betty’s side (right) can be seen in the photos. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

Having current pictures of your LGDs is also helpful to try and locate a dog that has gone missing. Make sure to have pictures of each side of the dog, its face and any other distinguishing marks it may have.  You can store these pictures in a cloud server such as Google Drive, One Drive or Drop Box so that you can easily access them from your cell phone to send to neighbors, veterinarian offices and animal shelters if your dog is missing.

LGDs & The Bonding Project Update

Round Four Pups

The pups are continuing to do well in the feeding trial and will be headed to the vet’s office in early August to get spayed and neutered.  It’s important to spay or neuter your LGDs to keep unwanted litters from appearing.  Some LGD breeds mature faster than others and young females may come into heat before a year of age.  Make sure to watch their development as they near this age to prevent an unwanted litter.

LGDs should be fully mature before being bred.  Young dogs are not proven guardians, and they are still developing structurally which are both reasons not to breed a female too early.  Pregnancy in younger females can lead to poor structural development as critical nutrients for her growth are transferred to the growing puppies.  In addition, females with litters will not be as attentive to livestock while her puppies are maturing.  Once she weans her pups at approximately 8 weeks of age, she will begin to leave them to return to guarding livestock for short periods of time.

Adult Dogs

Doc was diagnosed with Ehrlichiosis just a few days after Thelma had finished her round of antibiotics and was returned to the invisible fence pasture.  Thelma was returned to the ranch in Menard in early July.  Doc was kenneled for most of July and was returned to the ranch in Menard at the end of the month.  We discovered that Thelma was not gaining weight after being at the ranch for a few weeks and she was returned to the Center to be rechecked for the tick disease.  She was placed on a second round of antibiotics as our vet felt that she had not fully recovered from Ehrlichiosis.  She will be in the kennel at the Center for another month while she is treated again.  Hopefully she will put some weight back on and fully recover this time from the disease.

In Closing

If you enjoyed this monthly LGD blog, please don’t forget to subscribe to it with this link The Guardian Way | Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, please contact me at bill.costanzo@ag.tamu.edu or 325-657-7311.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program is a cooperative effort by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas Sheep and Goat Predator Management Board.  Make sure to follow us on our social media sites and share them with your friends and family!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAMUlivestockguarddog/

Instagram: @tamulivestockguarddog  

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7YbP6bNDV7___6H8mifBA

Don’t forget to check out the Texas LGD Association on online!  Follow the organization at https://www.facebook.com/TexasLGDAssociation or check out their website!

With lots of 100-degree days ahead of us, it’s important to make sure that your LGDs have access to plenty of cool clean water and trees to lay under for shade.  Long haired dogs should be brushed out and/or have their hair trimmed on their chests, bellies, lower sides, and inner legs.  Make sure to leave at least ½ inch of hair so that they don’t get sunburned.  It is not recommended to clip any other areas of your LGD as clipping can interfere with their coat’s natural insulation abilities.

AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program: Events and Update

Our monthly LGD Q&A sessions on Facebook have been going well with producers posting questions and logging on live to view the answers.  The live sessions are usually on the first Thursday of the month at 3 p.m. on our Facebook page.  If you missed any of the sessions, you can view them on our YouTube Channel.

We’ve made some updates to our website.  If you haven’t checked it out in a while, now’s your chance!  We have added a page with our crew of LGDs, another page with research literature, new factsheets, and an easy way to find past issues of The Guardian Way.

Roaming vs Patrolling Behavior

A six-year survival of LGDs and causes of losses. Most accidents would not have occurred if the LGD had not left the ranchers property (Lorenz et al. 1986).

Producers often contact us looking for dog breeders or looking for ways to stop juvenile issues in their pups.  How to stop LGDs leaving their property is the next most common issue we speak with producers about.  It is one of the main problems with LGDs and could be caused by improper bonding techniques when the dogs are puppies.  We started the bonding project back in 2019 to help determine if there was a way to curb roaming behavior in adult LGDs.  Based on a study conducted in 1986, almost half of the LGDs on ranches were deceased by six years.  As seen in the chart above, the main cause of death was from accidents.

Most of the accidents in this study were caused by dogs roaming off ranch boundaries.  However, are the dogs really roaming or just patrolling an area larger than we would like?  Producers often lump everything a dog is doing away from their charges as roaming.  However, producers may be confused about why their dogs are leaving their charges.

Are roaming and patrolling different behaviors?  We would say yes!  Roaming is more of a random movement of the dog across an area with no real reason other than they are exploring the area.  Roaming dogs can travel many miles away from their charges and fail to return in a timely manner, if at all.   Patrolling dogs usually have a specific pattern to their behavior.  For instance, we have a LGD (Thor) at the Center that most nights between 9-9:15 p.m. leaves his pasture and patrols the neighboring pastures for threats.  Once he is done, Thor returns to his charges until the next night.  Dogs that are patrolling or chasing a threat often have similar movement patterns.  You can determine your dogs’ movements by using a GPS tracker.

We often recommend GPS trackers to producers new to LGDs to use on their dogs so that they can learn their dog’s movement patterns.  We believe that dogs are often just patrolling and defending their territory and not really roaming.  We have noticed through our use of GPS trackers, that dogs that roam tend to travel in longer straight lines with some direction changes every so often.  Dogs that are patrolling or chasing something tend to have more circular loops or lines that zig zag across an area.

Figure 1: LGD Doc showing a classic example of roaming mainly in straight lines. He was found approximately 4 miles from the ranch location. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Digital Matters 2022)

As seen in Figure 1, LGD Doc traveled in a fairly straight line on this date.  Doc and his sister Thelma have been roaming since they had been released from the bonding pens in 2021.  Doc’s travels on this date are similar to his and Thelma’s movements every time the dogs have roamed off the ranch.  On this date, Doc was alone and roamed almost four miles from his home ranch.

Earlier in January 2022, both Doc and Thelma traveled south of the ranch in Menard just over four miles away.  The pattern that day was very similar to this event.  Other dogs that have roamed in the project tend to show similar straight patterns when they are roaming.

A producer could assume that the left picture in Figure 2 showing LGD Laverne, could be a roaming pattern as she traveled across two 1500-acre pastures that day.  However, examination of her movements over time show that she usually patrols close to her livestock in a general zig zag pattern.  This producer’s ranch has a very high predator load in this area.  He had seen a large amount of evidence of predators in the lower pasture.  Knowing Laverne’s working pattern and this information it was easy to determine that she was probably chasing a predator across the ranch.  The producer found a fresh crawl and hair on the fence by the highway location where Laverne stopped the chase at the bottom of the picture.

Figure 2: Photo on the left shows LGD Laverne in a zig zag pattern. Photo on the right shows LGD Louise in a circular patrol pattern. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Digital Matters 2022)

The picture in Figure 2 on the right, shows the movement pattern of LGD Louise.  Louise generally worked in a circular pattern across the pastures she guarded.  While she would return to her stocks’ location to check on them, Louise generally patrolled the perimeter of her pastures.  GPS trackers can be a great help to producers in determining the movement patterns of their LGDs and areas of possible predator threats.

LGDs & The Bonding Project Update

Round Four Pups

The pups are all doing well and will be spayed/neutered the first week of August.  Once our feeding trial is completed in early August the pups will all be taken to the five cooperating producers ranches and released with the dogs they are bonding in this project.  All the dogs will be tracked until they are 18 months of age.

Carol and Betty in the pasture. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

Adult Dogs

Thelma finished her treatment of antibiotics for Ehrlichiosis and was returned to the pasture set up with the invisible fence in mid-June with Doc.  Neither dog had left the two pastures with the system since they were placed in them in April.  The two dogs will be taken back to the ranch in Menard at the end of July and tracked for roaming behavior.  Our hope is that the system provides some long-term results and keeps the dogs from roaming as often as they were.

In closing

If you enjoyed this monthly LGD blog, please don’t forget to subscribe to it with this link The Guardian Way | Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, please contact me at bill.costanzo@ag.tamu.edu or 325-657-7311.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program is a cooperative effort by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas Sheep and Goat Predator Management Board.  Make sure to follow us on our social media sites and share them with your friends and family!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAMUlivestockguarddog/

Instagram: @tamulivestockguarddog  

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7YbP6bNDV7___6H8mifBA

Don’t forget to check out the Texas LGD Association on online!  Follow the organization at https://www.facebook.com/TexasLGDAssociation or check out their website!

Pasture of blue bonnets and Indian paintbrush flowers in Washington County, TX. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

April showers in some parts of Texas helped the beautiful blue bonnets and Indian paintbrush flowers bloom!  While the area south of San Angelo got a good soaking the last week of April, San Angelo did not receive as much.  We are still anxiously awaiting a good storm at the Center so we can stop buying livestock feed, other than dog food.

AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program Events and Update

We held our second LGD question and answer session on Facebook in early April.  It was great to see more producers join in live this time and post questions they needed answers to.  Our next Facebook Live LGD Q&A session will be held on June 9th at 3pm.  Place your questions in the comment section of the advertising post for the event and we will do our best to answer them during a Facebook Live video.  The questions with the most likes/loves will be answered during the live session so make sure you vote!  Registration is not required for the live event.  Check out our Facebook page or the AgriLife Center – San Angelo website for more information.

The next webinar in the LGD series will be held on November 17, 2022, at 3pm so make sure to save the date on your calendar!  Dr. Catherine Lord will be discussing bonding and socialization development in puppies and dogs.  She is a postdoctoral associate in the Karlsson Lab at The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School and a former student of LGD researcher Dr. Raymond Coppinger.  I hope you can join us live for this event.  Check our Facebook page for more information or the AgriLife Center – San Angelo website to register for the event.

We have LoRa GPS tracking systems installed at both the Read Ranch in Ozona and at the Sonora Station.  The systems are working well and providing 15-minute updates on the locations of the dogs.  The LoRa system acts like a repeater station.  The trackers send the data to the LoRa tower located on your ranch, which in turn sends the data to the cellular provider.  The benefits are lower monthly costs, longer battery life and more frequent updates of the dog’s locations.  The disadvantages are that the initial startup is more costly than traditional cellular trackers as a tower must be set up for the trackers.  In addition, the system only has a four-mile radius from the tower so larger ranches may need an additional tower to provide enough coverage.

LGDs & The Bonding Project Update

Round Four Pups

The 16 NSIIC grant puppies are all doing well in round four of the bonding project.  I visited the eight puppies that are with cooperating producers in late April.  Several of the producers are using bonding pens while one has chosen not to.  It will be interesting to see how all the pups turn out as adults with several different training methods.  The pups should all be released from their bonding pens into small traps or pastures in mid-May.

We are starting a feed trial with the puppies at the Center this month.  Once the pups are released in mid-May, we will begin tracking their weight gain and compare two different types of Purina Mills puppy chow.   Each week we will weigh the pups to determine how much feed they consume and if they have any performance differences.  The pups have all figured out how to enter the radio frequency identification (RFID) doors that were placed on their feeding stations last month.  We hope to use these doors on all our feeders to stop varmints from eating the dog’s food.  The main problem that we have run into is retraining older dogs to use the RFID doors.  We tried for several months last year to get a group of dogs in Ozona to use the doors, but they refused to enter the stations.

Adult Dogs

The invisible fence system for retraining roaming LGDs was installed in early April at the Center.  Before the dogs were released into the

Invisible Fence training collar for Doc. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

pasture, we checked the geofence and found a few spots that needed to be moved father out.  The company reprogramed the collars and checked them to make sure they were working correctly.  Next, we did some short training for the dogs with the collars on tone only and finally with the stimulus setting also.  Both dogs reacted well and were left in the pasture.

On the second day we discovered a glitch in Doc’s collar that kept it from working correctly.  We quickly got it fixed by the company and he joined Thelma out in the pasture at the Center.  Neither dog has left the pasture so far and will not even come close to the fence line.  We are working to get the tone eliminated so that the dogs fear the fence instead of the tone sound.  We will be rotating the dogs weekly between two different pastures.  That way the dogs learn not to cross all fence lines, not just a specific pasture boundary.

Doc’s and Thelma’s travels for a day in the invisible fence pasture at the Center. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

Our hope with this project is to permanently change the dogs’ behavior or at least modify their behavior to not roam as often.  The batteries in the collars only last 2-3 days which is not practical for most producers.  The system would be good for producers with older pups that have started to roam and need corrective training.  A small trap could be set up and the dogs placed in it until they are fully mature.

Johnny and Speck One both from the Martin Ranch, had injuries again this month.  We found

Speck One in the kennel at the Center for an injured rear paw. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

Johnny with a small gash on his shoulder which may have been from a feral hog again.  Luckily after cleaning it up, he didn’t require stiches.  Speck One developed some sort of an abscess on his right rear foot.  It caused the skin to sluff off leaving his paw raw.  He had to be kenneled for a couple weeks at the Center.  Both dogs will be returned to the ranch in Menard after their injuries are healed.

In Closing

If you enjoyed this monthly LGD blog, please don’t forget to subscribe to it with this link The Guardian Way | Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, please contact me at bill.costanzo@ag.tamu.edu or 325-657-7311.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program is a cooperative effort by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas Sheep and Goat Predator Management Board.  Make sure to follow us on our social media sites and share them with your friends and family!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAMUlivestockguarddog/

Instagram: @tamulivestockguarddog  

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7YbP6bNDV7___6H8mifBA

Don’t forget to check out the Texas LGD Association on online!  Follow the organization at https://www.facebook.com/TexasLGDAssociation or check out their website!

Springtime is here, and we are anxiously awaiting April showers to grow May flowers at the AgriLife Center.  Lambing and kidding season is upon us.  Seasoned LGDs love this time of year.  They seem to be quite curious and interested in newborns.  Maybe they are developing a connection with the animals that will require a lot of attention to keep predators away.  Or maybe they are just anxiously awaiting the opportunity to clean up the afterbirth and placenta.  Likely both.  Unfortunately, younger dogs can be a bit too curious and playful with newborns.  It is advised to keep a close eye on them if they haven’t been around newborns before.

 AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program Update

Our first LGD question and answer session was held on Facebook last month.  Several producers post questions prior to the event and during the live video, as well.  We have decided to make it a regular event on Facebook.  Place your questions in the comment section of the advertising post for the event and we will do our best to answer them during a Facebook Live video.  Questions with the most likes/loves will be answered during the live session.  Our next event will be held on April 7, at 3pm.  Registration is not needed for the live event.  Check out our Facebook page or the AgriLife Center – San Angelo website for more information.

Our Spring 2022 LGD Field Day is scheduled for May 13 from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. in Crockett County.  The event will be held at the Crockett County 4-H Barn at 1301 Avenue AA, Ozona, Texas.  Contact the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office in Crockett County at 325-392-2721 to register for the event.  Presentation topics will include health care, nutrition, and GPS trackers.  There will be a producer panel and tours of ranching operations utilizing LGDs to protect small ruminants.  Check out our Facebook page for more updates on the field day.

With Covid-19 restrictions lifted, our in-person workshops and field days will replace some of our webinars.  Our next webinar in the LGD series will be held on November 17, 2022, at 3pm.  Dr. Catherine Lord will be discussing bonding & socialization development in puppies and dogs.  She is a Postdoctoral Associate in the Karlsson Lab at The University of Massachusetts Chan Medical School.  Dr. Lord was a student of Dr. Raymond Coppinger who performed countless hours of research in the 1970’s through the early 2000’s on LGDs and canine development.  I am very excited to have her present for us and I hope you can join us live.  Check our Facebook page for more information or the AgriLife Center – San Angelo website to register for the free event on Zoom.

LGDs & The Bonding Project Update

Round Four Pups

The eight pups were released from the 60’ X 60’ pens after four weeks into the one-acre bonding pens.  The livestock in the bonding pens have

Feeding station with an RFID dog door attached. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2021)

been rotated twice.  All the pups are being bonded as pairs due to space.  Everyone is doing well with socialization, leash, and tether training.  They seem to have separation anxiety when I am leash and tether training them.  For instance, the pup that is tethered usually cries most of the time, while I am walking the other pup.  They are not crying as much as the tether time increases and they get more familiar with the process.  It will be interesting to see how they do once they are released into the large pasture at six months of age.

Radio frequency identification (RFID) doors placed on their feeding stations this month.  We will be conducting a feeding trial with the pups starting in May.  The feeding trial will compare two different Purina products to determine how much feed they consume and if they have any performance differences.  In addition, this should teach the dogs to use the RFID door at an early age.  Our hope is to use these doors on all our feeders to stop varmints from eating the dog’s food.

Round Three Dogs

Doc and Thelma in the kennel at the Center in San Angelo. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

We removed Doc and Thelma from the ranch in Menard as they had begun to roam frequently to a neighbor’s ranch.  In addition, they were taking other dogs with them to the neighbors ranch.  We placed both dogs in a kennel for a week.  Next, we returned Doc the next week to the ranch and his roaming stopped for exactly a week.  He then roamed several miles away.  We decided to bring him back to the Center to be kenneled again.

Doc and Thelma will stay in a kennel at the Center until late March.  At that point we will have an invisible fence system installed for one of the pastures.  We will be testing the system with them to see if we can change their roaming behavior.  If the invisible fence works to change their behavior, we will consider this tool for Johnny, Sara, and Sally.  As of now, they don’t roam off property.  However, they roam from pasture to pasture, which includes crossing a public road.

The invisible fence system we are having installed uses a collar that has a GPS tracker and an electronic mechanism that creates an audible

Pasture 9 South at the AgriLife Center. This pasture will have an invisible fence system. (Photo courtesy of Google Earth 2022)

and electronic stimulus to the dog when it approaches the boundary.  The company claims that the unit will permanently retrain the dog to stay within fence boundaries.  The dogs will be placed in a approximately 220 acre pasture.  There will be other livestock and LGDs in the pastures around them which will provide a temptation for these two dogs to go visit.  We will keep you posted on their progress in the coming months.

In closing

If you enjoyed this monthly LGD blog, please don’t forget to subscribe to it with this link The Guardian Way | Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, please contact me at bill.costanzo@ag.tamu.edu or 325-657-7311.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program is a cooperative effort by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas Sheep and Goat Predator Management Board.  Make sure to follow us on our social media sites and share them with your friends and family!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAMUlivestockguarddog/

Instagram: @tamulivestockguarddog  

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7YbP6bNDV7___6H8mifBA

Don’t forget to check out the Texas LGD Association on online!  Follow the organization at https://www.facebook.com/TexasLGDAssociation or check out their website!

AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program Update

Our Spring 2022 LGD Field Day is scheduled for May 13 from 8 a.m.- 4 p.m. in Crockett County.  The event will be held at the Crockett County 4-H Barn at 1301 Avenue AA, Ozona, Texas.  Contact the Texas A&M AgriLife Extension Service office in Crockett County at 325-392-2721 to register for the event.  Presentation topics will include health care, nutrition, and GPS trackers.  There will be a producer panel and tours of ranching operations utilizing LGDs to protect small ruminants.  Check out our Facebook page for more updates.

We are no longer hosting bimonthly webinar presentations.  With Covid-19 restrictions lifted, our in-person workshops and field days will replace some of our webinars.  Our next webinar in the LGD series will be held in November of 2022.  Check our Facebook page for more information as the event gets closer.

LGDs & The Bonding Project Update

Cold Weather

It’s important that young LGDs being trained have a good shelter and several lives

Wilma and Mike enjoying the cold weather in early February. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

tock to bed down with during severe weather situations.

The younger dogs do not have enough body mass to stay warm in freezing temperatures.  All the puppies in the National Sheep Improvement Center (NSIIC) bonding project fared well in the ice and snow in early February.  We were a little concerned this year with the extreme wind-chill factor this February, and the younger age of these pups.  The younger pups were running around enjoying the frigid weather each day we checked them.  They had plenty of bedding to keep them warm and 4-5 ewes to bed down with.  We also placed a small dog crate inside each shelter for extra protection if they needed it.

Betty wasn’t wanting to get leashed trained one day! (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

All eight puppies have been doing well with tether and leash training.  A couple were a little stubborn at first with the leash training, but they have all overcome their fears.  We started them off at two minutes for leash and tether training and we increase the time by two minutes each week.  All pups are also given a short truck ride each week to acclimate them to traveling to new locations in a vehicle.

Once they get released from the bonding pens, they will be introduced to herding dogs also.  It’s important to rotate the livestock in your bonding pens every few weeks so that the dogs bond to a species and not specific animals.  Bonding to specific animals may cause the dogs to roam looking for those animals later in life, if the stock are culled.

Round Three Pups

The TV Sitcom Stars and the Legends & Icons puppies from the third round of the bonding project all “graduated” last month from the

program and are officially adult dogs now!  Laverne, Squiggy, Doc, Wyatt, Thelma, and Louise, will no longer be tracked for data collection in the project.  The pups bonded in hot wire (Wyatt, Laverne and Squiggy) all seem not to roam or roam much less that the other three dogs.  Squiggy has not roamed at all, and Wyatt has roamed a couple of times.  He also showed up at the ranch headquarters once.  Laverne has roamed a couple of times but based on her tracker data it seemed that she was following some sort of animal.  Most likely it was a coyote as the producer had seen evidence of one in the pasture she traveled into.

Of the three dogs not bonded in hot wire, Louise seems to roam the least.  Louise was a single bonded pup and when she has roamed, the cooperating

Typical day for Doc (light blue line) and Thelma (light green line) on the far side of the ranch. The sheep are the pink & red lines. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

producer has always found her with another flock of his sheep that do not have a LGD yet.  Doc and Thelma were pair bonded and are roaming weekly to other parts of the ranch away from their sheep.  They often end up at another rancher’s headquarters about two miles from the Martin Ranch.  It seems that sometimes the dogs may be following AgriLife personnel that have done work in Menard when they leave the ranch.

The picture to the right is not one of those times.  The dogs have roamed to another part of the ranch that has two younger dogs guarding goats.   A few days after the picture above, Thelma had returned to her sheep.  Doc had returned to the west side of the ranch but traveled north onto another ranch.  Hopefully as Doc and Thelma mature a little more, they will stop roaming as much.

In closing

If you enjoyed this monthly LGD blog, please don’t forget to subscribe to it with this link The Guardian Way | Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo.

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, please contact me at bill.costanzo@ag.tamu.edu or 325-657-7311.

The Texas A&M AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program is a cooperative effort by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas Sheep and Goat Predator Management Board.  Make sure to follow us on our social media sites and share them with your friends and family!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAMUlivestockguarddog/

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Don’t forget to check out the Texas LGD Association on online!  Follow the organization at https://www.facebook.com/TexasLGDAssociation or check out their website!

AgriLife LGD Program Update

On Thursday, Feb. 17, 2022, at 3 p.m.  Lauren Stump, DVM, from Nestle Purina will be the featured guest speaker for the LGD webinar series, titled “Canine Nutrition for Working LGDs.”  Here is the link to register for the webinar.  In addition, the webinar will be broadcast live on our  k page.  The video will be recorded and posted to our YouTube Channel as well.

We have scheduled our Spring 2022 LGD Field Day for May 13 from 8 a.m.-4 p.m. in Crockett County.  The event will be held at the Crockett County 4-H Barn at 1301 Avenue AA in Ozona.  Contact the Crockett County AgriLife Extension Office at 325-392-2721 to register for the event.  Presentation topics will include health care, nutrition, and GPS trackers.  There will be a producer panel and tours of ranching operations utilizing LGDs to protect small ruminants.

What are the top LGD qualities?

Producers frequently ask what the best qualities are in a livestock guardian dog.  In this months “The Guardian Way” we will discuss what we feel those top qualities could be:

• Strongly bonded to their livestock. A LGD that is strongly bonded to their livestock rarely roams leaving their charges unprotected.  This is probably the most important quality a LGD should have.  LGDs that roam are more likely to be hit by cars, shot, poisoned, or caught in a snare.

• Parents are working dogs of LGD breeds. It’s important to use LGDs from working parents and LGD breeds because you greatly increase the chances that the dogs will be successful guardians of your livestock.  LGDs have been bred for thousands of years by herders in Europe to have decreased prey drive instincts.  By using non-LGD breeds your chances of the dogs chasing, stalking, biting, and killing your livestock greatly increase.

• Defends territory from all threats. A top quality LGD should protect your livestock from both ground and aerial predators.  While not all LGDs guard livestock against aerial predators, some dogs will.  Some producers/breeders feel that this behavior is instinct while others believe that this is a learned trait in the dogs.  Regardless of how or why the dogs defend against these threats, a top quality LGD should guard against them.

• Match human/LGD socialization to management.  Interactions between people and LGDs, particularly in the first few months of life, will affect how LGDs bond to humans and livestock.  Although each LGD is unique, they have inherently different aptitudes.  The best LGDs are those that receive the right amount of human interaction early in life so that they will remain committed to their charges and will also approach people in a friendly manner when they encounter them.  It is unclear how much socialization is needed.  It will likely vary depending on the dog and the style of livestock management.  The research efforts we have ongoing limit human socialization during the bonding phase to around 5 minutes per dog, two to three times per week.  Research conducted in the LGD Bonding Project has not shown a correlation with highly socialized dogs roaming more to find human contact than moderately socialized dogs.  It’s important for producers to remember not to reward dogs for leaving livestock.  It is often perceived that a dog may be over socialized because it returns to locations with humans.  Producers regularly feed the dogs assuming they are hungry, or they place them into a pen with feed until they have time to return the dog to the pasture.  This practice is reinforcing the bad behavior of leaving livestock and roaming to find humans.  Do not feed or praise your LGD anytime they have left livestock!  When the dogs are found at your home or headquarters, they need to be scolded and immediately returned to their charges.

• Understands basic canine commands and training. LGDs should understand at least three basic commands along with knowing their name.  The commands of “no,” “come,” and “stay” should all be taught to your LGD during the bonding phase.  These three basic commands should cover the common commands needed for a working LGD on most ranches.  Commands such as sit and down may be taught to your LGD, but they are generally not needed in large livestock operations.  Smaller producers may want to teach their LGD these additional commands.

LGDs & The Bonding Project

Female Legends of Country Music: Dolly, Reba, Patsy and Trisha. Eight-week-old Great Pyrenees x Akbash pups. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

The National Sheep Industry Improvement Center (NSIIC) Bonding Project got underway with the purchase of 16, eight-week-old puppies from three different LGD breeders in Texas.  Eight of the pups went directly to producers for bonding while the other eight pups stayed at the AgriLife Center and will be trained and bonded by AgriLife personnel.  Please welcome our newest puppies at the center, the Female Legends of Country Music, the Flintstones, and the Brady Bunch.

The eight pups kept at the AgriLife Center were placed into our bonding pens with four to six head of Dorper ewes.  Since the National Sheep Industry Improvement Center is funding this phase of the bonding project, we will not be bonding any of these pups with goats as in the past.  The pups will stay in the 60×60 enclosure for one month and then they will be released into a

The Flintstones: Fred, Wilma, Barney and Betty. (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

one-acre bonding pen until they are 6 months old.  After that, the pups will spend two months in a 100-acre pasture with more livestock and dogs before heading off to the five cooperating producers to be with the other eight dogs that the producers bonded themselves.

The Brady Bunch: Mike, Greg, Peter, Bobby (hiding from camera), Carol, Marsha, Jan and Cindy (Texas A&M AgriLife photo courtesy Costanzo 2022)

In closing

If you enjoyed this monthly LGD blog, please don’t forget to subscribe to it with this link The Guardian Way – Texas A&M AgriLife Research and Extension Center at San Angelo (tamu.edu).

To provide feedback on this article or request topics for future articles, please contact me at bill.costanzo@ag.tamu.edu or 325-657-7311.  The Texas A&M AgriLife Livestock Guardian Dog Program is a cooperative effort by Texas A&M AgriLife Research and the Texas Sheep and Goat Predator Management Board.  Make sure to follow us on our social media sites and share them with your friends and family!

Facebook: https://www.facebook.com/TAMUlivestockguarddog/

Instagram: @tamulivestockguarddog  

YouTube: https://www.youtube.com/channel/UCF7YbP6bNDV7___6H8mifBA

Don’t forget to check out the Texas LGD Association on online!  Follow the organization at https://www.facebook.com/TexasLGDAssociation or check out their website!