Livestock Guardian Dogs

Unless you look at the rare LGD breeds, I think they are all huge and hairy. My six month old puppy is half Great Pyrenees and about 60 lbs. She may come close to 100 lbs when she stops growing at 3 years old.
 

I have Gps. Most people that I know that have them really don't do a lot of grooming on them. I do brush out mine every few months and run a brush through them whenever they get mats or will sit still long enough. You may consider Maramams. They seem to be less hairy and a little smaller than GPs. My GPs do a great job with the birds, but it takes a lot of time and training.

we use bull breeds... bull terrier and pitbulls.

As chickenzoo said, they are surprisingly low maintenance. They are bred to spend long periods of time with little to no human contact so "self-cleaning" was a necessity!
If you feed a high-quality dog food, then you will also be surprised at how little they eat.

I know some people that have Border Collies with their flocks and have great luck.  Otherwise, most of the breeds I've seen are quite large.

Smaller breed will not be as able to deal with larger dog threats as easily one on one as can the typical livestock guarding dogs.  Also no breed was developed specifically for guarding poultry.  None the less several breeds have the potential of doing what you need.  Characteristics I look for is smarts, innate guarding tendency, speed, and strong fighting ability.  The gamechicken guys sometimes use American bull terriers and even Australian sheperds but another I suggest based upon use is the Catahoula Cur.  You will have to train them a lot and / or raise them as pups along side poultry but midsize and above will be able to drive off coyotes easily.  Someone that has been using dogs to guard chickens tied up in fields for a very long time speaks highly of the the Catahoula Cur qualities in guarding poultry, especially when entire operation is enclosed by a fence.  My second dog will very likely be of this breed.

There are shorter coated LGD breeds, if you research it. I have Maremma's which are not short coated, but their coats are not as heavy as a Pyr. I do almost no grooming on them. They blow their coat in the spring and not much sticks to them. They are over 2 now and have never needed a bath. They also eat surprisingly little for their size.  The thing I like is that my chickens can wander anywhere and be protected. My dogs have set up a "No Fly Zone" over our yard here at the ranch, aerial predators don't even TRY. There are plenty enough of them out here not he 250,000 acres we live on, but the owls, hawks and others have been warned off enough by the dogs I usually only see them from a distance now.

I personally, wouldn't count on a non-LGD to guard my chickens, as I have dogs that are good 'farm dogs' but don't attach themselves and take responsibility for the flock like the LGD.

Good luck in your search.

Cant really see the point having a smallish guardian dog, you will be asking it to protect against far bigger dogs.

My "protector" is 2yrs old and weighs 83kgs or 182lb. I keep her very lean,  she thinks she owns everything on the property.  Neither my family nor my animals will ever be a victim of violence while she is around.

 

T D

Oh yeah, forgot to say,  off topic a tiny bit.

Not far from where i live there is a small island 200mtrs off the coast.  The island is home to a colony of penguins.  On low tide fox's or/and wild dogs would get on to the island and kill and eat the penguins.  The little things were almost wiped out before the Gov't put two Marema  (spelling) dogs on the island.  

 

The dogs are checked twice a day by rangers.  Have not lost one Penguine since, but a lot of dead dogs and fox's.

 

Cheers.........T D