Are Dogs a good "Bodyguard" against Racoons?

[OCChicken]

My Lab will be sharing the same part of the yard the the chicken run/coop is in, are they enough typically too keep the racoons out?

What has your success/failure been?

 

[antlers]

Depends on dog. I have seen little schnauzers with pit bull personalities and Labs that run from their own shadow.

 

[Tala]

Totally depends on the dog.

My grandpa's Mountain Curs would eat up a coon (they ARE hunting dogs after all)

My mutt would run away, and she's part hound and part Lab.

 

[OCChicken]

He's a very even tempered dog, that hasn't shown much fear of anything, but I was thinking more along the lines if the Racoon would avoid the yard since there is a dog present.

 

[Tala]

Nope. Raccoons are smart enough to figure out if the dog can get to them or not.
Once they figure out the dog's boundaries (like a kennel or the end of a chain) they'll walk just out of the dog's reach. I think they like to tease dogs as much as they like to eat chickens.

 

[OCChicken]

He wont be in a kennel, the yard is fully fenced, and he has a 1/4 acre area pretty much to himself, the Chickens will be in the penned area.

 

[bawkbawkbawk]

We don't have our chickens yet, but we have a dog and we have raccoons.

Our former Golden Retriever was ferocious about treeing raccoons when they came in the yard. Our current Golden feels the obligation to tree them and does the job, but seems a little nervous about it. She's a lover, not a fighter.

If she's outside, the raccoons will be intimidated, but if she's not, they'll still come around and try to find food in our garage. Sometimes she wakes us in the middle of the night barking and we know that means there's a raccoon or a skunk outside.

So I think if you have a large enough dog and it sleeps outside at night you might have a raccoon deterrent, but not if the dog sleeps inside.

 

[4 Love of Baby Chickens]

My dog is part Bluetick, Redbone and beagle mix. I love her to pieces!!! She HATES coons, foxes and coyotes SO much. At night I often hear her barking up a storm and chasing something through the woods. Maybe it's just a rabbit but at least she stills chases them.

 

[Whispering Winds]

Quote:
Exactly. I also know if a coon gets a dog in water, no matter what kind, it will or can drown it.

 

[Davaroo]

And it gets better. 'Coons are nocturnal, for the most part. SO, if Fido t'aint out in the yard all night, he won't do much good.

Raccons really are clever little buggers and dogs are, well... 'variable', shall we say?
You may want to get an electric fence ready, just in case.