[stritafarm]

We use LGDs to protect our (still very small) flock in East Texas from coyotes and strays. The paragraph on animal behavior is one I wish everyone who works with animals, whether pets, stock, or working animals, would read and understand. If you think of animals as purely instinctual or if you anthropomorphize them and try to train them like children, you and the animal both are in for a bad time.

[aero-deck]

We have an LGD on our hobby farm and figuring out socialization is really hard. Despite raising her in the barn among goats, I did give her a fair amount of affection and now she is very people-motivated. What I realize now is that if you want the dog to be an employee then you must treat the dog like an employee. What makes this difficult is withholding the human desire/instinct to treat the dog like a pet. This is especially hard when friends and family come over and want to pet the big fluffy dog - telling them that they can't makes you seem like a monster.

[stritafarm]

Depending on the breed "people-motivation" may not be much of a problem, especially if your hobby farm is on the same land as your home. In practice if the dog is around people a lot it needs to be socialized for their safety. Also, certain breeds (ahem, pyrenees) are just people-motivated regardless and need to be explicitly trained to stay with the animals. (We selected pyrenees for this reason as they are far safer around family than most other LGD breeds.)

The pressure-release paradigm is helpful here: use her people-motivation to your advantage. Give her attention and affection around the goats, praise her when she runs off "threats" (even birds), but if she abandons them and (for example) comes to beg for food from your picnic be very gruff and cold until she returns to her charges.

One final note is that a dog on watch may look "lazy" or like they are not watching their charges, but dogs rely on different senses (less sight and more smell and sound) and have their own alert threshholds. Our LGDs sit on our patio all day unless something comes around, and then they are immediately alert to it and running it off. At night, they are patrolling.

[ryanblakeley]

You can give a working dog affection. It doesn't erode their ability to do a job. It's only an issue if you do it at the wrong time.

[dolmen]

Paragraph title: "Socialization and Bonding with the Sheep"