Wintering an LGD (pics added on page 2)

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

Winter is now upon us and I've begun limiting my 40 ducks to a 12' X 16' fenced run attached to their 16' X 16' coop. If history repeats itself, we shall have another three to four feet of lake effect snow on the ground throughout most of the winter. Up to two feet is expected to be dumped on us Wednesday. The ducks will spend the winter eating, sleeping and preening. The pond and pasture will be buried in snow.

So, since my electro-net fences are going down and the coop and run are strong enough to provide protection for the ducks, I wonder what should I do with my six month great pyrenees LGD. Do I pen her separately with the ducks, or do I bring her inside the house for the winter?

 

[Countrywife]

You can bring her in the house for the winter if you want a house dog for the rest of her life. Get her a good dog house, put straw in it, the GP is a mountain dog, the coat is made for cold. Just provide the dog with good shelter, water, food and it should be ok. Whether or not you keep it with the ducks is up to you, but if you want a working dog, you do NOT want to bring it to the house for the winter, it will not want to go back to the field in the summer.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

do I bring her inside the house for the winter?

No!!

Give her a dry place out of the wind, and plenty of straw to burrow into, and she will be fine.

Real LGD's dont go inside houses. Only pets go inside houses​

 

[mekasmom]

Quote:
Do you have any other animals for her to stay with? She needs to bond with something. Goats? Cows? Sheep? A barn full of straw would please her only if she had animals to care for. If not, I would get a second dog or bring her into the house. She will be miserable with her flock put away out of reach.

Pyrs are very hard to housebreak, by the way.

 

[Bear Foot Farm]

One other thought:

If you DON'T pen her in some way, she will be gone as soon as she gets bored.
With that much snow, the fences will be no obstacle

 

[ametauss]

We found out even with goats, the GP needed his own compainion and so we got him a girlfriend.... now they're two happy pups.....

It is so cute to see them lumbering around the barn area playing and watching the flock....

Wish I could get them to stop eating eggs when they're bored...

We never bring working dogs into the house... that's what we have house dogs for...

 

[Rosalind]

*shrugs* My Pyr is happy to be either indoors with the indoor critters (our other dog, cats) or outdoors minding the poultry with the other dog. We bring him indoors at night when the poultry are put in their coop/barn anyway, and it's never been a problem getting him to go back to work. I just say, "Charlie, time to go to work" and he puts on his game face, looks very serious, marches out to the barn with me or DH, marches into the chicken area, inspects the water dishes and walks the perimeter before flopping in the straw. Stays there all day like a good boy, and while all my neighbors have lost entire flocks to predators, I've only lost a rare few.

He may be a pet, but for all that he is awesome at keeping possums, raccoons, hawks, fishers, foxes and coyotes out of my yard. He was 90% housebroken in two weeks and 100% housebroken in four weeks. He also pulls a draft cart on occasion.

My biggest problem is, he gets bored indoors. Gotta make sure they have a chore to do in the house, or else it's bye-bye couch cushions.

 

[Grillo]

Balance, it's not black or white. I'd say if you can keep her contained, provide a nice shelter and some space to rump around. Give it toys and take it with you at feed time and chores and he'll be fine. Rosalind below is a good example of balance. I would not bring the dog inside if he was meant to protect a flock miles away from home in large range, but I'm fairly sure this is not the case. Do tell down the line how he did, however you handle it.



Quote:

 

[Le Canard de Barbarie]

Decided to put the dog in a 4' X 8' pen located within the 8' X 16' three sided lean-to off the side of the coop. She can see the ducks through the fence. May increase the size of the pen to 8' X 8'. She has one heck of a winter coat on her along with straw to snuggle in, so the cold shouldn't affect her. Will have to take her for walks as she is in a confined space with little opportunity for exercise.

 

[cmjust0]

Our LGD loves nothing more than for it to be like 10 degrees outside. He's never happier than when he's completely frosted over -- literally. We're out there freezing our buns off and he's running laps around the barnyard, trying to get someone to play with him.

We're big inside-dog people, too.. We have five in the house, and I wouldn't dare leave any of them out in the cold we've had recently.

I can't imagine bringing the LGD in, though...he'd be miserable.