Medium sized dog for protecting free range flock?

Leigti said:

My dog is a springer lab cross and I trust her completely with my chickens. And actually with my other animals too. That being said the dog is a dog. And things can happen. My dad uses great purities to protect his alpaca, they pretty much don't do anything during the day but at night they come alive. Since night time seems to be the main danger time for chickens a breed that is known and bred to protect other animals would be a good choice. It is interesting what was said about dogs killing a full-grown donkey, a friend of mine has a miniature donkey that has killed a full-grown mountain lion. Donkeys wouldn't be much help for chickens though.
I'm going to jump to an assumption here since you didn't completely explain, you say your chickens are free range so does that mean that they roost wherever they can find at night? In the woods or in a random trees? Because having a place for them to roost at night up near the house would be very beneficial and easier for a dog to patrol.
May I ask why you don't want a large dog like a great pyranese? I know they are huge but they're not going to want to spend time with you in your house anyway.

Click to expand...

Thanks forgot to add it was my good friend's donkey, a mother dog and her two grown babies. Mixed breed dogs and the owner put them down afterwards because of their livestock issues.

I'd recommend a blue heeler or blue heeler mix. My heeler is very protective of her home, and her "cattle" whether the cattle are people or other animals doesn't matter to her. She's always on alert and is almost always positioned between her "cattle" and where she thinks any threat may come from. ie she sleeps at the top of the stairs when my kids go to bed which puts her outside both kids' bedrooms and the front door. She is smart and was easily trainable. She knows where home is and doesn't require a fence. She might sometimes wonder for an hour but she always comes back - and this is true of all six different towns she has lived in with us. She's a great dog. My heeler is on the smaller size at 32lbs.

Get some fencing up, most dogs will wander especially if they are unfixed. When you get that done, go to the pound and adopt a younger dog under a year old and train it well... if things go well after 2 years, adopt a second.

I'm so sorry to hear of your misfortune.

I got a Pyrenees as a pup for my sheep and he's not 100 lbs. I was actually hoping for a larger dog. He's from a farm that had working livestock guardian dogs.
I didn't care about pedigree, I wanted instinct.
We liked him so much I got a Pyrenees/Maremma cross pup from the same farm a couple years later. He's MUCH bigger...lol.
Unfortunately I didn't have chickens at the time so they haven't been acclimatized to poultry. Both dogs are with the sheep 100% of the time and have been since they were pups.
Never having previous experience with LGDs, I cannot say enough wonderful things about them and I've been considering bringing one to test him with the chickens or possibly getting another pup specifically for the chickens.

They appear to be sleeping all the time, but are ever present in what's going on. They're very tough, intelligent dogs.
I was initially afraid of how much the dog food bill was going to be, but being so laid back and mellow, they don't expend that much energy and they don't eat very much.
In comparison, our purebred border collie ate more than either of our LGDs and exhibited such a strong drive that I never want another one.
The Pyrenees will round up the sheep and stand between them and any perceived threat. They are respectful of electric strand fences even with their full coats so they'd probably work well with poultry netting. Predators soon learn the boundaries the dogs and stay just outside of that. I've seen the female fox taunt our main dog.

We just got hit 2 weeks ago by a family of foxes. They took 8 of our favorite birds in 45 minutes while we were in having supper.
We didn't hear a thing, even from the guinea fowl. Our 50% rough/50% border collie didn't hear the foxes either.
I discovered one of the foxes watching and waiting from our fence line across the road as we herded the remaining birds into the coop.
A week later a family of raccoons broke into the shop where I had my Silver Spangled Hamburg chicks in quarantine and killed them.

Predators are smart and they won't stop, especially once they've dined on your flock.
My husband took care of the first two foxes. I've taken care of 2 more foxes, 8 raccoons, a skunk and 12 rats in the last two weeks.
All the predators that killed our chickens have been taken care of with the exception of father fox.
But, I still have electric poultry netting sitting in the back of my truck that I just bought for those times we won't be home. I hope to have it installed this week.

Best of luck with your decision.

My heeler, as mentioned above Great dog!

Every chicken farmer I visited has a border collie. If you have the land enough to really let the dog burn its energy. They are great in playing fetch.

tvtt08 said:

My heeler, as mentioned above Great dog!

Click to expand...

She looks like she'd be an excellent ratter!