New Uses of Livestock Guarding Dogs to Reduce Agriculture/wildlife Conflicts

Pilot programs in several states have shown that livestock guarding dogs are 70-80% effective in reducing predation on livestock by wildlife, primarily coyotes. In order to increase that percentage, ineffective dogs were studied and new techniques tested that had the potential of turning problems into successes. From the population of over 1,000 dogs that has been placed on farms and ranches nationwide during the past ten years under the auspices of the Livestock Dog Project at Hampshire College, data was analyzed for each of the three basic behaviors (trustworthy, attentive, protective) that a good guardian needs to exhibit. A wide range of scores was found within each behavior. Studies were then focused on transferring dogs with extremes of behavior to a specific livestock operation where the "defect" could be used to advantage. In Oregon, dogs that had failed in at least one category were transferred to new ranches, resulting in 66* success. Results from field trials in Minnesota showed that inattentive and/or overprotective dogs could be used to test dogs' effectiveness against wolves. In New York, an over-protective, inattentive dog was placed on an emergency basis with a flock of experimental sheep, using the dog's travel trailer and a new tool, "invisible fencing," to situate it in an unfamiliar environment. Results showed that the transfer strategy increased the number of successful guarding dogs, with minimal changes in livestock management. Other evidence indicated that the new techniques described here could also be used for wider applications of guarding dogs in agriculture. INTRODUCTION * In recent years livestock guarding dogs (Can_i_s_ laflLLLLiLLiiL' have been field-tested for their abilities to protect sheep (0vi_s_ aries) and goats P̂-iLEIiL hircus) against predation by coyotes (C^ LitlLiDJi'i domestic dogs (C. fami 1iaris) , and other wild predators (Coppinger et al. 1983a, Green et al. 1984). Studies have shown that livestock producers who use the traditional guarding breeds achieve 70-80% "superior" or "good" overall protective behavior from their dogs. These figures imply that 20-30% of the total number of guarding dogs studied are ineffective. At Hampshire College's Livestock Dog Project, biologists and students maintain an on-going program of behavior studies in order to understand how dogs can protect livestock, and to try to increase the percentage of effective working dogs (Lorenz et al. 1986, Coppinger et al. 1987). The success of a guarding dog is measured by whether it is on a farm, working to the satisfaction of the producer. Within that successful behavior, three components have been identified (Coppinger et al. 1983b) as necessary for a dog to be effective. First, through genetic selection and proper rearing, they must show interspecific social bonding patterns toward the species to be protected, usually referred to as "attentiveness." Second, they must be "trustworthy," and not disrupt the well-being or management of the livestock by showing predatory or playful motor patterns which cause the livestock to flee. Third, they must be "protective," and react, usually agonistically, toward any species that tries to disrupt or harm the normal 'School of Natural Science, Hampshire College, Amherst MA 01002 Department of Fisheries and Wildlife, Oregon State University, Corvallis OR 97331