LIVESTOCK GUARDIAN DOG .........

February 2019
After a year of not blogging for various reasons I am going to try to restart my diary of our life in Portugal  (mainly for my own benefit as my memory is atrocious!).
Just before Christmas we had yet another dog attack on our flock - one lamb (Paul) was disembowelled, another (Steve) bitten through the back of his neck (we thought he was dead but he pulled through) and others had less severe bites. We called the GNR (now that our animals are registered and legal), he said if it happens again to catch the dogs and call him to take them away. Since the attack our animals have been put in the shed overnight and we find it very hard to relax when we're away from home.
One of our neighbours allows his dog to wander off quinta, unfortunately it's taken to coming here. She's not actually chasing our sheep but she worries them, they panic and run around or huddle in a group. We're concerned as we have pregnant ewes and we know that stressed pregnant ewes are prone to dying (we had four die a couple of years ago when dogs got into their field). Our neighbour won't  have it that his dog is still doing harm, all he can focus on is the fact that she's not chasing them he can't understand that a sheep can die from stress.
So our long term solution is ... a Livestock Guardian Dog.
Meet Netty...

Netty (short for Nettle)

She's an Estrela Mountain dog (an ancient Portuguese dog breed that instinctively protects their flock and will fight off wolves!), perhaps not Netty yet, as she is only seven weeks old!

TRAINING NETTY:
We've read up on how to train your LGD; it is important that they are bonded with their flock from a very young age (preferably under eight weeks). We've had Netty for three days, she has been sleeping out on the decking (she is not a house dog - this is so hard ... she's still getting used to being taken away from her siblings and mum) . We're currently bonding her with us and our animals (dogs, cat, chickens, ducks etc). Gradually she will be spending more and more time with the flock, until she's living with them day and night (some of the experts say to keep them with the flock from day one, but that seems a bit harsh).
Today was Netty's first day in the field with the sheep. We made her a little run so that she was safe from any aggressive sheep or goats. Unfortunately Netty had other ideas .....

She's small enough to squeeze through the stock fence !!! 

So we had to reinforce her perimeter. She still wasn't keen - she had her head back and she was actually howling like a wolf (the 'experts' say to ignore whining, barking (and presumably howling) and to only go back to the dog when it's calm). We're only leaving her in the field for short periods, the goats and sheep seem quite inquisitive.