Info on training a great pyrenees to guard chickens

BrokeFarmerJohn · Mar 10, 2016

Not sure exactly where to post this but I am being given a 3 month old Great Pyrenees, and I plan to train the dog to protect my chickens from critters. I have never owned or trained a livestock guard dog. The dog has a good blood line just not of livestock guard dogs but I figured I would give it a try. If you have owned a livestock dog and have some tricks on training the dog please let me know. I don't expect the dog to pick it up right away I'm sure it will take a while to train the dog to become a livestock dog. Thanks

John

murphyfarm · Mar 10, 2016

I have two pyrenees/anatolian/labs right now and they are a little bit older than 3 months old. Their mom was a chicken guard dog and their dad was the next door neighbors. With my dogs I walk the perimeter of the area they have to protect and I always take care of the chickens first no matter how they whine. If your dog does end up killing a chicken, tuck the dead bird into their collar and make them carry it around with them. In my experience, they never kill again. Keep the dog in a pen next to the chicken coop, so they can see each other, but not touch. Also, make sure they know sit, stay, come, and down. The most important thing is to not trust the dog around the livestock until they are around two years old. Hope this helped!