Daizy's Story: the long version (Still Waiting for Adoption)

*Click here for Daizy's adoption profile

*Click here for Daizy's Story: the short version.

Daizy was my first dog. I never knew how much I loved dogs until I brought her home. I had recently moved to a rural property and wanted to get livestock. Many people recommended that I get a Great Pyrenees or other livestock guardian dog (LGD) that could also be a family pet. I did some breed research and decided to look for an older dog. I was going to wait until spring to get one so I could get some good fencing up and do more research. However, someone told me about a 2 year old GP nearby that was being rehomed by her owner.

I went to meet Daizy and fell in love with. her. She was such a sweetheart! Her owners had to keep her in a 10x10 kennel because she kept wandering away. They couldn't keep her in the house because she was so large and kept knocking over their small children. They loved her very much, especially the father, but they knew they couldn't keep her in the kennel and they didn't have a lot of other options. They also had to keep a shock collar on her to keep her from barking at night and disturbing the neighbors.

I didn't want to leave her like that so I decided not to wait until spring and bring her home. She was not trained as a livestock guardian but had been with horses until she started wandering. She had some food aggression around the horses but was fine with them after feeding time. My plan was to keep her in a 30x70 run until I could train her on a wireless fence with an e-collar. My neighbor was a dog trainer and was confident we could train her to respect the property boundaries over time and train her to do everything else I needed.

I joined several Livestock Guardian groups and I quickly learned that a large number of LGDs will blow right through the shock on an e-collar when sufficiently motivated (like chasing a predator), but would not be able to return home because of the shock. They would also be at a disadvantage in a fight with a predator because they would get the shock but not the predator. There are also potential side effects like the dog becoming fearful and aggressive toward all beeping noises--phones, watches, doorbells, etc.

I also quickly learned that Daizy was not good at walking on a leash, was terrified of thunder and storms in general, was an excellent digger, and hated other dogs. She kept digging out of the run and fence fighting with my neighbor's dogs about 1/2 mile away, and beyond if we didn't notice she was missing in time. I filled all her holes and reinforced the bottom of the fence, which worked fine until one thunder storm she learned she could jump over the fence. There was no containing her after that and I had no choice but to put her on a tether.

At the time I knew a tether was not ideal, but I didn't know all of the potential problems a tether could cause. There is, of course, the danger of getting caught in the tether, or having it come lose and drag behind her. If a predator came by it would keep her from protecting herself. And as I saw, over time it can cause dogs to become more aggressive. It was all I could do for the short term though.

My husband worked fast and furious and fenced off 1/2 an acre with very sturdy (and expensive) fencing and (later) we lined the bottom and top with hot wire. This finally worked to keep her contained.

In the meantime I had learned from the Livestock Guardian Dogs and Positive Training Methods Facebook page a lot about LGDs and positive training methods to work with them. It was a great place for support. I started reading books and watching videos on training and animal behavior so I could work with Daizy.

Daizy was not very food motivated, which made it hard to work with her. I started training her to leash walk just with praise and by stopping when she would pull on the leash. It worked fairly well and she got much better at not pulling. But if a car or other distraction came around it was really difficult to hold on. I had to wear gloves to walk her. I ended up taking a recommendation from someone online to buy a Walk Your Dog With Love front pull harness, which was a wonderful tool. I was pregnant even and it allowed me to prevent her from dragging me along. (I highly recommend this harness, and they have great customer service. The front of mine broke after over a year of using it and they sent me a whole new harness at their cost).

I taught Daizy basic commands like "sit" and "down". I wanted to teach her "speak" and "shush", but she really never barked unless there was a threat (read: car, animal, bird, feather blowing in the wind, etc), and she went over threshold so fast that  I couldn't teach her what speak meant, so I couldn't really teach what "shush" meant either. (I'm sure an experienced person could have done this).

I also began desensitizing her to me touching her feet so that I could trim her nails. They were getting very long and out of hand and she hated anyone touching her paws. I got to where I could trim one or two nails in a  session so I just started trimming two a day to try and get the quick to recede.  (The  Nail Maintenance for Dogs Facebook group was a good resource for this).

Since Daizy was intended to be a livestock guardian I also began training her with other animals. My adult cats would not let her anywhere near them so I couldn't really use them to train her. Someone dropped some kittens off by my house that we took in so I was able to train her to like the kittens. I would bring the kittens and a bagful of treats near her and reward her for being calm. She would sniff them and then ignore them and she got to be pretty good and calm with them. The only mishap we had was when my 2 year old daughter accidentally dropped a kitten in Daizy's food dish. She snarled and growled at the kitten which hightailed it and she was fine as soon as it was gone, and didn't hold a grudge about it the next time the kitten came around.

I also got some baby chicks and had them under a heat lamp in my garage. I brought one chick at a time in a clear plastic bin where Daizy could see but not reach it and reward her whenever she would look away or ignore the chick. I would bring it closer and closer until I could hold it by her and she would sniff it and turn away. Then I added two chicks to the bin and then three. She got really good. When the chicks came off heat I would bring their cage out where Daizy could watch but not reach them just to get her used to seeing how they behaved. She stayed nice and calm and just watched them. Someone also gave me some ducks and I started training Daizy with them in a similar manner.

One day I had them out there and I was inside eating lunch. Daizy was barking particularly persistently so I went to see what she was barking at. She was staying in one place staring me straight in the eyes. She usually runs around when barking at something so I thought it was strange. Then I realized she was standing right in front of the chick's cage and that the door was open and one of the chicks was out running around--a danger to the chick because of my cats. I was so proud of her for alerting me to the problem like a true guardian! One thing I learned about LGDs from her, and from reading, is that it is very important for them that things stay where they belong and if anything is out of place they make a big fuss about it. (Like after I added goats she made sure I knew something was wrong when the goats broke their hay feeder).

She even got much better at not jumping up on my children. She was always really hyper when we first would go to her or she would first meet someone, but after a few minutes she calmed down. I could let her walk all around my 7 month old baby and 3 year old daughter without knocking them down and they got to really like her.


Although we had made some  good progress I began to wonder if my home was the best place for her. She was still really hyper around my kids so they wouldn't give her any attention. Her aggression toward other dogs was a really big problem because LGDs are supposed to work in pairs for their good health and safety. If she would not accept other dogs I could not get her a partner. I thought maybe I could let her have a litter of puppies and she would accept her own pup as a partner, but hadn't decided on that yet. But it wasn't long before I decided her temperament should not be bred and I had her fixed immediately so if I did rehome her no one else could breed her either.

Next I bought two goat kids. My children could raise them for 4H and sell them at the county fair and I could begin training Daizy on some real livestock.  When I first got the kids Daizy was still on a tether. I put the goats in her old pen, with her tethered next to it. This way she was able to get used to them and observe their behavior without being able to reach them.

At first she was very roused by them and kept barking and posturing toward them, but it didn't last long. She got used to them and began to lay along the fence as close to them as she could like a good guardian would. The only issues were related to her food aggression. During feeding times she would bark and posture and appear to be very ferocious. One goat in particular really frustrated her because she knew Daizy could not reach her. She would completely ignore Daizy and as a result Daizy elevated her responses even more.

As she started to calm down we started to trust her more. She would get really excited when I needed to herd the ducks (which free ranged during the day) into the pens, but other than that she didn't seem too interested in them. Once my husband put her in with the ducks off leash so he could do some maintenance on her dog house and after a few minutes of initial fun-chasing, she laid under a table and just watched them. I was hopeful that I could keep them together, but discovered while filling duck food that it would not be an option unless I could find a way to completely hide the duck food from her. It appeared that if there was any food anywhere at any time, Daizy was going to guard it.

When we first finished the pasture fence I tethered Daizy inside it with the goats so they could get used to being together in such a way that the goats could get away if she decided to chase. I tethered the goats some distance away during feeding times so that there would be no food fights. After several days of watching Daizy and the goats lay down together during the day I started letting Daizy off tether with them. I saw no issues so I was hoping that she had transitioned to being a true guardian. I figured I could manage the resource guarding if that was the only issue.

Daizy did dig out of the new fence once during a thunder storm. That's when I added the electrical wire and staked down the bottom of the fence. She never got out of the fence after that. I did try moving some chickens into the pasture with her as well but that proved to be too much for her chasing instincts so I put them back in the other pen. (As a side note, it would have been a good idea for me to look into calming techniques to comfort her during storms, but I didn't even know that was a thing at the time).

Everything seemed wonderful. Daizy would still chase the goats in the evenings when she was most energetic (evening is like first thing in the morning for us). She listened to me when I told her to be calm ("calm" was a cue I had been teaching her throughout the whole process, giving her treats and petting her while she was just laying and watching things and saying "calm").

I wanted to be able to get her a companion dog because LGDs are supposed to work in pairs, and I thought it would help her burn off the excess energy and leave the goats alone, but I could not get another dog within 100 feet of her without her wanting to fight it. I had a consultation and a few appointments with a behaviorist to help me counter-condition her to other dogs. We were making a little progress but everything got interrupted shortly after.

When we shaved our goats in preparation for the county fair I discovered several puncture wounds in them that could only have been caused by Daizy. I was heartbroken because I had just made a post in the Positive Training group about how far she'd come and that I thought I would be able to keep her. The puncture wounds were like a big punch in the gut. That, and when I tried to add a rooster to her paddock she went ballistic and chased it all over the pasture (thankfully I beat her to it and put it back with the rest of the chickens).

I now had no way to separate her from the goats without a tether so once again I had to chain her. I hated her on the chain. I knew it wasn't safe, and by then I had seen that being on a tether increased her aggressive reactions when food or other triggers were present. I didn't want to make her worse. I thought about selling the goats early but if I did that she would be all alone in the pasture and that wasn't really a good solution either.

I had also noticed how she would linger by the gate and stare at the house all day just waiting for humans to come out an play with her. I finally decided that I was doing her no favors trying to keep her as a guardian any longer. Clearly she preferred to be around people and did not do well with other animals. I could not keep her as a house pet because of my small children and because I am not able to put a fence around my house/yard area.

I tried for a short time to find a new home for her myself, but I didn't feel right keeping her on a tether. I tried to get some rescues to take her but none of the Akbash, Great Pyrenees, or other LGD rescues would take her--they were too saturated already (and the GP rescue said she didn't even look pyrenees even though that's what she was sold to me as. They were convinced she was a purebred Akbash. Many other experts and breeders said the same thing).

A local Akbash breeder contacted me after seeing one of my ads and told me her age and circumstances fit a litter of Akbash puppies that were stolen from her before they were old enough to be separated from their mother. Shortly after they were stolen several "Great Pyrenees" puppies were advertised and sold in the classifieds. I had no way to verify this was true but many of her behavior problems could be connected to early separation. It also made sense that her last owner truly thought she was a pyrenees but everyone else thought she was an Akbash.

But regardless of breed, I had the paperwork all ready to fill out for the local Humane Society when a local all breed rescue, Four Paws, contacted me and let me know they found a possible foster home for her. The fosters came to meet her and the male of the household fell in love with her (anyone who meets her does). His wife was a little hesitant but they took her that day.

This was a good arrangement because she had never been inside and wasn't house trained but they had a good-sized yard with a high, sturdy fence. They had young children but she couldn't knock them over if she was outside, and it was much better than being tethered. Both Akbash and Great Pyrenees have coats that are made for all sorts of weather and Daizy has a proper double coat so living outside was no problem. Being in a backyard she was able to get lots of interaction. She stayed there for several months, but unfortunately the night barking (Akbash are nocturnal) was too much for the neighbors so Four Paws took custody of her and that's where she is today.

Four Paws has had many inquiries about her, but unfortunately most are not suitable. For some reason a lot of people request her as a service dog. I'm just going to say that I think having an Akbash as a service dog is not a good idea. Too many of them have food aggression or will not tolerate strange dogs--not a good combo for a dog you need to take in public. She'd probably make an excellent *therapy* dog, for home comfort. Just not a service dog. She is very smart and learns quickly, after all. I believe she would house train really fast.

I think what she'd love most is a nice rural home with a fenced yard and a family with older children or no children. She could even do a more residential area if she was house trained and kept inside. I do think she'd be an amazing pet and I hope she can find a wonderful home!