ByAnna Abney
LGDs are still dogs & thus still fall under the same principles of learning theory as any other dog. Behaviors which are rewarded are more likely to occur again and behaviors which fail to be rewarded will eventually disappear. Where they differ, however, is in their motivations and their desire to engage with you. Even LGD breeds kept as pets (which some breeds are better suited to than others) are quite independent. They are typically very aloof with strangers & will make assessments on who/what they consider a threat without any input from the handler. They bond very deeply & love very strongly, but this does not translate into a dog that has much interest in what you want. They aren't very playful, & they don't tend to do activities which are "a waste of energy". Their instinct is to be calm, conserve energy, and be vigilant so as to spring into action the moment a threat is perceived (& this explosion is a sight to behold! It's indescribable seeing a large, seemingly lazy dog that appears to be asleep leap to her feet & charge the fence line at 35 mph making a sound that is like a cross between the roar of a bear & the roar of a train engine). They also have a very low metabolism & need very little food for their size, so their caloric needs are also low. They have decent food drive but it's very context driven & if they're not super hungry & don't have better things to do (like nap or patrol for coyotes, which they do A LOT) they're not necessarily going to consider your treats worth actually working to earn (although they will happily take it "for free"). They've been bred to have little or no prey drive so chasing things and playing with toys doesn't do much for them past puppyhood. When we introduce our 8 week old pups to half a dozen two week old goat kids, which are tiny little things not much taller than a cat and which bounce, run erratically, leap off of things, and make loud squeaky noises, our typical LGD pup will watch with some interest & then usually go play with its littermates or ask its mother to nurse or otherwise show no inclination whatsoever to play with or engage the goat kids in any way. Try sticking 8 week old Labs or GSDs in with stock that young, small, and active and you will get a VERY different reaction
The other area in which LGDs differ in their motivations from other dogs is in their naturally high defense drive. When in defense mode, a stranger can have the best steak, the coolest toy, or the most fun demeanor in the world & the dog does not care because in that moment, all the dog wants is for the stranger to GO AWAY. An LGD will do anything to make that happen, including attack. It's a little like having a fear aggressive dog except these dogs are not afraid. Their defense drive is to fear what a herding breed's herding instinct is to hunting; related to, derived from, but no longer the same thing. When it comes to fight or flight, an LGD has a vastly minimized flight instinct & a highly exaggerated fight instinct. The ONLY way they will settle back down is if the perceived threat goes away. Most other breeds used to guard or protect have to be carefully trained to increase their confidence & their "nerve" as they will naturally flee when their defense drive is triggered. Different breeds have different levels of defense drive, with Great Pyrenees tending to be on the lowest end with a high tolerance for strangers & Caucasian Ovcharkas are on the highest end with a temperament that calls for active aggression toward strangers. My breed, Central Asian Shepherds, are very similar to Caucasians but are a step or two down the scale because they give a bigger warning display before biting.
Of course socialization is ESSENTIAL for these dogs to increase their tolerance of strangers (especially strange dogs) to a level so that they can be handled safely in public. I start socializing the pups we breed literally from day one & it should continue WELL past the normal window closing at around four months. I recommend maintaining roughly the same level of socialization until the dog is 18 months old. My dogs are reasonable & calm in public around strangers. But I never for one second forget what kind of dogs I have so I ALWAYS reinforce eye contact & focus on me, sitting or lying down calmly, & ignoring the people & dogs around them even in close proximity. I've actually had someone literally trip over Astrid's face (my fawn rough coated bitch who is very no-nonsense) while she was lying beside my chair & she merely sighed & closed her eyes & did not otherwise move. She got a BIG handful of beef jerky for that. It's very important that my dogs understand the difference between stupid, rude humans & threatening humans. They learn that stupid, rude humans are just something to be ignored. Lastly & probably most importantly, I DO NOT take my dogs into situations where they are likely to decide they need to handle business unless it is appropriate that they handle it, such as when we're walking late at night & we're approached by an obvious meth addict looking for trouble. I do not go to dog parks. I do not require that my dogs be petted by everyone who asks (sometimes they're cool with it, sometimes they'd rather not). I do not take them into elevators which contain other dogs or a densely packed group of people. I do not allow people to swarm, corner, or otherwise trap them. When leaving them in the truck while we're out somewhere, I park away from other vehicles so that there is less chance of someone deciding the big fluffy dog looks nice to pet (despite the obvious & loud growling...I do not understand why people think that if the dog isn't baring its teeth, it must be friendly. CAS almost never bare their teeth at strangers. Teeth baring is for telling off subordinate young pups, not for guarding.) And when we have a weaker person or dog with us, such as my disabled twin sister, a young child, a pup, or my little 9 pound terrier, I am even more vigilant, as they light up much more readily when protecting the weakest members of their group. It is completely unrealistic to have a dog like this & expect it to behave like a more pet-like dog. If what you want is a dog that will never have problems with strange people or strange dogs without much effort on your part, PLEASE don't get an LGD breed, especially if you live in an urban or suburban area.
Yes, I do occasionally use "corrections" on my dogs. Not for obedience or tricks or anything that I would cue them to do, but rather for when they have decided someone/something is a threat & I've asked them to stand down & they have chosen not to. Yes, they DO CHOOSE TO DISOBEY in this sort of instance. This is because they *have* to be able to make decisions in the absence of human direction & input so they have been deliberately bred to do so. If my dogs decide the pizza man is a bad guy, it's not that they don't know to sit when told in his presence, nor is it that they're afraid of him, but that they have decided making him go away is more important than sitting. This is exactly the same thing as a Saluki breaking his stay because a deer ran by or a Bloodhound dropping her head to sniff while heeling. I can expose them to as many delivery people as possible while rewarding them for staying back from the door in a sit, down, or stand (which I do quite a lot from puppyhood on, including inviting friends the dogs don't know over to pretend to be delivery people or just as normal guests. When the dogs are young & still friendly like any puppy, they get their treats from the visitor/deliver person & then later on if it's someone they don't know they get their treats from me), but that one time the guy rubs them the wrong way (or the deer dashes past too close or the scent trail is just too fresh), their natural instinct is going to kick in & override their training. Attacking the intruder is natural for them. Ignoring him is not. Ignoring me in this situation is natural for them. Following my orders when they clash with their own instincts is not. Because this is a life or limb situation, I MUST be able to shut them down. Usually a verbal correction (the Wrath of Mom roar) will suffice, but I have had to grab scruffs or twist ears on occasion & I have employed a prong collar a time or two, not because of some mythical idea that I think I am "speaking wolf" to them, but because such things are unpleasant & aversive & get their attention & stop the undesirable behavior in its tracks.
When training, EVERYTHING is positive & fun & most of all brief as they get bored very quickly. They actually find overlong training sessions to be more aversive than a loud "correction" (again, I do not use "corrections" at all in training, only in dangerous situations) if the level of shut down they achieve is any indication. Ask them to sit 10 times in a row, even with filet mignon in my hand, & they roll their eyes, flop to the floor, & mutter under their breath about how lame it is, they KNOW how to do it, they've shown me they know how to do it, & can we please just move on with it already? They really enjoy rally because it always changes & they don't like competition obedience because it's always the same. I often use stopping a training session as a reward for working with me & it works better than any treat. "Okay, if I sit half a dozen times right beside her without rolling back, she'll leave me alone & I can get back to keeping an eye on things." They learn complicated concepts extremely quickly & they're incredible problem solvers (try keeping a known escape artist in a fence sometime) but it's clear to that even when they're having fun, they consider it a light little pastime & do not have the focus & passion of a more "obedience minded" type of dog. Those of us who have put obedience titles on our LGD breeds work *very* hard to do so & often wonder why we did not go the Border Collie or Golden Retriever or Belgian Malinois route, lol.
When it comes to obedience, there really is no other way than positive reinforcement to gain compliance with these dogs. If you start yanking them around & yelling at them, they just quit, & they're so powerful & tolerant of crap from "their people" the level of pain you would have to employ to gain compliance is so high that you're more likely to evoke a defensive response against yourself as you are to get the dog to do what it was told. Obedience doesn't matter to them much, so making it even less fun by using +P & -R just makes them even less inclined to do it. For LGDs, corrections have their place in working situations, such as chasing livestock. Although negative punishment works better, sometimes it's simply physically hard to stop them when you're got them on a longline, so a prong is employed just so you can *get* them to their timeout area if they begin to chase. It doesn't take much for them to learn to use their strength to just yank the line from your hands & continue their game. But for the most part, livestock training comes from careful management during their looooong puppyhood (at least 2 years) where they are not given opportunities to screw up & where they are rewarded for correct behavior. You don't leave a young dog unsupervised with young stock at all, & you tend to leave a young dog with your tough stock, like the bucks, or the ornery old nanny doe. If you have an adult dog who will teach the puppy, you are golden, because the adult will correct any misbehavior immediately & precisely without you having to do much. Chasing or play behavior with the stock results in immediate removal to a "jail pen", which is also where the pup stays when you're not there to supervise. It's inside the area with the livestock, so the young dog can see, hear, smell, & interact through the fence, but can't engage in those incorrect behaviors. When you have the pup with the stock, you remain as well, usually with the pup on a longline, & you praise & sometimes treat for proper calm behavior, *especially* things like lying down when a goat approaches & going belly up, not reacting when a zippy little kid bounces past, retreating when a mama doe jerks her head towards the pup, etc. Often treats are not needed since simply being with the stock is a valuable reward in & of itself. Therefore being removed to the jail pen is a powerful negative punishment which really strikes home with these dogs. Their primary motivation in life is to guard. All else is secondary.
