Socializing livestock guardian dogs to humans

Hello there

My husband and I started a 4 acre farm on the coast of bc, where there are bears, cougars, and predators galore. We have a few chickens and turkeys, and are looking at adopting a friends 3 year old livestock guardian dog, as they do not currently have any livestock for the dog to guard and they don’t have the means to set up proper fencing.

The thing is, the dog is very protective of his property, and will bark and intimidate anyone who comes onto the property until the owners tell him the person is ok. Usually this would be fine, but we are going to have an air bnb on our property, and a farm stand, with people coming and going regularly.

It is my understanding the dog has never lunged at or bitten anyone, but I don’t want our guests scared to get out of their vehicles because of this massive dog barking at them, and I do not want his first bite to be on one of our guests.

We can fence in the air bnb and the parking space so the dog can roam the property but people have a dog free place to walk to, but I am wondering if it is too late to socialize this dog to be more  with people?

As he currently has nothing to guard and is mostly confined to a yard right now, I wonder if the barking is more anxiety that will subside once he has a jobs and space and gets used to the comings and going of our property. Additionally, the dog does come into our friends place at night and is well socialized to his people, and as I mentioned, can be called off by the owners.

Just wondering if anyone out there has an idea on the best way to make both this dog and our future guests comfortable on our property.

Maybe? Depends on the dog.

We had two guardians, litter mates, trained together.  One was always protective, one would allow strangers who entered from the yard gate.

Just our experience with multiple LGDs over the years fenced in on ~15 acres.  Mixing these with the general public, both casual visitors and repair/maintenance persons over the years has generally been a bit nerve-racking.  With the best visitors, there is a break-in period where the dogs have to see that we are welcoming of the visitors and that the visitors additionally are no threat to the other barnyard animals.  Even under these conditions we are always present to ensure that some mishap does not occur to produce an issue between person and dog.  Again, that's with the best visitors.  Then there are visitors that just give off certain vibes that the dog(s) don't like and greater sequestration of the dogs away from the visitor(s) needs to occur.  As you are noting a desire for an actual business on the property involving a rotation of transient visitors, I would recommend your idea of fencing the air-b-n-b and market stand separate from the LGD.  (I also will note that LGDs often will bark through the night as they ward off predators...and some people in the air b-n-b will find that annoying if the dog is a barker.)  That way, only when desired, can interaction occur between the LGD and visitors.  Legal liability here in the US is a large driver behind our concerns regarding visitors on the property and interactions with our dogs so we try to confront the issue very much up-front. Good luck!

My understanding is that is a lot harder to train out a bad habit than to stop it starting.
We have a similar problem with our dog - she is very nervous of people and a bit of a 'lockdown pup', so not well socialised I'm afraid. She is fine once she has said hello (preferably involving a biscuit!). For Della a lot of the issue is the fence. People the other side of the fence seem to be more of a threat than ones that come through it, so you may find that having a division would be worse for the dog (although more comforting for the people). A muzzle would keep people (and the dog) safer, but make her less useful for her guardian purposes, unless wearing it could be timed for when stray people are expected.

This may be difficult and stressful for the dog.

Our neighbours have had an LGD for one year and I've been trying on a daily basis to befriend it. If the neighbour is outside, everything is fine. She'll snuggle up to me and let me pet her and massage her face, but as soon as we're alone she reverts back to a working dog. She'll circle me aggressively, clacking her teeth and barking angrily until I'm back on my property. It's impressive to see the power of her instincts, but annoying as hell.