PyreneesExperiment--part1

Bette

I don't know how many of you are familiar with guardian dogs.  We use Great Pyrenees guardian dogs to protect our herds and flocks from predators such as coyotes, cougars, and birds of prey.  We usually pair up the dogs, and they spend most of their time with one herd.  For instance, Belle stays with the hens, Bert and Beau with the sheep, and Barks and Bette with the goats.
Goats and sheep are fairly similar, except that goats need copper, while copper is toxic for sheep.  Since we have free-choice mineral (meaning there's a tub, and the animals eat when they want/need mineral) program, we hadn't run sheep and goats together (meaning in the same field) because we figured either way, one group wouldn't be getting their mineral needs met.  A few months ago, my brother and I gave all the goats a copper bolus (basically a copper pill that's supposed to meet their copper need for a year) so that they could go in with sheep, and eat the same mineral, (without anyone being deficient or poisoned, yay!) and reduce our labor/management.

Barks and Bette, on their way to meet Bert and Beau.

From L-R: Daniel, Barks, Lucy, Bette, Beau, Bert.  (And Goats in the Distance.)

Bette with Sheep in the Distance

Anyway, the copper isn't the point.  It's that the other day, we put the sheep and goats, as well as their respective pairs of dogs in the same pasture for the first time.  Although Barks is the papa, and Bette, Bert and Beau are all litter mates, the pairs have little to no interaction usually.  We weren't sure what would happen--would they fight?  Stay apart?  Run as a pack and abandon their herds?  Would they fight and create different pairings?  The herd animals often self-segregate, so we were pretty curious to see what would happen.  (haha aren't you??)