A Few Ranch Dogs
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Throughout the weeks that I’ve spent on the ranch so far, there’s been a persistent project that I’ve been helping with and following along with. During my first week on the ranch, we received three Great Pyrenees mix puppies. For the past 8 weeks, we have been training them to turn into functioning, working sheepdogs that are able to protect their sheep. To start the puppies off, the three of them were all placed in different pens around the ranch with their own set of bum lambs. This helped them become bonded to the bums that they were placed with. As they got older, they began to venture further and eventually found each other. During the day, the dogs would play with each other and run around, but when someone would approach their lambs, they would return to their sheep. Both the dogs and bum lambs became more independent as they grew older and bigger. This week was the first week that I’ve noticed and reflected on just how much has really changed.
In the first few weeks, we bottle-fed the bum lambs 4 times a day. This was usually a daunting task as the bums were in various locations around the ranch, and would not drink as much milk as they needed or at all. As the lambs got older and hungrier, the job became easier and quicker. The dogs began adapting to the lambs’ way of life and started mimicking their behavior. This included eating the hay and oats the lambs had been supplied with, and running up to the gate at the sound of the gator. The friendliness that the dogs showed towards people was concerning at first, as sheep dogs should not be interacting with people often, but we realized that the dogs didn’t want to play or be pet, so their friendliness was not a major concern. As the dogs grew and traveled further, we moved them further apart. We brought the same food bowl and “toys” (random objects they collected around the ranch) to any new location we would move each one to so that they would understand where their home base is. The dogs did really good at responding to their new homes every time they were moved, as they would usually stay there and not venture extremely far out.
We were now feeding the bum lambs 3 times a day and starting to feed them small amounts of oats, grain, and hay along with their bottles. The bums began to look forward to having new food and started to mimic the behavior of the older sheep, quickly running up to the trough at the sound of the gator. The dogs continued to mimic their sheep, as the sound of oats, grain, and hay excited them as well. I would occasionally see a dog indulging in the grain and hay just as their sheep did. The dogs are beginning to get bigger and more territorial. They would still all play with each other during the day, but when it came to feeding time, they were extremely protective of their own food. Each dog has a separate bowl in a separate location, so this was only a problem when one of the dogs was where they shouldn’t be. By this point, the dogs had a better understanding of what their job was, and could sometimes be caught barking at something that they sensed as a threat to their own herd. However, by this point, the dogs were too big and too territorial to all be placed around the ranch, as they began wandering further down the road or to other houses they weren’t supposed to be at. We decided that it would be best to move one of the dogs to a pasture with the large ranch sheep herd and an older dog, allowing more room for the other two dogs around the ranch.
The bums are now being fed twice a day. They eat enough grain and grass to fill up in between bottle feedings and are slowly but surely being weaned off the bottles. We decided this week to put all of the bum lambs together in a little corral set up in a pasture containing around 30 ewes and 70 lambs near the ranch. All five of the bums now have an area of grass to graze and are amongst the herd of ewes and lambs. We decided to put both of the dogs out with all of the bums, as they have both been watching their own bums individually and can now watch all 5 of the bums together. This is more realistic and similar to what the dogs will experience when they are turned out in the big pasture with the larger herd of sheep.
Over the past several weeks, I’ve gotten to see just how much work goes into raising good sheepdogs. When we first got the three puppies, they were just playful little things, but now they’re really starting to figure out their job. Watching them grow up alongside their bum lambs has been super rewarding. They’ve gone from just tagging along to actually protecting their sheep and staying close to them when it matters. It’s been cool to see how they’ve picked up on the lambs’ routines through eating what they eat, running up to the gate at feeding time, and slowly becoming more territorial. This week, especially, I realized how far they’ve come. Moving them into more realistic herd settings felt like a big step forward. Training livestock guardian dogs isn’t easy, but I’ve learned that with time, patience, and a good setup, they really can grow into the role, and it makes a huge difference on the ranch.
Submitted by: Sydney Farley
Edits by: GrowinG Internship Team
