Best Chicken Dog?

[Pelican49]

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My favorite breed, by a mile, is my Boxers. You can pick a registered one up easy enough for a couple hundred. If you're not interested in registration, probably $100. They're very good and patient with my Grandson, I have had 2 cats for a long time, but just adopted a stray and they're good with her. Mine like the water. The stay close to home thing? I think that has more to do with training than breed.

 

[Nupine]

It really varies from dog to dog. Our setter, a bird-type dog, doesn't even look at the chickens. But there are toy dog that kill chickens. I would go with a laid back breed.

 

[Vamp-A-Billy Princess]

I vote for a mutt. My pure bred Lhasa Apso tries to nibble on the chickens whenever she can. My chow/chiuahuh(that is so not spelled right) is 3 yrs old and he is great with them as is my 11 year old German shep/chow/corgi. I know crazy mixes huh?

 

[amazondoc]

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AbsoLUTEly, Cara! If you want to get a mixed breed dog, for heaven's sake just go down to your local shelter!

For the traits you mentioned, IMHO a labrador will do you just about as well as anything. BUT -- it'll still all depend on the individual dog, AND the training you give it. There is no such thing as the perfect dog!

 

[mommy9994]

1.) is good with kids. 2.) good with cats 3.) good with chickens 4.) will like water 5.) stick close to home without an electric fence... and dare I add 6.) not such a shedder?

Oh wait! Not too expensive?

you just described my dog! Sparkie is a basset/beagle mix. He loves he kids, toleates the cats LOL, stays home, a we didn't know he hada pupose in life until we got chickens LOL! He is THE BEST chicken dog

and he was free! he just showed up at dh's office one day.

 

[eggsgalore]

Check out APDT.com for good dog trainers in your area and invest some money in a pre-purchase consult.
I am a dog trainer and have had great results this way.
Ask him/her the best age of the dog.
PS your requirements demand a lot from your future dog. Don't forget they are no robots but thinking animals with instincts of their own.
Raising a dog like that will require a lot of time and patience on your part. They don't come like that.

 

[hipdeep]

Thanks for all the great advice. Our current dog is a 17 year old mutt I got at anti-cruelty in Chicago. He is all of the things but the shedding on my list, but I feel like I struck a gold vein. I'm nervous about adopting any dog, and he's declining so he likely won't live through summer. Truly sad.

For 7 years we had a wonderful great dane. But after a gastric boat surgery, then an intestinal bloat surgery, he was put to sleep for a neurological disorder. Ny husband cried for a week and Zombie's 10K vet bill lives on... I'm afraid to buy another; I think some pure breeds might be congenitally weak. Hence, my interest in a doodle, but I think that might have mislead some folks, because they are a boutique breed. It sounds frivolous.

My brother has a wonderful boxer, my mom keeps newfs, and I had a roommate for 3 years who had a great lab so I greatly concur with everything noted.

I love the apdt tip. I trained Hugo, our elderly mutt. In his youth he was known as CrackDog. He maced himself after he ate through my Coach purse... he ate my entire coffee maker, leaving nothing but the glass caraffe and the plug... (yes it was plugged in) he paper mached my whole kitchen when he dragged a chair into the pantry, stood on it, and dragged down a bag of flour and a bottle of puppy shampoo and destroyed them in the same pile... when I had stripped the apartment to chest height I came home to find him simply standing on the dining room table. It was the last thing he could manage that was not allowed. He was a funny dog in his reckless adolescence. He was an exhausting dog to train, but I hung in there, and I did it.

But I've got a toddler now, and I feel a hundred years old, so I think it's excellent advice to start with a professional trainer. We won't be buying a puppy for awhile; I want to be sure Hugo goes gently into that good night with no more stress than needed. But I really appreciate everyone's help. We got a lead a while back on a woman that crosses a great dane with her half dane half saint bernard once a year. It would give us more vigor than the straight dane. But ultimately you guys are right. It's the training. I had been reading about "Guardian Dogs" but you set me straight.

Thanks again!
-Brooke
(In Essex, MA on Lake Chebbacco)

 

[Rosalind]

Some people may tell you that a Pyrenees is a fantastic chicken dog. And they can be. But I tell you from personal experience they are NOT good with children. It's not that they are nippy, nervous or intolerant of other creatures, it's that one mighty wag of a very large tail will knock over a small child.

My friends with small children do not bring them to my house, lest my Pyr livestock guardian should attempt to greet them with his usual cheerful enthusiasm. The thing about those big fluffy dogs, they are great workers and draft animals, but they can hurt small children purely by accidental clumsiness.

 

[amazondoc]

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Good for you!

Too many people forget this very important issue. I get calls all the time from people who want to adopt a young dog while their old dog is still hanging in there. It's much kinder to let the old guy remain king of his castle for as long as he sticks around!