Protection with Poultry/Livestock Guardian Dogs

Just wondering how many were using Livestock Guardian Dogs (LGDs) to guard their poultry. We are using a a male Anatolian and a female Great Pyrenees. Here they are. We call them the Buddy Protection System.

Buddy


Sheba


Buddy at work:

Most of my turkeys and guineas free range all winter so I have a Pyreneese name Mouse who takes care of the birds ALL NIGHT LONG!!!! He is only about 10 months but does a good job. He won't let anything near his birds. I was watching him laying in the middle of the birds a few weeks ago and a dove flew in, he jumpped up and ran it off. He also held a cyote off the other morning long enough to get the 22-250, he won't be back!

We have a brother/sister pair of 3/4 Anatolian, 1/4 Great Pyrenees guarding our free range flock 24/7. Love 'em!

Quote:
Where did you get your dogs from? They are beautiful!

Jims FarmStand,

1 Pyr and 4 other back-up dogs. The Pyr was the key. The only different from our protection system from yours is our dogs are inside the fenced perimeter with the chickens and duck whom roam free.

I think it's the only way to fly with the chickens.

Jim

the second picture looks like Akbash, a turkish breed dog. Anatolian shepard is entirely different. But both should do a great job protecting livestock, that's why they were breed for.

I have 2 Anatolian Shepard and 1 Golden. Golden hangs out with them but when it comes to protection, he got better things to do But Anatolian Shepards are great and alert

Love your dogs

Sheba is definitetly a Great Pyr.

We have several fence jumpers. Birds fly over and free range all day and Buddy goes where ever he wants. We find he sleeping in the poultry pastures and at times next to the goats. No fence can hold Buddy. That is why we use the underground fencing. Buddy won't cross the fence.

As for where we got them.....long story. A fellow sold his farm and could not keep Buddy in the yard in town. So we acquired him and brought him home. He was agressive towards me the first few days, but I won him over. Now he loves for me to rub his belly and play with him. But if he hears a noise he is all business! NOTHING gets through the Buddy Protection System!

Sheba lost her home due to unemployment. I did some trading for her. She has been most happy with us and Buddy. We are expecting their first litter in a few days. Hoping not Christmas morning! Will have info on my website about the pups when they are available.

Does anyone feed raw meat to their LGDs?

We had a calf butchered. Lots of extra soup bones. I actually requested ALL the bones. About once a week we give them a bone for a snack and to have something to play with.

You RESCUED two LGDs? Wow, you are my hero. We could have gotten a pure Anatolian shepherd from an excellent breeder after she was returned when her owners had to move, but we were too worried about our young children and an adult dog who was not bonded to them; we've heard stories..... I think about that dog often though and wonder if she ever found someone brave enough to take her on.
What is an underground fencing system? When we first began looking for our LGDs we thought we would get GPs but after talking to a whole lot of owners we realized that our two acres was simply not enough land to keep one of those dogs happy and the reason we went with Anatolians was because we heard that they are far more content to stay home and they work out better on small properties. I don't know if it's the 1/4 GP in our guys or what, but we have had a tough time keeping them fenced in. We had to add a foot of fencing to the top of all of our four foot fencing to make it five and even then we ended up adding electric fencing around our entire property. I'm waiting for them to figure a way out of that as well. They don't cause any trouble when they break out, they just have it in their heads that they MUST include the neighboring properties in their patrolling area. I'm back to walking the perimeter with them every few hours to try to re-teach them the behavior I want.
Callie and Casper get lots of chicken scraps when we butcher chickens and hunting season is, of course, a very happy time for them as well My parents just bought a Newfoundland puppy and the breeder that they bought her from feeds all of her dogs, puppies and adults, raw meat only and preaches the benefits of such. I know my parents are struggling to keep it up.