About the neighbors' pet dogs/cats/ferrets/etc...

[cmjust0]

First of all, I gotta say...I'm absolutely amazed at the number of posts I see on here about neighbors' animals attacking chickens. What's more amazing is the neighbors' angry reactions when their beloved (yet, totally unsupervised) pets are dispatched / maimed / trapped / shot with paint guns / otherwise thwarted by the chicken owners..

What I'd like to know from all of you who have had neighbors' animals attack your chickens is this: Did you see much of the neighbors' animals before the attacks, or do neighboring animals just kinda start showing up once the chickens are out and about? Am I delusional to think that since we don't see a whole lot of strays or neighbors' pets now (even with goats), that we'll probably not see an uptick once the chickens go out?

I'm sorta asking on behalf of our livestock guardian dog, in a way.. I just wanna know what he's in for...

For what it's worth, the only dog that's ever had the misfortune of getting in HIS barnyard was one of my border collies... This BC is exceedingly aggressive with other dogs -- she fights the LGD through the fence just for sport, all the time -- but she was only trying to come visit me down in the barn. She simply squeezed in under a gate, no harm intended.

He snuck right up behind her and started growling so low and so fiercely that I could literally feel it reverberating in my boots...that's the only reason I knew to look up and see what was going on. She looked back and saw him just about that same time, but instead of growling back, she got reeeeeeeeeally docile (like "OH CRAP OH CRAP OH CRAP") -- and the LGD thankfully didn't jump right away.. Long story somewhat shorter, I was able to scoop her up and pitch her over the fence before anything bad happened...luckily...very, very luckily.

So, he'll do his job...this much I know. I just wanna get some idea maybe of how much more often he'll have to do it with neighbors' dogs and strays on account of the chickens drawing them to the barnyard..?

 

[horsejody]

I didn't see the dogs previously, but my neighbors did. And they didn't see them until they were killing their pets. There was also the one that saw one of the dogs biting his child. Roaming domesticated predators tend to be opportunists sometimes. If there is nothing interesting to chase and kill in your yard, they may move on before you see them.

 

[Cetawin]

I see the dogs in their yard daily as their home is on the corner of the street. I have never seen them down our road though. the great dane hops over the fence daily to meet and greet the children getting off the bus is a sweet old dog. The one I shot was not very friendly and I had never seen him out, except yesterday morning when he was killed.

The one I killed last year, I saw him tied to a tree a couple of times. He charged me one morning and I went and spoke to the owner...twice the third time I shot him.

My LGD is only 7 months old and is still puppy stupid so I do not count him as reliable at this point. However, he will chase away critters in his yard so I am hopefully as he grows up and finds himself he will do just fine.

 

[lickskillet]

The dog that got our chickens, we had never seen before. AFTER DH shot it, found out it had no collar and other neighbors told us that it roamed frequently. Although we have never SEEN it, or free ranged our chickens on a daily basis.