posted 4 hours ago
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.
