Friday November 8th, 2024: Bailey gave birth to her first puppy. When I came back on Saturday morning, there were 5 more. (She had 8 total but 2 died at birth.)
The sire is Snowball. Bailey’s dam is Nutmeg and the sire is the neighbor’s dog, which is not a livestock guardian dog. Bailey was born in October of 2023.
There are 5 males and 1 female. One of the pups has the light orange color of Bailey and Nutmeg. (I want to breed for this.) The others are white and as you can see one or two have gray patches.
My plan is to train these puppies to bond with the sheep. If I get chickens next year I will bond them with the chickens too, or at least train them not to chase and catch them.
My current method of training is to keep them with the rams and wethers. After about 2 years of that, all the while training them not to chase or pounce or jump, then I will expose them to lambs in a controlled environment where I can train them not to approach the lambs.
Eventually I’ll put them to work protecting the ewe flock.
If you’d like to buy some puppies, let me know. I should caution you that these dogs are not going to be happy unless they can be outdoors all the time and have plenty of land they can hunt on at dawn and dusk. If you get them young you can bond them to your family or whatever animals you want to protect. If you wait until I train them, they should be ready to protect sheep.
Also, these dogs bark a lot at the wee hours when there is danger. Not a good match for quiet neighborhoods.