AAARRGGH...Canine Serial Killer! Help!

[Nutcase]

Yes that's right. It's not completely impossible to acquire a gun but you have to jump through countless hurdles and have special licenses. I think it's been like that for a long time.

 

[evemfoster]

Talking about pepper gets me to thinking if you can do a sort of Pavlovian experiment. Maybe take a pile of chicken feathers and some chicken meat and cover it with some pure capsaisin, ghost chili, habenero or something like that. Dog checks out nice chicken smell and gets a snoot full of that stuff. PAIN. Repeat until the smell of chicken makes the dog wince. Think that might work?

Dogs get used to peppers fairly quickly in fact they can develop a taste for it. I doggie sat a neighbors dog for three months while they were in South America visiting Family. Nearly everything they ate had hot peppers in it. The dog refused to eat anything without peppers in it. By the end of the summer i had gone through 4 bottles of different kinds of ground hot peppers. I even had to "pepper" its kibble. So don't count on the pepper working for too long. It didn't take more than a couple weeks for my dog to enjoy and prefer hot peppered dog food too.

Same thing with those crystals they sell to scare away pests. They get used to the smell and ignore it in no time.

 

[Triple Willow]

Yes that's right. It's not completely impossible to acquire a gun but you have to jump through countless hurdles and have special licenses. I think it's been like that for a long time.

I hope you'll consider getting one. I'd feel naked without one ...or two ...or three ...or more.

 

[NEChickenNoob]

What about air rifles? Laws on owning in AU? I have one that is powerful enough to kill small to small/ medium game. Shoots at 1250 Feet per second. And crossbows? Just looking for a way around for you. If all else fails, make a spear! LOL

 

[Triple Willow]

The worst predator I want to be armed against (and want everybody else armed against) is the government.

 

[aart]

Electric wire around a heavy wire run with a heavy wire apron/skirt.

 

[Nutcase]

Hmmm yeah, there are actually two dogs but only one has broken in so far. I hope the other one doesn't follow its example. What exactly do you mean by heavy wire, @aart ?

 

[Anigozanthos]

We are in Queensland, Australia and own rifles. To clear things up, you need a licence for any type of rifle, including air rifle. In order to get the licence you need to demonstrate you are the member of a gun club, or require it for work purposes, or live on a rural property over 40 acres where it is required for protection of livestock, or have permission from an owner of a property over 40 acres to shoot on their property for the purpose of animal control or to make a livelihood. Or that it's a heritage piece that has been rendered inoperable.

You also need to pass criminal history checks and semi-automatic and automatic weapons are banned from civilian ownership. So if the OP's relative's acreage is not a large one, it may difficult for them to keep a rifle.

Also, I second the pepper idea NOT working in the long term. We've tried it to keep our own dogs digging up our reticulation systems and it didn't deter them at all. I'd go with the electric fence if it were me. We've done that and it has been quite effective.

 

[aart]

Hmmm yeah, there are actually two dogs but only one has broken in so far. I hope the other one doesn't follow its example. What exactly do you mean by heavy wire, @aart ?

Well, here in the US I'd call it 14 gauge wire, I use a 2"x4" welded mesh...strong dog jaws could probably break the welds if very determined but it was a good mid cost choice for my run........as opposed to what we call chicken wire or hex netting, which is only about a 20-22 gauge wire twisted into a 1" hex mesh.

What I call an apron, corner not to scale, but you get the idea:

 

[Nutcase]

Great posts. Thanks for the explanations everyone!