Protection with Poultry/Livestock Guardian Dogs

This is our LGD, a Great Pyrenees female. She's a year and one half, and weighs about 110 pounds. She is unfenced and allowed to roam at will. Needless to say, she just hangs around the place guarding the ducks, chickens and geese. She lives 24/7 with the animals.

i was wondering how the pyronese are with wondering away and how they react to strange dogs i.e. fight them off or what

Please note the TIME of this posting. It is 3:40 am. At 3am my 7 yr old son knocked at our door. Seems Sadie had escaped from her makeshift enclosure in the kithen, sniffed her way to his room and was barking at him to get up and feed her. I went ahead and fed her while my wonderful wife cleaned up the POOP all the way from the kitchen....the living room....down the hall and into his room! Hey, Sadie! The expensive disposable pads are for you!

LGDs are nocturnal animals by nature. On duty at night and sleep all day. Sure wished sadie would be like most babies and get her days and nights mixed up! We are headed back to bed.....hopefully!

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As stated above, we use the PetSafe system. Ours do not wonder past the line. However, if your acreage is small, you will need something like PetSafe to keep them home. Otherwise they will guard all the neighbors.

In my experience, if the strange dog is not agressive, the LGD will attempt to remove it from the property. If it becomes agressive, the LGD will remove it from the planet. Was at a fellow in Texas place once. He had a litter of LGD pups. The pups were the same mix as Sadie. Anyway, the pups were playing with this yellow rug. Seems that the neighbor behind their 100+ acreas had this registered "yellow" pit bull male. The pit was used in dog fights. The neighbor had been warned to keep his dog home. The day before I arrived, the yellow pit bull wandered back over to the goat/sheep ranch. This time there were young goats near the pit bull. The male Anatolian ran over the pit. The pit was dead and not a scratch on the LGD. The yellow rug the pups were playing with was the pit bull dog.

I would have buried the evidence, but the owner felt to allow the pups to enjoy the kill. No house on this 100+ acres. Owner comes once a day to feed and gather eggs etc. Not once loss to predators.....EVER! Can't say I agree with his methods, but it did work for him.

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Mine have 12 acres to roam and guard. If they both are loose they feel they need to guard the whole county I just alternate days with them being loose and they don't leave the place.

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Very pretty girl. She doesn't wander? Wow, good dog; how much acreage does she watch over?

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Ha! Newborns....... what can you do?

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Yes, she is quite fluffy now which I think makes them look cute. Her thick winter coat makes her pretty much impervious to the cold. I've seen her sleep on snow at 10 below even though she has an insulated dog house built for her off the side of the barn. She seems to cover about 100 acres or so, but mostly she hangs around home where the coop is. This is a very rural area and nobody gets too uptight about dogs wandering around loose, unless they are worrying livestock.

We started a new thread for Sadie at https://www.backyardchickens.com/forum/viewtopic.php?pid=6415952#p6415952

She went out into the street yesterday and got hit. More details at the new thread. Your prayers are appreciated.

Sadie has turned into a very good Poultry/Livestock Guardian Dog. She even took on a fox and helped scared it off. Stray dogs steer clear of her. yesterday she weighed in at 47# and she is only 5 months old. Really hope she survives as she is not only a part of our family but one of the best LGDs I have ever trained.