One acre bonding pen outlined in black. 60x60 pen outlined in red.
Texas A&M AgriLife, Courtesy Costanzo 2021
Animal Health
San Angelo Studies LGD Bonding & Early Training Procedures Bill Costanzo – LGD Research Specialist, Texas A&M AgriLife Research
This month we will continue discussing bonding pen design and the importance of using bonding pens for livestock guardian dogs (LGDs). Proper pen design is important when bonding your new LGD puppy. Pens should contain strong fencing from which the puppy cannot escape or dig out. Welded wire mesh makes an excellent fence to contain young puppies. Woven wire with smaller openings can also be used once the puppies are large enough not to crawl through the fence. Pen sizes should be large enough to comfortably accommodate the puppy and livestock. There should be enough room in the pen for items such as stock feeders, dog feeding station, shelter, puppy escape area, and water troughs. We start out puppies with 4-6 head of young animals in a 60’ x 60’ pen welded mesh pen. As the puppy matures, we increase the size of the bonding pen and increase the amount and ages of its livestock. It’s very important to change out livestock every three weeks so that the dog bonds to a species and not Six-month-old pup in to specific animals. Hot wire a bonding pen with a at the base of the pens seems mix of livestock. to teach the puppies boundaries and reduce roaming as adults. Dogs can bond to several species if they are introduced to them before 14 weeks of age. Research done by Dr. Raymond Coppinger PhD. suggests that dogs need to be bonded with livestock by 14-16 weeks of age. Dogs that bond to specific animals can suffer unneeded stress if those animals are sold or moved to another location later in the dog’s life. This can cause the LGD to start roaming as it searches for the lost members of its herd or flock. Your puppy should have an area to get away from livestock, should it need to. It’s important that feed and water are not both located in this secure area. This ensures that the puppy will need to exit the safe area to interact with stock each day. Our feeding stations also serve as a safe place for the puppies to go into. We use welded wire mesh on the gate that is adjustable to allow the puppies to enter from the bottom level. Puppies can easily be injured by livestock. If stock are being too rough with your puppy, replace them immediately. Likewise, if your 22
Continued on page 32 SouthWest Horse Trader February 2022
A New Year of Horse Health!
The New Year is a great time to make resolutions about our horse’s health. Toward that end, here’s five management tips based on how our horses’ bodies are affected by aspects of their management routine and environment.
Feed Slowly: Because Mother Nature designed horses as grazing animals, their digestive systems are built to process small quantities of forage over several hours of the day. They secrete acids to ferment fibrous plant material whether there is fibrous plant material in the digestive tract or not. Because it’s convenient to feed twice or thrice daily, most horses spend only about two-and-a-half hours of their day eating. It should be at least eight to 10 hours. Encouraging our horses to eat as HayGain HG One nature intended is a great way to preHay Steamer vent those acids from causing ulcers that affect a huge percentage of the equine population. More time eating also lessens boredom and related behaviors like stall weaving and cribbing. The Forager Slow Feeder enables horses to eat slowly and without frustration. Be Nosy: A meticulously raked barn aisle and a neatly organized tack room are nice indicators of a well-kept barn, but neither have any impact on our horse’s health. Better to spend time on our hands and knees in the barn, putting our nose where our horse’s nose is and inhaling deeply. Is something tickling my throat? Do I feel a sneeze coming on? Weird as we might feel doing this, it’s a great way to monitor for respiratory risks that are virtually everywhere in the barn. As we said above, it’s ideal that horses spend much of their day eating forage. The catch is that even freshly harvested hay of top nutrient quality can be loaded with respirable particles. The particles we can’t see are the most harmful to our horses. At under 5 microns in size, they can slip past his respiratory defenses to infiltrate and inflame the lining of the airways and lungs. Reducing the respirable irritants in hay is a savvy, simple step toward maintaining respiratory health. Haygain Hay Steaming reduces up to 99% of the respirable irritants commonly found in hay. Continued on page 25
