Welping on during summer

[Rob30]

My great pyrenese bred early this year. The female is due around July 20th.
The problem is I still need her on pasture. The male will be alone. How long do you isolate the female? I rotate pastures weekly, so letting her welp on pasture is not an option. We usually bring her into the barn. After 2-3 weeks she just starts going back out to the flock on her own, coming back only to feed the pups. We may be keeping a pup this time so, getting them on pasture as soon as possible around the sheep will be important.

[Janet McNally]

Hi Rob, because birds of prey can fly off with young pups, predators might prey on them, and in order to better control temperature, I prefer to bring my females into the barn a week before whelping to get them used to confinement. Usually they are digging a den by this stage. Most stay steadfast with the pups for the first 3-5 weeks, and then start rejoining the sheep checking back to feed the pups. I have moved young pups 5-6 weeks old, out into the paddock with the mother but that certainly has some risks with no special benefits, so I prefer to keep pups close to home with some selected sheep as puppy trainers until they are 4 months of age (and a bit too heavy to carry off by an owl or eagle). 4 to 5 months of age is a great time for a pup to learn rotational grazing.

Janet

[lovetree]

We have had pups with the moms on pasture when the pups were app. 5 weeks old, but...we have the pups enclosed in a 'puppy corral" of sorts with chickens and use electric poultry netting to contain them, the sheep surround the pups. So it looks like a circle within a circle.
The dam jumps in and out of the puppy pen and is effective at guarding the sheep and also in taking care of the pups, plus we are able to raise chickens that are also protected. In this way pups are indoctrinated to the chickens and sheep but arent hurt by rambunctious ewes. You wouldnt have to have chickens out with the pups, it just makes best use of their training time.
When pups are later placed with sheep they are very relaxed and have also been trained into the electronet with no major fuss...they learn to respect the electric netting quicker and with less stress when electric poultry netting is first initially used.