Guardian Dog- Questions for Owners of them

[Coffetym]

Thanks for your thoughts.
This is just a research topic atm as we aren't in a place to feed another dog. lol Not unless it becomes necessary to protect our flock that is.
But we have discussed it here & there. Hence my questions.

I see quite a lot of GP's for sale around me, just seems to me they would get really hot in our summers but enjoy our winters. But granted, we have a husky/lab & she's adapted. (But so enjoys the cool/cold.)

Actually we would LOVE to have access & be able to afford fencing. lol We could then fence off the dogs from the fowl & have no worries but that's not an option atm. And I am just too soft I guess to let my chickens free range & chance the dog killing one. I know some can, just not us.

We live in south Mississippi & I have known multiple people who have owned GP & have had no issues with the heat. The main thing would be to keep plenty of cool water & good shady areas to relax in. The other option is to shave the GP really short early & then again mid summer.

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

We have two GPs newly joined our family. This will be our second time with this breed. we are in S Georgia, 80s yesterday.

All the research I did (Google searches) indicate emphatically DO NOT shave GP fur. They will shed during warm weather. Much more to it, Internet = a wealth of information.

 

[Bhubbard]

We live in south Mississippi & I have known multiple people who have owned GP & have had no issues with the heat. The main thing would be to keep plenty of cool water & good shady areas to relax in. The other option is to shave the GP really short early & then again mid summer.

Please don’t shave these dogs.

 

[Coffetym]

We have two GPs newly joined our family. This will be our second time with this breed. we are in S Georgia, 80s yesterday.

All the research I did (Google searches) indicate emphatically DO NOT shave GP fur. They will shed during warm weather. Much more to it, Internet = a wealth of information.

Thank you for the advice. What I posted was not from personal experience but what I have heard that some people have done. I have not owned a GP, but each canine family addition that we have made is always researched in depth & this would be the same if we had purchased a GP. Thank you greatly for info that I did not know.

 

[Pyramidt]

I don't have personal experience with guardian dogs, but I have read enough about them to have answers to some of the most common questions.

They DO require training and supervision, especially at first. It's pretty common for the guardian dog to kill some chickens (or other livestock) when it's a playful puppy, and when it's a "teenager" testing things out. This does not happen with every such dog, but it shows up fairly often in questions and discussions. I don't know all the details, but at a minimum they need to learn that playing with the livestock is not permitted. They are commonly considered to need two years to mature, which is a long time to be supervising a puppy!

If you don't have time to work regularly on training the dog you already have that is a problem, you probably don't have enough time to raise & supervise a guardian dog either. Buying an adult would save you the two years of puppy raising, but you would still need to devote quite a bit of time to getting it settled in, and supervising it for a while as it learns what the rules are at your place.

If you get a guardian breed as a puppy, it will certainly not protect the poultry from your other dogs while it is a puppy. It might protect them after it grows up, but it might not. That will probably be affected by whether it considers the other dog dominant to it, and by whether the other dog teaches the guardian that chicken-chasing is fun. Also, what kind of "protect" would you want it to do? It might bark or growl, but the older dog might ignore that and kill chickens anyway. Would you want the guardian dog to kill or injure the older dog? That is a real possibility in some situations.

For breed, one that is available to you, where the parents are already guarding poultry, would probably be the best choice. Each breed has some dogs that would work for your purpose, and some that would not. So getting a dog that already does the job would be great except that such dogs are usually not for sale. Getting a puppy from parents who are doing the job is often possible, and gives a good chance of getting a puppy with the right background to work well if you raise & train it right.

I don't know about the temperature. But if you find someone local with guardian dogs, you can ask them about their dogs and the heat.

Given what you've described, I think you would be happier with better fences instead of trying to get a guardian dog. But that's just my guess, and I may be completely wrong.

I agree. If you don't have time then do not take on another dog. Any dog will protect your chickens but YOU have to TEACH them that the chickens are important to you and therefore important to them.

 

[peteyfoozer]

Livestock Guardian Dogs are not usually dependable until they are mature at around 2. They, like any other puppy will play with chickens and accidentally kill them. Plus not all of them make good poultry dogs. They don’t form a bond with birds like they do with livestock but they do learn to protect. I was fortunate, both of my Maremmas did. You would need to house it adjacent to the chickens so it will get over the novelty of them, plus do a little training. They bark a LOT so if you have neighbors it might be a problem, and you would want to introduce it to, but keep

it separated from your housedogs, or it would not prevent your housedogs from harassing the chickens

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

We have Great Pyrenees. Hubby has already purchased them and NOW he has TWO (litter mates; a boy and a girl). He saw their parents who are working guard dogs on a farm. So far Fruitquake and Soji do not mess with the chickens (I doubt a lot of "protection" is going on between yaw'll and me) but I can't tell him anything.

Anywho, at this point, chickens have all but ceased laying (used o get 19 eggs a day) now about 4 which is up from one. I figured they need to get used to the puppies being around. Funny thing, when I give the dogs food here they come. Of course then male puppy growls at them to stay away. I was thinking maybe that was making them nervous. So it more like chickens bother pups vs. other way around.

Either way, tis done at this point. Thanks for all who responded.

 

[bigsurfwaves]

We have Great Pyrenees. Hubby has already purchased them and NOW he has TWO (litter mates; a boy and a girl). He saw their parents who are working guard dogs on a farm. So far Fruitquake and Soji do not mess with the chickens (I doubt a lot of "protection" is going on between yaw'll and me) but I can't tell him anything.

Anywho, at this point, chickens have all but ceased laying (used o get 19 eggs a day) now about 4 which is up from one. I figured they need to get used to the puppies being around. Funny thing, when I give the dogs food here they come. Of course then male puppy growls at them to stay away. I was thinking maybe that was making them nervous. So it more like chickens bother pups vs. other way around.

Either way, tis done at this point. Thanks for all who responded.

How's it going with yours? I've had 2 Pyrs, and my pup is now 9-10 months old and really a handful - we can't trust her near our chickens. She eats them. We're working with her daily, but it's not going well at the moment. She was perfect as a smaller pup with them. My last Pyr was great with smaller animals as an adult, but I got her at 1.5/2 yrs old so this is my first Pyr puppy. So far, its driving me nuts. I'm in NW Ga.

My chickens like my dog's food also. She seems to tolerate it until I'm not watching her, then she snags one when my back is turned. Watch your dog and don't assume she's trained till age 2 they say...

 

[Hip Hillbilly Acres]

How's it going with yours? I've had 2 Pyrs, and my pup is now 9-10 months old and really a handful - we can't trust her near our chickens. She eats them. We're working with her daily, but it's not going well at the moment. She was perfect as a smaller pup with them. My last Pyr was great with smaller animals as an adult, but I got her at 1.5/2 yrs old so this is my first Pyr puppy. So far, its driving me nuts. I'm in NW Ga.

My chickens like my dog's food also. She seems to tolerate it until I'm not watching her, then she snags one when my back is turned. Watch your dog and don't assume she's trained till age 2 they say...

Hi there,

Soji and Fruitquake, ay yi yi. He (hubby) has collars around them, supposedly to keep them within boundaries (can't think of the name of those devices). I don't think they work and wish we had the thingies that go underground. Maaaan, we were driving down the street last week and those chumps were in the farmer's field on the corner. Anywho, they were hubby's idea to have - not mine. I constantly remind myself that he lives here too. I have heard him get onto them more than once for rough playing, no eating. He blames them for eating the chickens eggs . I keep asking if he has seen yoke running down their mouths and he has not. They go inside the coop while chickens are free ranging and he blames them - I dunno. Do dogs like to eat eggs? And what about the shell, none been found laying around. I think it's just that each chicken does not lay each and every day is all.

Yup, our chickens enjoy the dog food as well. Fruitquake dogs them out and those dumb chickens still try to get in there (at their own peril). We have resorted to feeding the dogs before letting the chickens out to free range. That seems to have addressed that problem.

We got first one at 8 weeks old, born January, '23. We got his sister four weeks later. Clearly, they have a ways to go to get to two years. I really like our dogs and hope everything works out well.

 

[sourland]

@Hip Hillbilly Farm It is very possible that the dogs are eating the eggs. Is there any way of excluding them from the chicken coop?