You have been given some spot on advice here. We had a Great Pyrenees and what has been said is true. She guarded an area more than the livestock themselves. This worked fine but she covered a large area and her boundaries were not always "human" boundaries like fences or roads. All of our losses stopped once she matured and we never lost another lamb to coyotes etc as long as she was healthy. She laid up once from an infection from a barbed wire cut and within 3 days the coyotes started killing sheep again. The advice about having two dogs is a good idea.

The down side to our dog was any animal that came on "her" property either left immediately or was killed. No negotiation, no discussion, full on instant attack with intent to kill. This applied to coyotes, cougars, bears, porcupines (yeah...8 times to the vet) neighbours dogs, friends dogs when they came to visit (yeah...one injured with vet bills and one dead), new animals we brought home (these had to be penned up and introduced carefully over time), pretty much any animal. She totally ignored people as if they didn't exist and was not a guard dog in the conventional sense. I am pretty sure someone could have come on our property and stolen stuff without her interference as long as they stayed away from the sheep.

She bonded with my mother and would listen to her and basically tolerated everyone else. Every now and then it seemed she needed her "fix" of human attention and she would come and visit and get petted then head back out to the field. During the day she would lay around and we sometimes wondered if she actually did anything at all but at night you could hear her working. Some days her white fur was stained pink or red from the blood on her and we would check her for injuries but never found anything serious.

Any time we saw a coyote on our property all you would see is their backends running away and them looking over their shoulder for the white missle. We didn't force her to spend all of her time with the sheep. She came and went as she pleased and still got the job done. I agree with what has been said here about the other breeds. Having a dog that stays with the livestock rather than patrols the property might be a better way to go, although one of each might be an idea if you have a large enough property. We eventually lost ours to an intolerant neighbour who just couldn't get past the fact that she "wandered" 100 yards inside his fence line on his hay field 2 miles away from his house. As I said, the dogs draw their own boundaries.
Regards,
Dave.