How to introduce new pets to a dog that has killed before?

With a few more details it seems you are in a very tough situation. I am not a dog trainer and don't claim to be. But my dogs mostly do what I want when I need them to. I have two Great Pyrenees who are not only stubborn but tend to think they know best. I do everything with positive reinforcement and in a situation like this where one animal could get hurt I would use separation until I started consistently seeing the behavior I wanted. Mulling this over I wondered if you couldn't get a dog pen for the dog....not for round the clock but for when the goats are out. If it were me I would start with an hour or so at a time with the dog in the pen and the goats loose. Teach your dog the "look at me" command. I am sure you can find it in YouTube. Then when you take the dog back and forth to kennel her while the goats are loose, move her from the house and back again with a leash. Use the "look at me" command to keep her attention on you and away from the goats. As you have success expand the time to include walking by the goats with her on leash. Reward all behavior that stays on you instead of the goats with the yummiest treat possible. That's one idea. Or start by merely rewarding her good behavior in the pen (ignoring the goats) and when she can consistently ignore the gates even if they walk by then move on to leashing her and walking outside the pen. I hope that made sense. OR .....just get a dog pen and pen her while the goats are free. Just go straight to always keeping them separate. Training is going to be long and MUST be consistent. I am working on a behavior with my male Great Pyrenees now that totally goes against what he wants. I've been doing it for two months and have had 2-3 successes. But every night I work on it again, relentlessly. I am hoping the routine will finally win and we have success. Which is another thing. If you could get a dog pen to use and set up a schedule/routine like...for two hours in the morning the goats are loose and the dog is in pen it will help in training. All animals like routine and most can develop routines with a little encouragement. Good luck!

Junebuggena gave you excellent advice on how to train her. The "leave it" command and "look at me" are to me two of the most valuable commands you can ever teach. Our female Great Pyrenees who will gladly counter surf as soon as our back is turned will sit and salivate and drool until she is released from a "leave it' . Our male is getting there.

Birdydeb said:

Junebuggena gave you excellent advice on how to train her. The "leave it" command and "look at me" are to me two of the most valuable commands you can ever teach. Our female Great Pyrenees who will gladly counter surf as soon as our back is turned will sit and salivate and drool until she is released from a "leave it' . Our male is getting there.

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I wholeheartedly agree. It sounds like your mom's dog really lacks impulse control. Once you start training "leave it" and "look at me", the dog will (hopefully) eventually learn to make better choices for herself; remaining calm in the presence of livestock rather than getting excited is what you'd hope to achieve.

There are a great many really wonderful dog training resources on the YouTubes. Look for Kikopup.

junebuggena said:

Start with a refresher course on the basics of sit, come, and stay. Then progress to 'leave it.' When she is consistently responding indoors, move outside near one of problem critters. Then start back with the basics. When she listens well, move closer to the animal and work on 'leave it'. If she starts her usual behavior, move away and regain her focus. Then try again. The goal is to move closer and closer, until she is right up to the fence and still responding to you. Then repeat with the next species, until she ignores them all. You will never be able to trust her alone with the animals, but she should get to the point where she can follow you around while you do chores and she will be fine. Shar peis need structure in their lives. All dogs need food, water, and shelter, but they also need exercise, both mental and physical.

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I've kept up with her "come" and "sit" commands, but she hasn't quite gotten the idea of "stay". She understands "stop/leave it," though, and she will obey a "stay" command unless there's something really interesting/exciting going on. She does okay when I'm around to constantly give her commands to stop and such. I'm not she will ever be able to really listen to me and obey me even if I'm not standing over her though. She really only truly listens to men, even if the man is somebody she barely knows, but with women, she acts likes it's all a game. She will obey a woman's command, but while doing so she'll act like she's playing(Such as, if I tell her to stop what she's doing or go away, she'll get in a playing stance, wag her tail, then jump and run away). It doesn't matter how firm, loud, confident, etc. my voice is. I will try doing what you've said, but I'm worried my efforts won't be worth anything. She considers my mom to be her master, and my mom lets her do whatever she wants. I tried walking her for an hour each day for about two months, and her energy levels decreased and she became much more manageable, but I had to stop doing that once my college classes started back up. What I'll probably end up doing is a combination of the two; walk her everyday as well as reinforce commands to teach her to leave my animals alone. Thank you very much!

Birdydeb said:

With a few more details it seems you are in a very tough situation. I am not a dog trainer and don't claim to be. But my dogs mostly do what I want when I need them to. I have two Great Pyrenees who are not only stubborn but tend to think they know best. I do everything with positive reinforcement and in a situation like this where one animal could get hurt I would use separation until I started consistently seeing the behavior I wanted. Mulling this over I wondered if you couldn't get a dog pen for the dog....not for round the clock but for when the goats are out. If it were me I would start with an hour or so at a time with the dog in the pen and the goats loose. Teach your dog the "look at me" command. I am sure you can find it in YouTube. Then when you take the dog back and forth to kennel her while the goats are loose, move her from the house and back again with a leash. Use the "look at me" command to keep her attention on you and away from the goats. As you have success expand the time to include walking by the goats with her on leash. Reward all behavior that stays on you instead of the goats with the yummiest treat possible. That's one idea. Or start by merely rewarding her good behavior in the pen (ignoring the goats) and when she can consistently ignore the gates even if they walk by then move on to leashing her and walking outside the pen. I hope that made sense. OR .....just get a dog pen and pen her while the goats are free. Just go straight to always keeping them separate. Training is going to be long and MUST be consistent. I am working on a behavior with my male Great Pyrenees now that totally goes against what he wants. I've been doing it for two months and have had 2-3 successes. But every night I work on it again, relentlessly. I am hoping the routine will finally win and we have success. Which is another thing. If you could get a dog pen to use and set up a schedule/routine like...for two hours in the morning the goats are loose and the dog is in pen it will help in training. All animals like routine and most can develop routines with a little encouragement. Good luck!

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Thank you for the advice! I can't pen her up though. She's a very good jumper; the fence would have to be at least 5 feet tall. I don't have the money to buy a pen that tall for somebody else's problem dog. Not to mention my mom would be complaining about it every time I turn around, either because it's and "eyesore" in the yard or because she's worried the dog will get too hot, etc.

Clio320i said:

I wholeheartedly agree. It sounds like your mom's dog really lacks impulse control. Once you start training "leave it" and "look at me", the dog will (hopefully) eventually learn to make better choices for herself; remaining calm in the presence of livestock rather than getting excited is what you'd hope to achieve.

There are a great many really wonderful dog training resources on the YouTubes. Look for Kikopup.

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She does, she's just like my mom. My mom decided she was going to get a lab puppy a couple months ago, was planning on meeting somebody and everything, but luckily I made a big enough fuss about it that she decided not to. My mom is a good mom and a good person, but she severely lacks impulse control - if she wants it, she's gonna get it, and then I'm left to do the dirty work.


Thank you everybody for your advice! It's very helpful. I think she might've been used as a hunting-type dog, even though she's not really the right breed for that. Back when my mom first got her, and she was going after all of my animals, she wouldn't actually kill them in the sense that she'd tear them up or bite them. She would chase them, and chase them, and chase them until they died from exhaustion. The bodies would always end up on the back porch, and when I'd make the gruesome discovery of their body, she would stand by them and wag her tail. She also knows that there are wild chickens living next to our property, so during one of the many times she's escaped, she actually managed to grab a rooster by his neck and brought it back to us. The rooster wasn't injured and ran off not too long after we got it out of her mouth. After about a year or two of living here, I'm not sure what made her learn what chickens are my chickens/chickens she can't touch, but she stopped going after my chickens. She completely ignores them now. I often let the chickens out and leave them out all day, with her running around in the yard, and I haven't had a single incident in the past two years. Interestingly, she won't chase off the wild hens that come into our yard, but she will chase off the wild roosters(But perhaps that's because she sees me running the roosters out of the yard and not the hens).

But she never got used to my horse. I don't know why. I never really trained her to leave the chickens alone, other than telling her to stop it whenever she chased them. But yet I tried training her to leave the horse alone, but every chance she got, she'd go after her. My horse is also the only thing she's ever injured too. Hopefully the goats will go better, she tends to leave things alone if they don't run or show a fearful reaction, and my bigger goat has been showing aggressive behavior to her whenever she's at the fence trying to get to them. She actually runs from my baby emu, even though he's the same size as the goats, because he's not afraid of her and actually runs towards her to greet her. I'm mostly worried for my smaller goat. They're both babies of the same age, but the smaller goat was a runt and she's much more passive than the other one.

You're welcome. Sometimes the best "fix" to a problem is to mull all advice and fit it to your situation. That's what I usually do. Good luck and hope things turn out well.