need your exprerience with LGD's

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fowlsessed

fowlsessed

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I'm thinking I need a LGD as our current dog doesn't stay at the place and if a canine does come around when she's here she just wants to play with it. So I'm hoping that maybe a LGD will stay around and show more aggression towards other canines. Any advice as to which breeds are best, especially for chicken dogs? and do they need any "help" learning to stay around?
Thank you in advance for any help,
 
Great Pyrenees do well with fowl, goats, and sheep. They are bred to be guardian/herding dogs. -would highly recommend this breed and had a very good experience with one. Our Pyrenees was very territorial and would not tolerate any other canines encroaching on his space (acreage). -do think that a cooler climate and a fairly large property (territory) is best suited for these dogs.
 
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Quote: Unless you have LIVESTOCK (sheep, gosts, etc) that are CONTAINED in a pasture, you do NOT need any of the true LGD breeds

They are not "yard dogs", "chicken guardians", nor "pets"
 
I think that what ever dog you get the key is in the training and exposure. To have a great dog takes a lot of time, training and consistency it just doesn't happen because of breed type.
Seek a knowledgeable trainer (!!) and they can help you pick and train the dog that suits your needs.

If you know what to look for and not to look for, rescue organization have some great dogs. You have to know what is most important to you.
I run a small farm and all our dogs have jobs to do. I have a GS, Bouvier des flandres, Yorkie, BRT (Black Russian Terrier) and an Airdale Terrier all ages ranging from the very young to very old.
I've had great success with both rescues and puppies, but both have demanded a great deal of time, and in return given me so much more.
 
You really need to research the different breeds. Most LGD are basically nocturnal but respond during the day if need be. They also bark. Alot as they are letting anything out there know that they are here and this is theirs. Many LGD will roam. If your dog now wanders during the day, your LGD will most likely wander at night. It will likely do it as a part of its patrol but unless you have fencing, it will most likely wander.
Many LGD are VERY poorly bred these days unless you buy from a VERY good breeder. Around here, Pyrenees don't even look like Pyrenees and are sold as pure bred without papers. The dogs that got into our pasture a few weeks back were Pyrs, though poorly bred. They killed at least 3 of my chickens. People try to rehome adults on craigslist and add "he has never bitten a person". LGDs can be VERY territorial, as is their purpose but need to be focused as they need to know what to protect against and not just go after everything.
A LGD needs to be raised with the animals that it is going to protect. A true LGD will live with it's charges and not be a pet.

My husband recently brought home an 8 week old Great Pyrenees pup. This little guy lived outside with his parents and older brother and the goats and chickens. The man that he was gotten from said his dogs would probably run away from him if he tried to pet them. They were true working dogs. I am still a bit unsure as to the great idea that this was. We have him in the house and he goes with me for chores with the birds. He completely ignores them but is scared of the geese. We were looking for more of a house watchdog and a guardian to our little dogs since we don't have any other livestock yet.


Here is a site that has tons of info http://www.lgd.org/library.htm#LGD also try BYCs sister site http://www.backyardherds.com/forum/
 
A true / effective livestock guarding dog will protect its charges regardless of the dogs background. LGD's developed for sheep and goats and used as bred to perform are imprinted on their charges and move about extensively with the herd. Very few people interested in having a LGD for poultry can expect the dog to move about with the flock unless something like a large flock of geese is involved. Most keepers of poultry have "flocks" that are not so organized as typical of geese and such flocks are prone to bust up and not range all that far away from a roost site. You can get around part of the problem involving a lack of bonding between LGD and flock by confining at least dog around flock's foraging area as Bear Foot Farm suggested. Your larger LGD is great against a predator that must at least transiently hold a territory around a kill site like a coyote or wolf with a sheep carcass or a raccoon with a chicken so kill can be consumed but your typical LGD's size can be a liability when more significant wild predators are involved. For me, significant is restricted to foxes that will probe a pasture and enter even with a large dog in sight. The fox will attempt to make catch and if it does it will run with catch beyond range of confined LGD with prize. A fast unrestrained LGD can not only chase fox and make it give up prize but even stop the probing. All the Great Pyrenees I have seen which is a good number do not have the speed to deal with a fox unless area defended is small or multiple LGDs involved. I am aware of what appears to be an Anatolian crossed with some German Sheperd that weighs just over one hundred pounds that is fast enough to do job and in right state of mind for being alert around the clock. Dog is a mutt and bashed by the pure breed folks but is most effective large sized LGD I have seen that would be suitable for poultry. It also does very well with a herd of nearly 60 does.
 
Great Pyrenees nope not a good idea. They WILL ROAM and so will Anatolian.

Nope they are NOT house dogs. Centrachid and bearfoot farm has it right. I tried a Great Pyrenees rescue but he was too broken for me to work with. My situation and setup was not right to fix that one year old. Was thrown into a ranch without training. So was totally useless as a LGD. Never learned from his mama about LGD work. Never bonded with a herd/flock. Been passed around so many times, he had severe separation anxiety and had extremely possessive behavior. Last item made him extremely dangerous. Anyone or dog approaching me would put him in a defensive-attack mode. He was fearful of losing his connection to me. He was also useless as a pet though that is what he wanted to do and preferred to hang out inside the house. Totally confused and mixed up dog. Where do you start with such broken dog?? just being rhetorical.

If you want to protect your flock, make sure their enclosure is secure first. or if free ranging might consider using electric netting. Just saw at my local feed store 165' fence for about $200 and at i think 40" tall. Portable netting so you can move them around. That's enough for 40'x40' area. It'll keep out coons, opposum, unwanted and wanted dogs and even the two legged animals.

Electric netting will be cheaper in the long run. No dog food to feed. No vet bills. And not much of your time whereas training a dog is a big big time commitment. Open space is not for pyrenees. They will roam way beyond where you want them. Likely get shot at next farm or several farms down the road. And you'll never know because of three S rule.

and oh one more thing. We have Pyrenees-golden mix. He likes to bark too. Less so than a regular Pyrenees. Does his morning routine, goes out to the perimeter and barks all around the perimeter. So if you live in a subdivision, there will be complaints!! The Pyrenees rescue I had for a while barked up a storm from the deck of my house. Stupid or rather untrained dog.
 
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Thanks for the replies. I suppose "chicken dogs" are more individuals than a breed. I have about 15 acres, so good fencing for even that is expensive. And I like to free-range most of my birds.
 
-still contend that Pyrenees are wonderful, but one must get a pup and train (and I would highly recommend a very established and reputable breeder that has experience producing excellent working dogs). These definitely aren't house dogs. I, too, can only speak for our experience (and approximately 3.5 acres). Centrarchid has excellent advice, however. -seems to have a good deal of experience with dogs/training. I'll defer to that.
 
I have just under 20 acres and birds are scattered over about almost a third of that. My acreage is too small for roaming habits of most dogs not to be an issue, so I am working towards use of a fence for containment of dogs. In some ways fencing will work against efforts of dog when poultry free-ranged over such a large area. Red fox is my biggest concern that will probe flocks even when dog is present and dog promptly goes after it. Chickens give alarm as soon as they spot fox and dog races over making so fox does not even get into attack run. My dog is as fast as fox in flat out run, possibly a little faster, but fox can turn on dime and uses the limited fencing already in place as method of slowing dog on its heals. On a couple occassions fox actually caught a chicken and ran over hill with screaming bird having dog running after fox forcing it to let bird go. In those instances dog intercepted fox beyond where fencing will eventually allow dogs to go. As fencing is increased I will have to get birds to stay away from perimeter of make so dog does not have so far to run to go after fox when it does visit. Either way that has potential of reducing available quality pasture for chickens, especially when number of birds gets up over a 150 on only 5 acres. Long-term I want twice that many birds and acres providing them forage but that is going to provide some interesting management challenges.
 

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