My Training Response To An LGD Barking At New Livestock

I don't need to use a bark collar, shock collar, or any other type of threat as I train my dogs. The pups in the photo are about eight months old and have never been in with this group of goats. I started with them on long lines, and then at liberty when they settled in and figured it out. Late into this training session, they went back to acting like pups, and it was time to leave. As Blue spun toward me, I spoke to him so that he would look at me and offered him my Stop Sign hand cue. He stopped, I verbally marked his behavior, and invited him to me with my upturned hand, which is also a cue he knows. His partner knows that any time a dog gets marked for a behavior, all the dogs nearby get paid (reinforced) as well. So, marking Blue for stopping worked as a recall for her: both dogs were fast, both dogs stopped and got paid, and EVERYONE was happy. Nine-second video. There is no need to ever tell a dog he is wrong about anything; change the environment to change the behavior.

First of all, barking is communication; it isn’t good or bad, and is never something I scold a dog for. LGDs are bred to treat new things with caution and suspicion. Why wouldn’t an LGD bark at something new?!

In doing their job as defenders of their property, their front-line tool is barking, often followed by lunging toward a predator, growling, barking, backing up, lunging, and barking again. This is all designed to deter a predator from coming any closer, and this sequence is the safest way for the dog to do this.

But the new livestock is not a predator, not a threat, you say.....how is the dog to come to understand this?

When I introduce new livestock to LGDs, my goal is that “nothing happens”. I do this introduction with a fence between the dogs and livestock, and I keep it this way until the livestock are bored with my dogs, as are the dogs with the livestock: This is what “nothing happens” looks like.

When I walk into the field next to the livestock, my good dogs are likely to charge that direction and sound the alarm; that makes sense to me! I may walk towards the livestock and move along the fence line between the barking dogs and the critter. This helps in interrupting the noisy, fast behavior of the dogs, and it lets them know that I don’t consider the animals a worry.

Note: My body language tells a story to the dogs that they understand. They will NOT accept the new livestock because I told them they were OK. LGDs draw their own conclusions, but allowing them to watch me adds a little more information for them to consider.

Then, I offer the dogs something even more interesting to do than throwing threats at the new animals. And yes, sometimes it is easier to do this one dog at a time, but not always. If that second dog can be part of showing interest in walking away, that is helpful. If that second dog fuels the fire, making barking and energy build rather than diffuse, that isn’t helpful. Try it, being ready (prepared, leashes maybe?) to switch to Plan B without even breaking stride: no bad dogs, let's do something else, dogs.

In my mind, the chatter goes something like this:

“Yep, I get it. Those things are strange and new, thanks for letting me know. But, hey, maybe we should go on an adventure. Wanna take a walk with me? That might be more fun. No? Too enthralled with barking? How about if I snap on a leash, pop something tasty in your mouth, and then are you ready for an adventure yet? No? Well, let's take a break for now and try this again after you’ve had some time to think.”

The Three D’s

Distance

Duration

Distraction

These are my training tools of choice.

What about just telling the dog to knock it off?! Well, here’s the deal about that. Dogs form associations with things all on their own, even if that isn’t how you would see it.

Dog barks at the sheep.

Dog gets punished.

New sheep are now BAD SHEEP.

After all, things were going just fine before the new animals came along.

Both these dogs were successful LGDs only three short months prior; they came back to me after being sold. The behavior you see here is heartbreaking and completely preventable through appropriate management. They learned an association with something they found aversive and the livestock they lived with. At first, it was just about sheep, but they came to feel the same way about all the livestock on my property, even if they didn't live with them. It is not possible to unring this bell.

In my positive reinforcement scenario, the dog gets acknowledged and thanked for doing his job – barking, growling, whatever – and is then encouraged to let that go for now in favor of doing some other part of his normal guarding routine on the ranch. This fosters a neutral response to the new livestock – and this is what I want. I don’t want to create interest in the new animals. Instead, I want the dog to see them as “wallpaper”, just a part of life on the ranch.

Why would I attempt to tell an LGD that he can act as a guardian sometimes, but not other times? That would make no sense at all, and put me in conflict with my dog. I don’t want to STOP the barking behavior of the dog; I want to REPLACE it with a different aspect of how guardians do their job. And I want them to WANT this rather than to avoid something else.

Given appropriately managed time together from across the fence, and then in with the animals when all is boring, the dogs and livestock generally form an affinity for each other because that’s how it goes with LGDs who know their job and livestock who learn the dogs will protect them.

People don’t ever, ever get to decide when or if this happens because it is part of the complex social behavior of animals – animals behaving as they were bred to do. But I can and do manage the environment around the dogs and livestock to foster this bonding.

Keep it simple. It isn’t about getting a bigger stick to change behavior – scolding, shock collars, bark collars, tethering – it is about coming alongside animals to foster and support their naturally occurring behaviors that you like while manipulating the environment in ways that discourage naturally occurring behaviors that you don’t want.

The rest of this story

I am an author and a dog trainer. I love to craft stories; sharing my journey with dogs is my favorite subject to write about. More stories are swirling around in my head than I will live long enough to write, but even though this is true, I often find it challenging to focus on just one thing and get it on paper. Part of what gets in my way in this process is that doing what I do, in working with owners and dogs, is often emotionally challenging and taxing, particularly if I poke my head up on Facebook. When I feel hurt or afraid, my crafting words elude me. Recently, though, I was given a spark of inspiration from an unexpected place, and this post is the result. This is what happened:

I worked briefly with a new training client, and in the process, asked him not to allow someone else to use an electric collar while on his property. He agreed to do his best in this, but what occurred to me later is that if the visiting person has a tool she believes in (a bark collar), there is an obligation to present her with an alternative option for her to consider rather than asking her to stop doing something. Too late to assist this person, I wrote a set of instructions about what I would do instead.

Positive reinforcement training is applicable to people, too. My goal should not be to try to stop her behavior; rather, it is to teach a new skill to replace it. Makes sense, right? It is true with dogs, and it is true with people.

I am blessed to be able to do the work that I do, but sometimes a little shoring up is needed, and it is always appreciated.

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